ShawneeDispatch.com

About 475 trucks operated by Deffenbaugh Industries move in and out of the Johnson County Landfill in Shawnee and Deffenbaugh’s recycling center each day, with another 200 pieces of equipment on site – all operating on diesel fuel.

At a time when diesel fuel costs even more than premium grade gasoline, Deffenbaugh is definitely feeling the pinch. Tom Coffman, spokesman for the company, says the firm paid twice as much for 8 million gallons of diesel in 2007 than it did for the same amount in 2005.

To handle the additional cost, Coffman said the company has had to increase an environmental surcharge for commercial customers to 16 percent. It also has invested funds in a new routing software to make trash routes more efficient and bumped up enforcement of an anti-idling policy it put in place two years ago.

One place the effects of rising fuel costs haven’t been seen yet is in bills for residential customers.

“We cannot pass this along to the residential customer because A, there are competitive pricing issues and B, we’d have some contracting issues,” Coffman said.

Deffenbaugh’s operations rely heavily on the use of fuel, but many other businesses in Shawnee are grappling with the effects of high fuel costs.

At A Rose For You, 11007 Johnson Drive, owner Al Dluhos wonders what kind of crowd he’ll see on Mother’s Day.

He said rising fuel costs have raised the cost of delivering flowers and the cost of buying flowers, which are largely shipped in from warmer locales. The business has been forced to alter its prices, though Dluhos said it has made the changes as minimal as possible.

“We had to increase the cost of delivery charges and the cost of bouquets a little bit,” Dluhos said. “But there’s just so much that you can pass on to the consumer without being unfair.”

He said his customers are changing their buying habits, too. Because delivery costs a little bit more, more people come to pick up their flowers on the weekend, and fewer people are buying flowers overall.

“The average Joe who likes to bring his wife home some roses or daisies on the weekend, he’s either not bringing them home or he’s just bringing maybe one rose home,” Dluhos said. “You can see it in people’s eyes when they come in, talking about how they just spent $80 to fill up their tank.”

The city has had to factor the higher fuel costs into an already-tight budget, as well. In 2006, the city budgeted $351,217 for gasoline, diesel and oil. In 2007, the budget went up to $373,300, and the current projected price for this year is $469,300.

One business that has seen something of a positive impact is motorcycle and scooter sales. Steve Sill, sales manager at Shawnee Cycle Plaza, 13020 W. 63rd St., says rising gasoline prices do seem to have increased the interest in such vehicles that get better mileage.

“Motorcycle sales have increased, but scooter sales have gone sky high, because you can get 100 miles to a gallon on those,” Sill said.

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