Traveling for Labor Day? Make sure you’re shopping around before filling up your gas tank

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — You may have noticed a recent drop in gas prices at your favorite station, and that trend is expected to continue leading up to and after the Labor Day weekend.

According to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, there are a couple of catalysts for the recent price drop: the Exxon Mobil refinery in Chicago is back up and running, oil prices have fallen to their lowest level in months and Americans are driving less as summer comes to an end.

And even with Labor Day travel expected to put millions of people on the road this coming weekend, the prices at gas stations might actually continue to drop.

“It probably won’t be much longer, maybe four to six, maybe eight weeks, we should start to see a couple of stations falling below the $3 mark as we get into the fall,” De Haan said.

This is in sharp contrast to what people in West Michigan were paying at the pump just last month. Some stations nearly crossed into the $4 per gallon territory . As of mid-August, Michigan ranked 12th in the nation for most expensive gas prices. The national average sits at $3.38 per gallon with Michigan at $3.46 per gallon.

But like the expected future fall prices, that is also set to change for the better.

“I would say that in the next one to two weeks, Michigan will likely fall below the national average and probably be right in that lower third of states,” De Haan said.

As for Labor Day traveling tips, De Haan suggests waiting to fill up as prices could continue to fall into the holiday. He also said the best thing for drivers to do is shop around.

“There’s a wide variety of prices. A couple of stations just north of Grand Rapids in Fremont, I saw just a couple of days ago at $2.99 a gallon. That’s a $0.50 a gallon difference between the average price in Michigan,” he said.

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