Switching to electric cars to reduce gasoline costs
High gasoline prices make many workers have to recalculate their means of transportation to work every day. Ms. Pham Thi Lan (from Ninh Binh), a leather shoe worker, said that the distance from home to work is about 13km in both directions. Previously, she only spent about 200,000 VND per month on gasoline.
However, after the gasoline price increased by more than 27 thousand VND/liter, travel costs also increased significantly. Therefore, Ms. Lan began to consider switching to using electric vehicles.
My family has two electric cars, in the immediate future, when gasoline prices increase, I may use an electric car to go to work. When gasoline becomes cheap again, I will consider continuing to go to work by electric car or returning to the gasoline car as before" - Ms. Lan said.
According to Ms. Lan, if using an electric vehicle, it only costs about 50,000 VND per month for electricity charging. Meanwhile, when gasoline prices increased to nearly 28,000 VND/liter, she had to spend about 300,000 VND on gasoline to travel during the month.
Thus, switching to electric vehicles can help her save about 250,000 VND per month.
Although electric vehicles have moderate speeds, Ms. Lan believes that this does not significantly affect working hours because with gasoline vehicles, she does not drive too fast. The saved money, according to Ms. Lan, can be used to spend on breakfast, helping to ensure health when working.
Sharing a car to save costs
Not only changing vehicles, some workers also choose to share cars to reduce gasoline costs.
Ms. Pham Thi Ha (from Ninh Binh), a toy manufacturer, said that immediately after knowing that gasoline prices increased to over 27,500 VND/liter, she decided to share a car with her husband every day.
Although we don't work in the same company, my husband still passes by where I work. My husband and I have decided to go together for now to save costs, and only when the gasoline becomes cheaper will we drive private cars" - Ms. Ha said.
According to Ms. Ha, previously each person had to spend about 250,000 VND on gasoline to go to work each month. When switching to sharing a car, even if her husband had to change direction to go further than before by about 2km, the total gasoline cost each month was only about 300,000 VND.
However, going together also has some inconveniences. Ms. Ha said that her husband had to go to work about 15 minutes earlier to conveniently take her to work. However, in the evening, the couple finished work almost at the same time, so they did not have to wait.
After discussing, my husband also supported and arranged time to go to work conveniently" - Ms. Ha shared.
Take advantage of company shuttle buses
Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Van Chinh, a component assembly worker in Ninh Binh, chose the company's shuttle bus option to reduce living costs.
Previously, Mr. Chinh rented a room near the company for convenient work and only returned to his hometown on weekends. However, now he has decided to change.
Renting a room, I both lose rent and have to pay for gasoline to go to work every day. Now, if I try to drive a company car, although it takes a bit long, I can return home to my family every day and save a lot of travel expenses," Mr. Chinh shared.
According to Mr. Chinh, in addition to rent, every day he goes to work a distance of about 9km in both directions. On weekends, the distance home and back to the company is about 80km.
On average, he spends about 350,000 VND per month on gasoline. When gasoline prices increase as they are now, his travel expenses are estimated to be about 500,000 VND per month.
With the new plan, he only needs to ride a motorbike to the company's pick-up point, the monthly gasoline cost is about 100,000 VND and an additional 80,000 VND for parking. In addition, he no longer has to pay for rent.
According to the male worker, the new way of traveling helps save quite a lot of costs, thanks to which he can confidently save money to buy milk for his children and take care of his family.
