Gas prices up, drive offs down in Roanoke

By Mollie Halpern
Investigative Reporter
Published: June 17, 2008

It’s no surpise that some parts of our area are seeing an increase in gas drive-offs with prices hovering around four dollars.
According to our Danville newsroom at the Register and Bee, there have been 68-drive-offs in Pittsylvania County this year.
Gas thefts are also up in Lynchburg where police tell our media partner, The Lynchburg News and Advance, with the exception of January, they’re up more than 60-percent over last year.
And while there’s an increase in some of our communities, it’s not the case in the Roanoke Valley.
This Roanoke County gas station is located between two exits—making an easy getaway for dishonest drivers to flee without paying for what they pump.
John Davenport, an employee at Hanging Rock Xpress Stop & Food Mart says, “There was over roughly 2 to 300 dollars a week in drive off and sometimes in a day we’d have that.“
Now the station offers customers an 8 cent discount when they pre-pay in cash.
Linda Williams, a customer, says “I think it’s great, i’ve never had this before.“
The pre-pay option is one way the station is trying to eliminate drive-offs.
So far, it’s working.
Davenport says, “We have zero drive offs—zero.“
Pre-paying is an inconvenience to some customers—but Bill Moles, a customer from Bradshaw, says, “I understand if people are driving off it is a big thing now especially with the gas prices as high as they are.“
Data from the Roanoke City Police Department shows that while prices at the pump are up—gas-related crimes are going down.
In May of this year, the city saw 14 drive-offs…
That’s down 3 from the same time last year.
In Roanoke county, there was just one drive-off this May.
Police attribute the low numbers, in part, to an increase in pre-pay policies.
By encouraging its customers to pay in cash the station is not only reducing its risk of drive offs—it’s also reducing the amount of money it has to pay to credit cards, that’s because credit card companies charge stations a fee when customers pay with plastic.
Davenport says, “Before we were doing the cash thing we were spending between 3 to 5-thousands per month in credit card fees”.
Employees estimate that the station is now paying half that.
Pre-paying in cash— a trend expected to take off—so that drivers don’t.
Roanoke city police also tell us that gas siphoning in not a problem.
But, Roanoke county police say although gas siphoning is not common, they have had about 4 cases, so far this year.