BRYAN, Texas — Michael Marks, the owner of Raging Bull Street Tacos, spends over $1,000 on gas per month — but he's not always spending it locally.
Instead, he stops at gas stations in cities like Austin and Houston to fill up his food trucks after noticing higher prices in Bryan-College Station.
"We cater between Houston, Austin, Temple and heavily Bryan and College Station. We travel a lot, and what we’ve been noticing lately is honestly the gas locally has been higher than it is in Houston and Austin, which is crazy," Marks said.
Prices in the cities are currently higher than the state and county averages.
Bryan-College Station prices average at about $3.47 per gallon while Brazos County and statewide prices cost about $3.46 and $3.41 per gallon, respectively.
AAA Texas Spokesperson Daniel Armbruster says prices in the city are increasing about two cents every week on average.
These prices are increasing because of crude oil.
"Crude oil prices are now over $90 a barrel again. When we started this summer, they were under $70 a barrel," Armbruster said.
The increase, Armbruster says, can be attributed to OPEC Plus' "reduction of output" of oil from countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia due to constrained supplies.
AAA expects prices to get higher in the next few weeks.
It's something Marks isn't looking forward to, but he relies on gas to run his business.
"Without gas, we’re kind of like what are we gonna do," Marks said.
He uses it for all operations, transportation and electricity, using about 100 gallons of gas a week.
He runs a generator to operate a water pump, water heater, grill, a grill ventilator system, a fridge and the lights.
He also uses gas to get products for his tacos, which is where he's feeling most of the pain at the pump — from his vendors.
He is paying more for products due to transportation costs.
"The prices went up drastically. We try to shop as local as we can and also transporting too. Even when we ask those guys what’s causing the price increase, they say it’s the transportation costs," Marks said.
He tries to stave the cost by using pumps in other cities and also using rewards programs gas stations offer.
But he'll just have to roll with the price fluctuations.
"With as much as we travel for catering and whatnot, it's one of those where we unfortunately have to bite the bullet," Marks said.
Armbruster says consumers like Marks could see some relief in October, a time when prices and demand usually go down.
In the meantime, Armbruster encourages people to maximize their fuel economy by avoiding quick accelerations, using cruise control when safe, keeping up with vehicle maintenance, utilizing reward programs and using mobile apps to find the cheapest gas prices.