There have been many casualties of the rising cost of fuel. Some have parked their cars and taken up bike riding, others have converted gasoline engines to butane, while some have started to use public transport for long commutes. But no matter how the gas price has affected you, we'll guess that you'll still have sympathy for Carlos Sawyers. He's a gas station owner who's been forced to shut down his pumps when fuel prices are at an all time high. We found out why in what should be a time of plenty, Sawyers is feeling the pinch.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Midway Gas Station is just about halfway between Belmopan and Belize City at mile 30 on the Western Highway. Its what they call a $10 gas station---no one stops here to fill up, they just come to put in$10 dollars, just enough to make it either west to Belmopan or east to the city. But these days, Midway hasn't even been making that $10 sale because its pumps have been out of commission for 45 days. So why isn't Midway selling any gas? Well the sign on the pumps say it's a technical difficulty. Manager Carlos Sawyers explains what that difficulty is.
Carlos Sawyers, Manager
"Our pumps, as you can see behind us, are very old. They were kind of designed for when fuel was like three dollars, five dollars. The max that it can read is $9.99 so when the price of fuel went above 10 I either had to invest $20,000 to get new pumps, or switched tanks or do something. So with the return to gas, when will I get back by $20,000."
So since he couldn't afford the investment for new pumps, he tried to fix these old ones. But that part wasn't available locally and he had to send it to Texas for an upgrade.
Carlos Sawyers,
"In Texas we located a supplier but we had to send the part there to make sure that it matches. Now when we sent the part, the price of gas went down so now we can operate the pump at that price but we no longer have the little gadget in there so I can't sell any gas. We never dreamt that fuel would ever go down, whatever change that would have taken place would have definitely been up but I was surprised that fuel went down. So I was glad for that but it doesn't help my situation."
Sawyers has been at the unlucky end of both sides of the price curve, and he could have used the same solution as some other out district vendors - they started selling one gallon for US$5 instead of $10. But he figured that wasn't worth the harassment.
Carlos Sawyers,
"I get insulted like 15 times per day just because of the price of gas, something I have no control over. They tell me anything that's on their mind, they want to relieve this pressure and they don't know who to vent on so they take it out on me or my attendant. Now if I put it in U.S. dollars, that's an additional 15 insults I'm going to get per day and I'm just not willing to go through that."
And that's the way it is at Midway - no gas, no harassment, no free coffee or iced tea, at least not right. And the strange thing is that next week when he gets his re-jiggered gallon unit indicator back from Texas, with prices suddenly on the downswing, he hopes he never needs it.
After the 45 day pump shutdown Sawyers expects to re-open by late this week. He continues to operate a restaurant and superette.
