PERRY COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) -- Gas prices are not the only thing skyrocketing. Diesel prices are also on the rise -- the national average sits at $5.70, up more than 2 dollars since 2021.
Diesel fuel is also in short supply, and these challenges are hitting bus companies hard.
"We've been in the busing business for over 50 years," Shreffler Busing co-owner Barbara Shreffler said. "We really enjoy driving or we wouldn't be here."
Shreffler and her husband jerry run a small bus company in Perry County, serving the West Perry school district.
Normally, summer is when they are getting the buses cleaned and ready for inspection, but this year has been different.
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"This year, there's uncertainties," Shreffler said.
The rising price of diesel is just one reason. Shreffler said she's paying $900 more in fuel than she did last year.
"The price has doubled," she said.
It is not just diesel. Shreffler said all the costs of operating a bus have gone up.
"It doesn't matter whether you're buying tires, whether you're buying [diesel fuel] for the buses," she said.
On top of rising costs, Shreffler is struggling to even get fuel.
"They called us yesterday and said, 'We're sorry to tell you that we cannot deliver,'" she said of her supplier.
Even her supplier does not know how long the shortage will last.
"Could be two weeks, could be a month, maybe longer," Shreffler said.
With summer officially here, Shreffler is not busing as many kids, but she still needs the fuel.
"We have a lot of trips that go out in the summer plus we're doing summer school," she said.
If the problem gets worse by fall when the new school year starts, she does not know what she will do.
"Go somewhere where maybe a service station has it and fill up there. It'll probably cost us a lot more," she said.
Her decades of experience did not prepare Shreffler for this crisis.
"We've never had this situation before," she said. Shreffler said even back in 2008, when diesel prices went up, she still had easy access to fuel.
With one problem after another, she is now questioning her family's future in this business.
"I don't want to leave it, but I don't know what the future holds," she said.
abc27 also reached out to Scott Kelly, Supervisor of Transportation at the West Perry school district. abc27 asked Kelly if the district had any concerns about fuel prices and supply issues affecting their students, but Kelly declined to comment.
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