Last month, an East Valley School District bus driver topped off the 100-gallon tank with 55 gallons of diesel at the Maverick station on Pines Road in Spokane Valley. It cost the district $328.77.
Later, another East Valley bus driver purchased the same amount of fuel, also at a Maverick station, for about $100 less.
Why the spending discrepancy? The second bus took a 7-mile detour to State Line, Idaho.
It’s a common refrain among Washington residents: fill up in Idaho, a dependable place for cheaper fuel.
In the wake of soaring fuel costs, the East Valley School District found some nearby savings, estimated at $50-100 per bus per week.
“It’s just been a savings all across the board from what I can tell at such an early stage,” said Michelle Monzingo, East Valley’s interim transportation director.
In January, the state-issued charge cards that drivers used no longer required getting fuel at specific pumps. And it didn’t take long for bus drivers to take to their radios to suggest crossing the state line to fill up when convenient.
East Valley’s bus barn is 3 miles from Idaho’s closest gas station, the AmeriMart in Post Falls. The district’s easternmost school, East Farms Elementary, is a little over a mile’s drive to the AmeriMart.
Monzingo estimated 1 in 4 drivers take the detour for cheaper diesel in Idaho, filling up once or twice a week when the tanks are about half empty.
Despite the “outside-the-box” thinking to save, fueling costs are higher in East Valley this year compared to last. The district spent just under $45,000 on fuel in April, said Neale Rasmussen, the district’s chief financial officer. Last year, they paid $28,300.
If the spike in gas prices make drivers cringe, the surge in diesel cost left bus drivers and district administrators balking at the pump.
Monday’s average cost of regular gas in Spokane County is 75 cents more than in Kootenai County in Idaho, at $5.36 versus $4.61 per gallon, according to AAA.
Diesel prices tell the same story with higher stakes. Monday’s average for the Spokane metro area was $6.51 per gallon, around $1 more than Coeur d’Alene’s diesel at $5.50, according to AAA.
“We’re just trying to survive, because we have to buy the diesel,” Rasmussen said. “So if we can’t save the money there, we’re going to have to make cuts in other areas just to save for the diesel.”
School districts are exempt from federal taxes on diesel at around 24 cents per gallon, Rasmussen said. They still pay state taxes: 55 cents per gallon of diesel in Washington, according to the Department of Revenue, and 33 cents in Idaho, according to the State Tax Commission.
