And they're hoping that customers would be equally understanding when their fares also go up.
The MIDWEEK NATION visited various locations in The City yesterday to interview taxi operators and truck drivers about fuel hikes announced by Prime Minister David Thompson Monday night.
"If they [the customers] understand the situation then they should be willing to pay because they should see it is no fault of ours," reasoned female truck driver Melinda Hoyte.
In the business for over 20 years, Hoyte said that the oil and gas price hike was not the first she had encountered but hoped that customers understood the drivers' plight.
"At the end of the day I got to make a profit, if I am going to go from point A to point B and I going to burn $10 in diesel it means that I am going to have to pay $20 in diesel to get from [the same] point A to point B."
Raised prices
"The vehicles must work and the oil and diesel got to sell so the best I can do is raise my prices."
But for taxi drivers such as Joseph Lynch, it is not so easy to increase his fees as their tariffs are set out by Government.
"We have to wait on the Government to increase the taxi fares," Lynch said, "but you get some fair passengers sometimes; they know that the gas gone up so they might give you a little extra."
However, others aren't so willing to wait and depend on the benevolence of their passengers and are eagerly awaiting word from Government about their fee status.
"We are going to have to go back to the drawing board with our taxi fares because it doesn't make sense paying more for gasoline and then we getting the same price for our services," said one taxi driver who wished to remain nameless.
"I don't know what Government is going to do, they got the handle and we got the blade, but something has to be done about the taxi fares."
Tony Hunte, 38, who has been driving taxis for 16 years, was not of the opinion the fares had to be increased. He reasoned that the onus was on his fellow taxi drivers to search for other methods to overcome the rising cost of living.
"Stop blaming and work!" he said.