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Pizza delivery driver John Dawson stuffed six pizzas into his green oven bags, settled into his silver Oldsmobile Alero and sped to Airline Drive, making the first of two deliveries.

“What we get paid for delivery is just washing for gas,” the shift manager/driver said.

Texas gasoline prices have increased by 50 cents since April 21, according to the Federal Department of Energy, and how to handle the steady increase remains a difficult decision for delivery services: absorb the boost in prices for their product or pass the expense on to consumers.

For Papa John’s owner Michael Holdwin, the decision was a simple one.

“Other than it costing more money for us to get our product and deliver it, the cost of gas going up has actually helped us,” Holdwin said. “More people call us to deliver to them rather than use their gas to go out and get it.”

Gasoline prices have Victorian Felecia Vela and Kyle Roak, who moved to Victoria two years ago, evaluating how they spend their money.

Vela said increased fuel expenses has taken money away from what she would spend on other things, stopping to think before she eats at a restaurant or orders delivery. And Roak said he has to manage his money “a lot better” but his brother who lives in New York City, where gas is more than $4 per gallon, is feeling the crunch even worse.

Other pizza businesses reported seeing an increase in sales.

While they don’t deliver, Victoria’s Little Caesar’s Pizza owner Trish Nyegaard said they are doing well despite how fuel costs have increased her expenses for ingredients, especially cheese.

But not all businesses have seen sales climb.

For owners enduring boosted gas expenses without a solid upturn in sales, the question becomes how long can they last.

Carol McCracken, owner of Expressions Florist, 3809 N. Main St., said she had been holding off raising her delivery fee for as long as possible but had to raise it a dollar three weeks ago.

“It’s not like you change (the delivery fee) every two weeks,” McCracken said. But with gasoline at $4.99 per gallon in California and industry analysts predicting the price of crude oil to keep inching higher, an increase in delivery fees is inevitable.

Owner of McAdams Floral, Clay Atchinson, said he last increased his delivery fee – by a $1 – last summer when gas hit the $3 mark, but he will have to consider raising the fee by another dollar when gas passes $4.

“When you have two or three vehicles driving non-stop all day long, that’s where it can start to add up pretty quick,” he said. Atchinson remembered when the store didn’t have a delivery fee – around 1990 – but as gas prices continued creeping higher, the shop began to charge for deliveries.

Where Expressions and McAdams account for fuel in their company’s budget, drivers at Papa John’s make it part of their personal budgets.

Dawson, who has been working with Victoria’s Papa John’s for a year, said the drivers purchase gas with their own money but receive compensation for the trips from the $2.25 delivery fee. So drivers try to coordinate several drop offs each trip to reduce the price they pay at the pump each visit. But even with planning ahead, the cost to fill the fuel tanks of some vehicles is undoable.

“We’ve lost a couple drivers with gas prices that drive big pickups,” Dawson said. “They just weren’t breaking even.”

Brandon L. Leonard is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-574-1286 or bleonard@vicad.com.