Tractor-trailers line the Turnpike for a chance to get a painstaking yet much needed fill-up before stations are allowed their once per week price change. Hybrid vehicles are flying off dealership lots. People are even cutting milk from their diets because the cost to transport it is so high.

A few years ago, this may have sounded like a glimpse into a sick and twisted future that nobody thought they would see in their lifetime. However, the reality is as of last week, the national average price per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline was at an all time record high, $3.60 a gallon. For those driving diesel-fueled vehicles, things are far worse. When those drivers pull up to the pump, they on average see $4.25 a gallon.

"I’m on my monthly fill-up," said 26-year-old Lyndhurst resident Michelle Tagliure, as she dumped nearly $35 into her Honda Civic’s tank at the 7-Eleven on Rutherford Avenue in town. Tagliure works retail in Paramus, a short commute with a fairly fuel-efficient vehicle, but she said even with that combination, gas prices have a grip on her wallet. "I’ve budgeted that and if I need more, it’s $5, maybe $10 of pocket change I’ll throw in. I used to drive all the time. If I go out now, I try to call my friends and convince them to drive...they have better jobs than me."

On the other end of the spectrum, one of the main driving forces of commerce, the trucking industry has come out in force with rallies in Washington D.C. as well as in many parts of New Jersey to protest the diesel costs. Many independent companies have reported losses while many others have just been forced to raise the prices of transport to simply break even.

Chris Lall, owner of Shawnee Transportation in Carlstadt, a town which plays host to a major hub of North Jersey trucking firms, said allowable fuel surcharges aren’t keeping up with fuel inflation and some customers are now questioning extra charges he must impose.

"With the economic slowdown, we generally have to pass it [costs] on and some customers are balking when we say that," said Lall. "We are allowed to charge a fuel surcharge to customers, but that surcharge has by no means kept up with the spike in fuel costs."

The plight is quickly sliding down to consumers, both on the end of having to fill up their tanks, but also having to fill up their bellies. Due to such high diesel prices as Lall attributed, many trucking companies are forced to pass the buck onto the consumer, and that especially means essential foods such as milk and bread.

Mary Ann DeRosa of Kearny quipped about the price of milk as she waited in the checkout line with a $3.09 gallon of fat free milk at the ShopRite in Lyndhurst, which was cheap as it was on special. "I don’t think my town would let me have a cow in the backyard, so I just have to bite the bullet," she said. "I need my cereal in the morning. It’s just another thing that’s getting more expensive. We’re in tough times."

The American Automobile Association (AAA) has taken up the task of educating drivers nationwide on how best to conserve gasoline, the benefits of hybrid vehicles and has advocated legislature into finding alternatives to somehow stop the record high prices from climbing any higher.

"Motorists who rely on their automobiles to work, shop and play are understandably upset that the cost of driving is becoming less affordable with each passing year," said AAA President Robert Darbelnet. "Every extra dollar needed to fill up the car is a dollar not available for groceries, housing, education, vacations, paying off debt and other key aspects of American families’ lives."

Residents, commuters and business entities aren’t the only ones feeling the pain, however. Municipalities are faced with the same problem and some are now looking at alternatives themselves to dodge paying more at the pump. Most municipalities are locked into lower consumer rates through municipal energy consortiums, but now more than ever with the towns having to pass the rising costs off to residents in annually increasing tax increases, they say they are forced to seek alternative savings.

Two weeks ago, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) authorized a $20,000 grant to each of the 14 municipalities under its zoning jurisdiction to help procure hybrid vehicles for town fleets. The agency itself has switched over 30 percent of its own fleet over the course of the past two years to hybrids.

"Hybrid vehicles play an important role in reducing fuel consumption, an absolute necessity from an environmental and financial standpoint," said NJMC Executive Director Bob Ceberio.

In Rutherford, officials say they are walking on thin ice, having to dip significantly into the borough’s fuel budget having yet to hit the peak summer months when landscaping and public works are out in force. According to Ed Cortright, the borough’s chief financial officer, the borough has already this year exhausted approximately 40 percent of its 2008, $205,000 fuel budget. He said when the municipal budget is amended and finalized this summer, he may have to look at other accounts to help supplement the gas consumption.

"We’re facing larger prices this year than we have ever seen before and the way it looks, it is not going down," he said. "We’re going to see if we can get money from some other account, say heating oil because we have had a very mild winter so far and maybe we will have more money in heating oil where we can increase the gas account and reduce that account."

Towns like Lyndhurst and North Arlington have already seen the writing on the wall. In Lyndhurst, the police department has procured two non-petroleum run Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) to help reduce patrols by the gas guzzling Chevy Impalas and Crown Victorias. North Arlington has already tested one and plans to move on purchasing one for its parking enforcement.