By Ben Popken - NBC News
Days before travel spikes for the July 4 holiday, some gas stations are out of supply due to a constant shortage of drivers for trucks that haul the fuel.
Temporary delivery problems have been reported in parts of
Colorado, the Florida Keys, central Iowa, central and southern Ohio, and Washington and Oregon.
Some pumps were lined with bags, pointing to a 12- to 48-hour outage, industry researchers said.
That's
raising supply concerns,
as the American Motor Vehicle Association (AAA) estimates that nearly 44 million people will travel by road this holiday weekend, up from 41 million in 2019, and for above 32.5 million in 2020 (due to the pandemic).
Fuel prices are already rising, reflecting, and potentially slowing, higher demand.
The national average price is $ 3.10, according to AAA, up from 2.75 and 2.86 in 2019 and 2018, respectively, before the weekend of July 4.
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"It's very limited and random,
" Patrick De Haan, head of oil analysis at fuel pricing app GasBuddy, said by email.
“Stations and truckers are late in their delivery times to very few stations.
Most motorists won't even notice this, "he added.
This is not a repeat of what happened in May after
hackers
hijacked a Colonial Pipeline pipeline.
In that case, the fuel supply was short-circuited, causing lines and cuts in the affected regions, mainly the southeast.
This time around, it's not a gasoline shortage, but a truck driver shortage.
Drivers arriving at an empty gas station can
cross the street or turn the corner to the next station,
said Jeanette McGee, a spokeswoman for AAA's travel service.
"It will most likely be a single chain and a couple of stations in one market," McGee said.
[A cyberattack forces the closure of one of the main oil pipelines supplying fuel to the east of the country]
Larger chains, with their own fleet of delivery people, are more likely to have gasoline.
But more remote travel destinations, such
as mountains or beaches, which may be farther from a supply depot, are more likely to face
delivery
problems
.
The oil industry, like so many other sectors of the economy, has struggled with the loss of workers and production during the coronavirus pandemic and is now racing to catch up with growing demand.
Before the pandemic, the industry was already dealing with an aging and declining driver population.
As demand for delivery plummeted during quarantines when travel was curtailed, many tanker truck drivers retired or found a new job.
Some of the highest gas prices in the city are posted on a sign at a gas station in downtown Los Angeles on June 22, 2021, as gas prices rise.Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
"There's a lot of refining capacity, a lot of wholesale gasoline in pipelines and terminals, but there really is a shortage of drivers to carry the fuel the last mile or the last 50 miles," said Tom Kloza, the Service's global head of energy analysis. of Oil Price Information.
Driving jobs increased almost 50% compared to February 1, 2020, according to data from the Indeed website.
Employers are also offering more hiring incentives.
Online portals that post oil truck driver jobs have
bonuses of between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000
for qualified candidates.
But some companies don't even require prior experience as a gasoline tank driver.
“Minimum experience: three years of general experience in the driving of trucks.
Preferred experience: three years of experience driving oil, ”read a post.
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Nearly 25% of all tank trucks nationwide are parked due to a lack of qualified drivers, according to National Tank Truck Drivers, an industry trade group, compared to 10% in 2019.
For the holiday weekend, AAA says the old-fashioned tips are now more helpful than ever:
Drive off peak hours
Combine errands to reduce gas use
Fill the tank when you have a quarter tank of gas left.
"Nobody wants to be stranded," McGee said.
But
consumers don't need to overreact either.
During the Colonial Pipeline outage, customers who were up to 1,000 miles away from the outages were consuming more gasoline than usual in their cars and even filling additional fuel containers, putting even more pressure on supplies.
Experts say the problems emerging now could become more pronounced as the summer progresses.
"The concern comes with the increased demand in July," Kloza said.
The busiest points of the summer vacation could wear out and affect delivery, especially in Northern California, which is experiencing one of the biggest driver shortages. Service stations there used to receive same-day deliveries a few months ago; now,
resupply could take three to four days.
