Sharply lower fuel costs are a welcome respite for local companies that buy lots of oil, diesel and gasoline, but most companies see lower prices as just that – a respite, and one that will end all too soon.

While businesses are saving money now, many executives say they have no plans to make any permanent changes to how they charge customers or do business. It’s too soon to start lowering prices, and they risk upsetting customers if oil prices spike and prices go back up.

“It’s still just too short term,” said Carrie Callahan, a spokeswoman for NorthStar Moving Co. in Chatsworth. “Now, we’re just taking the cautious approach and enjoying the savings.”

NorthStar has a fleet of 33 trucks, and lower fuel prices mean the company is saving about $2,300 a month. Over the course of a year, that could represent a savings of more than $27,700, but Callahan and others aren’t convinced low prices will last that long.

Oil prices have been falling since the summer, but dramatic price drops have only come in the last three or four months. Christopher Thornberg, founder of L.A. research and consulting firm Beacon Economics LLC, said it might be too early for businesses to see significant impacts – if there are any to see.

“The impact of oil on our economy largely has been overstated on the basis of what happened in the 1970s,” Thornberg said. “As a nation, we’re just not as oil sensitive as we used be.”

Fleet factor

Companies that operate big vehicle fleets, such as NorthStar, are among the most obvious beneficiaries of lower fuel costs. But many companies pass fuel costs on to customers in the form of surcharges or are structured in ways that limit the impact, good or bad, of fuel prices.

For example, airport shuttle company Prime Time Shuttle of Inglewood hasn’t seen lower fuel costs trickle down to its bottom line. That’s because, like many trucking and transportation firms, Prime Time works with independent contractors who drive shuttles and cover the cost of fuel themselves – meaning fuel savings go to the contractors, not to Prime Time, said Bobby Gibson, the company’s chief executive.

Even businesses thought to benefit indirectly from lower fuel prices because of an increase in car travel or extra consumer spending might not stand to gain much. Walt Disney Co.’s Disneyland is often assumed to be a beneficiary of lower gas prices as families have more spendable cash, said David Miller, who follows the entertainment giant as an analyst in the Los Angeles office of New York’s Topeka Capital Markets Inc., but he said any extra business will be too incremental to notice.

What’s more, he said other macrofactors are hurting theme parks much more than lower oil prices could help. Specifically, he said currency prices lately are making Disneyland and similar destinations much more expensive for foreign tourists.

“The irony with lower gas prices now is that the U.S. dollar against foreign currency has soared, and that’s horrible for parks,” Miller said.

Of course, some firms are more optimistic and are using the money they’re saving on fuel to expand. Vernon’s Premier Meat Co., which has a fleet of 28 refrigerated trucks delivering meat and poultry to restaurants and hotels, is saving upwards of $5,000 a month on fuel compared with last summer, said Omer Greenberg, the company’s vice president of operations.

While other companies sit on their fuel savings, Premier is using them to send trucks to farther-flung areas.

“Palm Springs – we delivered there only three times a week when gas was $4 a gallon,” he said, “and now we’re going out there six days a week.”

More frequent deliveries have helped Premier poach customers who had been buying their meat from butchers closer to Palm Springs, he said.

Of course, Greenberg allowed that Premier could just as quickly lose all that new business if oil prices rise too much.

“We would go back to three days a week delivering to Palm Springs, and probably lose some business,” he said. “That would be horrible for us.”