Rideshare drivers feel impact of rising gas prices in Arizona

PHOENIX - Gas prices are up across the country and in Arizona. The jump is even less welcome to those who use gas to do their day-to-day jobs, like rideshare drivers.

"As an Uber driver, it’s just too much for me. For all of us," says Sameer Toma, a frustrated Uber driver who also drives for Lyft.

Toma drives full-time for a living, relying on every ride to make some money.

"I woke up this morning at 10 a.m. I worked until 2:30 p.m., went home to take a nap so I can keep going and here I am waiting for a ride," Toma says.

With increasing gas prices, he says he has to work harder.

"We have to work the extra hours which we are already trying to do our best because now it’s slow. We are already doing the extra hours, but now we are adding two extra hours a day," Toma explained.

It’s the same deal for Geraldo Gamez. "You have to compensate, you have to work more hours to compensate," he said.

He's compensating for the extra gas money he has to put down.

"Two weeks ago I filled up my tank. $22 to $25. Now, it’s $35, so that’s a $10 difference. That's $10 a day ... $70 that’s a week," he said.

According to Patrick Dehaan with Gas Buddy, the reason parts of Arizona drivers are seeing a jump in gas prices is because of the geographic location between Phoenix and Tucson.

"Kind of at the end of two pipelines sort of speak. You’re caught in the middle between distinct areas that supply gasoline to the region. That is California supplies from the west, Texas supplies from the east and when you have refinery outage, several in this case in Texas," Dehaan explained.