Posted on 08/31/2005 2:56:17 PM PDT by FrPR
Truck stops ration fuel Driver: 'For the next month it's going to be rough out here' © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck the oil-laden Gulf Coast, many of the nation's truck drivers are encountering unprecedented fuel rationing as they brace for a spike in prices.
Wayne Kitchen, a Greer, S.C.-based driver for Bavarian Motor Transport, told WorldNetDaily he hasn't seen a shortage of this kind in his 30 years in the industry.
"It's scary," he said, noting many independent truckers already are on the brink of financial ruin due in large part to record fuel prices.
"This is really going to put the icing on the cake for a lot of them."
Like Kitchen, Michael Wade – a driver with PLT Enterprises in Bay City, Mich. – said his company informed him that truck stops were limiting each sale to 50 gallons while others allowed 100 gallons.
"For the next month it's going to be rough out here," said Wade, who uses as much as 140 gallons a day.
Tom Liutkus, a spokesman for TravelCenters of America, the nation's largest network of truck stops, told WND that many of his company's locations are limiting sales to 50 gallons per transaction because they have not received any product since Monday's shutdown of the crucial Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Houston to Rhode Island.
"In order to stretch that out, I think a lot of [other companies] are doing the same thing," he said.
The pipeline's section from Houston to Greensboro, N.C., is not operating due to damage by the hurricane.
Terry Scruton of the 130,000-member Owner-Operator Independent Driver's Association told WND he is aware of rationing in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
Scruton, a writer for the association's Land Line magazine, confirmed that independent drivers who already are struggling from the recent rise in fuel prices will face a serious jolt in the days ahead.
Wade, who said he just filled up his 53-foot van-trailer in Charleston, Mo., was told by a truck stop attendant that the price of diesel fuel at that station will jump overnight from $2.70 to $2.90 a gallon.
Refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi, with a total capacity of 1.79 million barrels a day, also closed over the weekend.
Along with a loss of electricity, the pipelines and refineries are hampered by flooding, which may have damaged critical electric motors, according to industry officials who still are assessing the extent of the damage.
Earlier today, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced the country will tap its emergency oil reserve.
More to come …
http://66.95.19.43:8081/GGordonLiddy/liddy_highlight_fuel_rationing_callers_break_the_news.mp3
The national economic implications could be grave, given recent hysteria in Atlanta and so on.
This is entirely self fed and continues to be.
Katrina has effected 8-10% of the gas supply in this country - not 100%.
Moreover, trucking companies charge FUEL SURCHARGES to account for the increase/decrease in fuel costs so I have a hard time believing "independent truckers" are under pressure from already increasing gas prices. IT's just passed through to their customer as it should be.
KFBK's Tom Sullivan says fights are breaking out in Georgia and gas prices have hit $6 a gallon.
My mother just called from Missouri (she's a truck driver) She says that Schneider is re routing her to be sure she can get fuel on her way to Baton Rouge.
FOX was just showing a sign at an Atlanta BP station where gas was $5.57.
And WND is doing its part to fan the flames of panic!
Gas companies, caro mio, are the quietest owls in the forest. If FEMA doesn't have the wit or moxie to give us a clear picture of the devastation via their 100+ office PR machine by now, do you actually believe that ExxonMobil et al. would be out making announcements regarding shortages? There is no "Grand Poobah of Rationing" at the oil company who comes out from under the curtain every thirty years and makes a grand statement. The WND story is vetted and sourced: Rationing has begun, due to shortages. Capisco? Or are you just mad about the Escalade you bought last month?
Gas makes people crazy. People exult over saving relatively small amounts of money by topping off, even if they have to wait in line (and therefore waste their presumably valuable time) to do it.
People are turning into savages.
It doesn't take much.
I have a half tank left. Hmmmmmmmm......should I go to the store and stock up on beer just in case? Decisions, decisions....
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050831/BUSINESS/508310391
Frankly, I care little about the price of gas. It won't change the habits of me or my family. Furthermore, I suggest if you want to talk about the supply of gas in this country you better damn well know what you're talking about. You don't.
