Gas delivery basics

Each refinery or dedicated lane has their own additive. Chevron adds Techron to the mixture. Valero comes out of a common line. Some brands have their own separate refinery so that every truck in there has to deliver that particular fuel to that station. There are times when a farmer may pay for unbranded fuel but will get chevron if the pull is the right price. You won’t see that low pull go to an unbranded station though.

 

Correct, additive brands the gasoline. The companies must report to EPA what spec. their gasoline is. This is a very touchy situation because the one company would love to know what the other has mixed up. So all drivers will know is that product must have this additive and so on. I doubt the driver will know what exact mixture it is or what makes up the additive. I didn't know and I was doing inventory and running the terminal. So it's pretty hush hush.

You will see a truck in one station and later on the same truck in another. That's what we called a Common Carrier. They will haul anyone's product and it's OK if all that product gets to the station it's loaded for. There are controls in place that track that product and where it's going so if it doesn't get there the company starts to look.

There was three different types of trucks that delivered our product, lets say it was Chevron. You had the Chevron trucks. The whole truck was marked with Chevron logo. Especially the door. The door of the cab must be marked with the owner of that truck. Then you had what we called Dedicated Carriers. They had the Chevron logo on the tanks but the door was marked by the owner. You could have a full truck and trailer or semi marked with that stations name (Chevron) and then have a different name on the door. What that means to the owner of that truck is they can only run to the stations they are marked for (Chevron). Then last is the Common Carrier. They will haul anyone's product and they usually fill in when the company trucks or dedicated carrier are bust with other stations.

All we had in Las Vegas was our company trucks and common carriers. Now the majors have or getting rid of their distribution aspect of the company which means all trucks and drivers are gone. A few dedicated carriers might come in or a certain company might be contracted to haul their product. They say the company saves money but I do not believe this line they shove down everyone's throat. In a city a company truck can haul up to 160 miles before the common carrier rates are lower. It might be a little different today but not by much. Plus the company driver can turn loads a lot faster.

 

Check out the fuel hauler thread, lots of good info on all things fuel related.

 

Valero is where I generally get my fuel, it's a common gasoline with some ethanol etc. (Ethanol is not exactly welcome because it's almost water... 10% of that tank might be water to me I don't know...) modern cars is not a problem usually, but I run older vehicles. I usually put something into the tank to try and remove that water.

If I went to a Citgo station, then that fuel is coming from Venezula through their state distributor by tanker and then refined and shipped to it. If I went to dutch royal shell, then that is about 30% saudi oil with a touch of african or Iranian oil etc among other things. I used to do shell exclusively, but valero is my fill point now. There are a number of independants etc scattered in my area, and those have a history of theiving cashiers which is beyond the scope of this thread.

Arkansas, north little rock is the main point for fuel of all kinds. There are 5 pipelines supplying it from between roughly Houston to Hammond. Valero would buy common gasoline from that point and deliver to my gas station.

Baltimore, when we had our Amoco gas station, the truck came from Boston street usually, there is a large complex that took in from ships and trains what they need to blend into gasoline among other things. Curtis bay would be where it's imported I recall, I cannot tell you now if they still do it. It's probably all condos by now.

But it will come in and be branded Amoco gasoline and sold as such in the station I was in. Once every 30 hours or so excepting holidays where all 4 tanks will be somewhat fuller than usual (About 40,000 gallons total) Filling prior to a holiday is always a intense time.

I am aware of additional processes and thoughts related to the fuel industry, partly from my research into wartime oil traffic from Cushing when our fuel tankers were being torpedoed along the east coast by german uboats. The USA essentially put all oil onto trains both ways because germans cannot torpedo trains. (Hubris... gotta love it.) And there is a awful lot of oil down south in deep salt caverns for war purposes. That will only support our military for about 3 or 4 months max and no where near enough to supply everyone in normal peace time for any length of time.

In the NLR area, most of the particulars is pretty hush hush for a variety of good reasons.

For Valero, I offer this link...

Valero Energy Partners

 

What’s the salary for a new gas hauler

 

I don't know the answer to this.

I will tell you back in the 80's with a company that had a gasoline and diesel division etc were paid about twice to almost three times what we were paid, and very very well. And I would imagine there is no reason not to pay them very well today. Again for insurance purposes you had to be 25 or older before you got into gasoline.

 

Those cream puff jobs are mostly gone..... Still pays better than freight but nothing like it used to.

 

$24-30 per hour here in central California. However, making $100-110k a year still isn’t enough to buy a house around here!

 

When I hauled gas in the 70s and early 80s the gas would all come put of the same storage tank. Some companies additive was added at the time of loading. Ethanol was added separately at time of loading directly into the transport compartment. At that time gasohol was just coming into it's own
Amoco and Mobil were shipped from their own tank farm. In the Midwest Magellan and Kaneb are the main pipeline tank farms.