Firms Feel Pains Of Rising Gasoline Costs, Push Costs Onto Consumers

Leesburg Today:

The majority of Rainbow International President Cindy Ballinger’s business relies on gasoline.

From their homes, most of her staff, six technicians, drive more than an hour to the Rainbow International office, a flex site off of Loudoun County Parkway in Ashburn before they check-in, pick up a truck, drive to the job site, and then let the truck run for about one hour. The carpet-cleaning machine mounted inside the truck does the majority of the work.

Trucks run about five hours on average per day.

“It not only costs us to get to the job, it costs us to do the job also,” Ballinger said.

Earlier this year, Ballinger didn’t pay much attention to the rise in gasoline costs until she saw a decline in revenues.

“My gas bill got a little bit bigger, and a little bit bigger,” Ballinger recalled. “All of a sudden our revenues started going down because we follow the real estate market. But my gas bill kept going up and up.”

Rainbow International, a franchisee network, provides carpet-cleaning services to residential, commercial and insurance customers throughout the country. Rainbow also has a niche in fire, water and smoke damage restoration solutions. Ballinger, along with her husband, Frank, own a franchise in Ashburn, and serve Loudoun and Fairfax counties. The duo started the franchise 20 years ago in California and moved to Ashburn in 2006.