Petroleum Marketers Association of America just said that refiners and wholesalers are restricting the amount of fuel retailers can buy.
"Almost all the refiners are now putting marketers on allocation east of the Rocky Mountains," "Some terminals in Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina are completely out of product."
"I've never seen anything like this before," said Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Operators Association.
Less than a week ago I paid $2.79 a gal., this morning anticipating an increase, I topped off my tank (5 gal.) and paid $3.17 per gallon. The midnight shift guy was laughing at me when I came in to pay because he knows I always give him a piece of my mind. He then pulled out a fax that came in instructing his boss to increase the prices by $.46 per gallon!!!!!
What the heck is this all about? He is selling the gas at his current and now increased rate profitting on what he had to pay for it a week or so ago..........
I DON'T GET IT!!! CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW SUPPLY AND DEMAND FIGURES INTO THE ABOVE EQUATION?
I don’t know about this specific case, but I worked for a Texaco jobber and EVERY SINGLE SUMMER around labor day they’d cut allocations to their jobbers – usually to 75 or 80%.
I don’t know one way or other in this case, but it has been done before. Pretty routinely, in fact.
Rush also had a trucker call in and say something about rationing gas for truckers because of a shortage, though the connection was too bad for Rush to make much sense of it. Wonder if this is some kind of conspiracy to induce panic. If so, it certainly worked in Atlanta. Fox said some station was charging $5.80/gal.!
They have a product that most everyone needs. Supply and Demand doesn't apply as much as some think it does in such situations.
FOUR independent, named sources in the WND story confirm rationing. The GGL callers earlier in the day confirm rationing. Authors in this thread confirm rationing. Folks across the country - wisely worried about starting a "panic", I suppose - sheepishly confirm general, decentralized rationing.
You sneer and call this "hearsay"?
If you see any nightcrawlers down there, I could use 'em come Saturday.
But many people are trying to present this as an anomaly which leads to panic about shortages. It just ain't happening.
Shell said its Mars platform, which can pump 15 percent of the U.S. Gulf's crude oil, was damaged by Katrina on Aug. 29
At least seven oil drilling rigs were adrift in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday and two companies said they couldn't find their rigs and platforms after Katrina plowed through the area.
``Almost all the refiners are now putting marketers on allocation east of the Rocky Mountains,'' said Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America. ``Some terminals in Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina are completely out of product. It's just a very precarious situation we're in.''
*** source Bloomberg news
LOL!
LVM
The fights in Atlanta are no joke.
This is real.
Tom Sullivan on KFBK is saying that the main transport pipeline for the SE US is not pumping due to the power outages in the gulf coast (The pipelines originate/run through Louisiana). Two pipelines pump 2.6 million barrels of product a day...they are not working.
Places like Atlanta only have 7 days of petroleum products stockpiled...hence the fears of shortages and price increases.
THE prob. is this could feed on itself. WSJ says the typical car (220M of them) runs around 1/4 full. IF people get too nervous and instead run around 3/4 full....+ 1/2 tank X 200M cars = a big drain on available supply.
Two days and we are just starting to see things happen. Many are in denial already, and many haven't even got to that point.
LOL - loved your post. That is exactly how I feel as I am madly posting and getting tangled up in the i's, e's. Like your idea - "other big words".
Looks to me like they are hoarding their supply in order to get the expected higher prices a little later.
Rationing due to what? As I stated several posts above, the hurricane only hit 2 days ago! There is no way in heck that the refining of gas then ultimate transport of gas to the outlets can occur within 48 hours!.....
Sorry but there is no way they can legitimately claim shortage. This is nothing but BS......
Paid $2.69 for 85 octane today, about 2 hours ago. Denver, Colorado area. I am cheap, so I own a 2002 Saturn. Only got 38.6 MPG on this tank. sob, sob.
That problem will balance out in a few days. There are a lot of vehicles, but they can carry only so much fuel at a time.
Is this done to allow the terminals to draw down their stocks of summer-formulated fuels and make room for the winter blends?
"I care little about the price of gas. It won't change the habits of me or my family..."
