DUNMORE, Pa. — For the last four decades, Gino Tempesta has been giving driving lessons in Lackawanna County. It's his job to keep his eyes on the driver in training. Now he constantly checks the gas gauge and the cost of fuel when that gauge gets close to "empty."
"This week, I'm about $250 into gas already from Sunday through today. That's a lot. That is an awful lot. And there's no end in sight right now the way they're talking," Tempesta said.
Despite being in the business of driving and needing gas to do so, Tempesta says he's trying to find ways to save fuel by shortening the mileage.
"We try to make most of the pickups in Dunmore locally because for me to go to Old Forge and to Jessup than to Moscow, we're losing 15, 20 minutes, and it's $5, $10 more in gas."
It's not just the rising costs of fuel that have the driving school concerned. It's the cost of maintenance of the vehicles.
"Tires and everything else, we probably go through three, four tires where kids hit potholes and curbs. So it's fairly regularly."
Tempesta says he has two student driver vehicles and eight instructors to manage, and the cost of running a business with the increase in fuel prices may force him to charge students more.
"I don't want to raise my prices, but I think I'm going to have to in July, and I talked with some of the other guys in the driver's ed schools, and they're already doing it, so it's just a matter of economically, it's just too tough to keep driving."
Tempesta says if gas prices don't come down, there's a good chance he'll have to raise his prices next month.
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