Gasoline Pinch May Grind On for Week or More Amid Truck Shortage By Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Fuel shortages plaguing parts of the U.S. East and South probably will drag on for a week or more because there aren’t enough tanker trucks to haul supplies to filling stations, according to one of North America’s biggest distributors.

Now that Colonial Pipeline Co. has resumed deliveries that were halted for days by a criminal hack, the industry is facing a new challenge: a scarcity of trucks and drivers needed to ferry gasoline and diesel from distribution hubs to retail outlets, said Andy Milton, senior vice president of supply at Mansfield Energy Corp.

“It’s really going to be probably seven to 10 days before the average consumer really notices a noticeable improvement” in local supplies, said Milton, whose closely held company handles more than 3 billion gallons of fuel across the U.S and Canada.

Mansfield has been bringing trucks to the shortage zone from as far away as Minnesota and Texas.

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“The truck itself becomes the major, the major problem,” Milton said.

The deadly winter storm that paralyzed Texas in February followed by Colonial’s shutdown late last week have been back-to-back crises for Mansfield’s network.

“I keep hoping there’s not a hurricane around the corner,” said Milton. “That might lead me to change my career at that point.”

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