You're not just altruistic. You also have an exquisite understanding of the global economy.
/scarmable off.
Gas consumption remains stable regardless of whether or not you are running on a 1/4 tank or 3/4 tank......The only thing affected here is the number of stops for gas which of course increase but the amount of gas sold will remain the same...........
I take WND with a grain of salt...these days...
After reading all the arguments I have to agree with you.
The bevy of sources at WND, on the air, and in this thread are overwhelmingly convincing. But Swanks has a great point about how hoarding decreases supply. Re: WND, Farah does have a wild side, and I think a lot of the WND content that's a little "out there" is charming at best, but remember that just because a big story is deep-sixed by the MSM doesn't mean it's not credible. NEVER FORGET BABI YAR. Joseph Farah is a media hero in my book, even if he can be playful with content. After all, one can't talk about G-d, Guns, and Gays ALL the time... A UFO now and then is just the thing!
;-)
http://66.95.19.43:8081/GGordonLiddy/liddy_highlight_fuel_rationing_callers_break_the_news.mp3
When the next tanker of fuel pulls into the station to fill up his tank, he'll be asked for a check before filling that reflects the price increase - this is a C.O.D. business. If he doesn't pony up - his storage tank goes dry. If he has no gas next time you go to fill up, you drive down the road several miles more to pay the increased price there - plus the gas it took to drive those miles further.
Large trucking firms are able to buy contracts that guarantee a set price for a period. Small firms and one-trucker owner-operators do not have that.
Yes, go stock up and enjoy! Afterall, there's a long weekend ahead! Remember that line from Casablanca when Sam says to Rick as they are drinking champagne, "This will sure take the sting out of being occupied"
Terry Scruton of the 130,000-member Owner-Operator Independent Driver's Association told WND he is aware of rationing in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
Just heard that one of two pipelines going into Greensboro is back again. I'm not really sure if that means anything or not...
My understanding (and not from anyone “official”) was that at certain times they could get a lot more money by pushing fuel down to CA than they could get selling it in OR.
Usually you could work around it but I have seen the Texaco loading facility on Yeon Ave in Portland with OUT signs on all products except super and diesel #1. That was the exception though. Generally just out of unleaded or diesel.
In my 14 years there that happened (usually beginning in mid August) 12 of those years. It was common enough that companies planned for it and anticipated it.
In our case the boss would hire common carriers and work a deal with a truck stop in Boise and they’d haul 25 loads of fuel from Portland to Boise (! – or occasionally Seattle) just to get our volume levels up high enough so that when they cut us back we’d have plenty to service our stations and accounts.
I always thought that was interesting. The fuel originates in a refinery in Anacortes (just north of Seattle). They push it down a pipeline (or barge) to Portland, where we promptly load it on a truck to deliver it to Seattle. LOL.
Anyway, maybe it was for some other reason. The “pumpers” at Texaco had access to the pipeline schedule and indicated that fuel was being pumped, just none scheduled for loading facilities in Oregon. They’re the ones that claimed it was headed to CA because they could get more money for it there.
True, the stock market movement today indcates there is more a fear of Greenspan than the damage from Katrina.
When the next tanker of fuel pulls into the station to fill up his tank, he'll be asked for a check before filling that reflects the price increase - this is a C.O.D. business. If he doesn't pony up - his storage tank goes dry. If he has no gas next time you go to fill up, you drive down the road several miles more to pay the increased price there - plus the gas it took to drive those miles further.
In other words, the gas you buy today is paying for the gas station's next truckload, not the load that delivered the gas you're buying. If the gas station expects the price to rise, he needs to raise his price immediately in order to pay for his next shipment.
I agree. But he is making me pay an inflated price over and above what he paid for his existing gas last week. If and when the cost of gas drops, he will not drop his price until the next tanker pulls in and charges him a lower price. Thus he is making a profit each and every time the price of gas goes up prior to him actually paying for it.
The entire board turned green at the end of the day. Don't these people know that 'The End Is Near'? I suspect the thought that massive amounts of Federal aid are on the way to the disaster areas caused dollar signs to appear in the air in front of investors.
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