Service lets drivers lock in gasoline prices

By Janet McGurty

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The high price of gasoline has some U.S. drivers looking to the future.

A recently introduced service called MyGallons.com allows drivers to fill up their tanks sometime in the future but at current prices, using a debit-like card which banks gallons rather than dollars.

"The price of gasoline was changing all the time. It seemed unpredictable," Steven Verona, founder and owner of the Miami-based company, said on Monday.

"It seemed there had to be a way to fix the price," he said.

Working on the assumption that the price of gasoline will continue to rise, Verona started about two and a half years ago to put together the company which gives the driver some measure of control of what he pays for gasoline.

Since a soft launch in January, about 2,000 people representing a cross-section of regions across the U.S. have signed up with MyGallons.com to be able to help them find ways to cope with the rapidly rising price of gasoline, Verona said.

On Monday, the average retail price for U.S. gasoline hit a new record of $4.10 a gallon, rising 1.6 cents over the last week and up $1.14 from a year ago, the U.S. government said.

And while the high price of gasoline has cut demand by about a percent from last year, the record high price of crude oil over $140 a barrel seems to ensure that prices will stay high.