As gas prices continue to soar, drivers are looking for ways to cut back — making fewer trips around town, trading in SUVs for sedans and opting to stay close to home rather than heading out on a long road trip.

But in Oregon, one of just two states where self-serve gas is illegal, some drivers are wondering if they’re feeling a particularly tight pinch because of the additional cost of paying someone to fill their tanks.

The short answer, experts say, is that full service does add about five to seven cents to the cost of a gallon of gas — but it’s not always consumers who bear the weight. And in the bigger picture of oil prices and the international economy, some say paying others to pump gas doesn’t make much of a difference for the average driver.

“It’s usually a few cents … In the big scheme of things, it’s probably a real small chunk of the whole change,” said Lou Torres, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Energy. “When you’re talking about the global demand for petroleum right now, that’s what’s driving it up.”

But for many stations, full service does mean hiring at least a few more employees than it would need if customers were able to fill up on their own.

Mike Fassett, the owner of two Red Carpet Shell stations on Third Street in Bend, said it costs him between eight and 12 cents from each gallon he sells to keep at least two employees pumping gas at all times. New Jersey is the other state outlawing self-serve.

In many cases, gas stations try to absorb at least some of those added costs, said Larry Kimmel, the vice president of Bend Oil, a distributor of gas to some local service stations. He said those decisions have helped keep Oregon’s prices close to those in neighboring states and usually cheaper than those in California, where state law requires stations to sell a more costly blend of fuels.

“There are so many different things that influence prices, but the bottom line is that the Oregon gas dealer has absorbed most of the cost of having full-service attendants,” Kimmel said.

In the past, Oregonians have rejected proposals to make self-serve gas legal, including an unsuccessful ballot measure in 1982 and a 2003 law drafted by state Rep. Randy Miller, R-West Linn, that failed to gain favor in the House. That bill was supported by gas station owners interested in reducing staffing costs.

But with no relief in sight at the pump, some say the idea could pick up speed from Oregonians looking for even the smallest bit of savings.

“There’s a heck of a lot more interest in it now then there has ever been,” said Paul Romain, the executive director of the Oregon Petroleum Association.

“There was a ballot initiative that failed miserably, and all of these organizations were opposed to it. But it’s now filtering over — there are a lot of people trying to figure out how do we cut the cost of gas.”

In the meantime, Fassett said, he’s hearing plenty of complaints from customers about the price of gas, but not many directed at the old-fashioned tradition of full service fill-ups.

“The people that live in Oregon are so used to it that they don’t even realize it’s an extra,” he said. “And the people from California and Washington are so tickled to get it, they’re excited, and they don’t think about the price at all.”