Fuel Availability

I haven't seen any shortages of diesel in PA. And I drove from PA to Florida last week and Diesel was available the whole length.
I don't see it running out when nobody can afford it. Over $6.50 a gallon here in PA.

My thoughts are that some of the smaller stations may stop filling there diesel tanks simply because they don't have the capitol to pay for thousands of gallons at that price.

I live near in Massachusetts near Providence RI and have been to Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine in the last 2 weeks and there is plenty of Deisel fuel. I didn't notice the price though. I was talking to a fellow camper this last weekend. He has a Super C that he just ran back home to Ma. From Florida. He said he had no problem getting fuel all the way up the east coast.

schlep1967 wrote:


My thoughts are that some of the smaller stations may stop filling there diesel tanks simply because they don't have the capitol to pay for thousands of gallons at that price.

This makes 0 sense in time of rising prices. You buy 10,000 gallons, expecting to sell for $4.00 a gallon. But the price goes up, and you sell that fuel for average price of $5, you have $10,000.00 extra to pay for the next tank full.
Dropping price is more likely to hurt a station that pays for fuel up front.

JRscooby wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:


My thoughts are that some of the smaller stations may stop filling there diesel tanks simply because they don't have the capitol to pay for thousands of gallons at that price.

This makes 0 sense in time of rising prices. You buy 10,000 gallons, expecting to sell for $4.00 a gallon. But the price goes up, and you sell that fuel for average price of $5, you have $10,000.00 extra to pay for the next tank full.
Dropping price is more likely to hurt a station that pays for fuel up front.

I agree there is money to be made. But the old adage that it takes money to make money is still true. They need to have $60,000 to fill that 10,000 gallon tank.

Have been many rumors about diesel fuel shortages, but none that I've heard of here in upstate NY. Any of the major fuel places are going to be the highest priced IMO. Couple years ago, fuel along the Mass pike was cheap compared to NY. Back in '17 we stopped at a independent truck stop along 95 before turning due south for Bar Harbor and price wasn't too bad then. Then again, I stop at places that have a high turn-over of fuel.

Can't cry about $6/gallon fuel. Ask a Canadian what they are paying.

schlep1967 wrote:

JRscooby wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:


My thoughts are that some of the smaller stations may stop filling there diesel tanks simply because they don't have the capitol to pay for thousands of gallons at that price.

This makes 0 sense in time of rising prices. You buy 10,000 gallons, expecting to sell for $4.00 a gallon. But the price goes up, and you sell that fuel for average price of $5, you have $10,000.00 extra to pay for the next tank full.
Dropping price is more likely to hurt a station that pays for fuel up front.

I agree there is money to be made. But the old adage that it takes money to make money is still true. They need to have $60,000 to fill that 10,000 gallon tank.

NO...all fuel stations run on consignment from the suppliers or distributors, no retail station is paying upfront for fuel inventory, whether it's diesel or anything else.

There was an article in Bloomberg recently about potential shortages in the Northeast due to a NJ refinery being offline and also no crude coming in from Russia to the East coast. The government has released reserves to keep the supply adequate but prices were reported to be $6/gal in some areas.

It doesn't sound like we are seeing any actual shortages based on replies to this thread.

JRscooby wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:


My thoughts are that some of the smaller stations may stop filling there diesel tanks simply because they don't have the capitol to pay for thousands of gallons at that price.

This makes 0 sense in time of rising prices. You buy 10,000 gallons, expecting to sell for $4.00 a gallon. But the price goes up, and you sell that fuel for average price of $5, you have $10,000.00 extra to pay for the next tank full.
Dropping price is more likely to hurt a station that pays for fuel up front.

Never underestimate the will and resources of a fuel station owner.

There's a lot of misunderstandings about how fuel deliveries are paid for.

For starters, some of the locations are "company owned" or "salary operated". At those stores, the oil company owns the location and the station doesn't pay for the load.

Some companies work on true consignment where the branded company delivers the load and then the dealer pays as they go (on terms, of course). These are rare, but Amoco used to be the main major company to do this. I don't know if they still do. In these cases, Amoco owns the oil until it's sold. Amoco can call the dealer at any time and change the cost, and then the dealer needs to change their price.

In most cases, the dealers receive the load and then gets invoiced for it and they pay according to their terms.

In no case does the dealer hand the driver a sack of doubloons to pay for the load of fuel.

I just saw a video of the CEO of Pilot/Flying J. He testified that they get most of their DEF fluid by train. Their supplier told them their deliveries are being cut back by 25%.So while we may be able to get fuel, for those that own a truck that uses DEF fluid,we won't be able to drive anyways. Then I saw another story about how if your DEF fluid sensor goes bad, the engine computer won't let you run more than 5mph. This actually happened to me.