Trucks Provide Flexibility During Energy Emergencies When pipelines, waterways, ports and rail networks are disrupted, the extensive and interconnected U.S. highway system often provides an essential alternative for delivering fuels over long distances. Following Superstorm Sandy, when pipeline problems, port disruptions and power outages at terminals and retail outlets led to fuel supply shortages in and around New York City, trucks were essential for bringing in fuel from outside the region to supply emergency responders and other essential public services. More recently, when Hurricane Maria resulted in storm damage and power outages that closed terminals on the island of Puerto Rico, tank trucks loaded with fuel on the mainland United States were shipped to the island to supply much needed fuels for transportation and backup power generators. Trucks are also often used to provide incremental fuel supply when increased demand overwhelms the capacity of the normal supply chains. When the “polar vortex” brought extreme cold to parts of the United States in late 2013 and early 2014, Midwest space heating demand for propane surged. As pipeline and rail infrastructure that normally delivers bulk supply of propane into the Midwest struggled to keep up with demand, tank trucks supplied the needed fuel from as far away as Texas and Mississippi.
Trucks are often the only transportation mode that can deliver fuels on the final mile of the supply chain because retail outlets that sell fuels to consumers are numerous and spread throughout the communities where people live and work. Airport fuel trucks also move jet fuel from airport storage tanks to aircraft. In some remote production areas that lack robust pipeline gathering systems, trucks also are used to move crude oil from production sites to centralized storage terminals where the crude can be injected into pipelines or loaded into rail cars. Trucks also transport workers, equipment, water and sand in producing areas. The petrochemical industry also relies on trucks to move resins short distances from petrochemical processing plants and intermodal rail terminals to manufacturing facilities that produce consumer goods. By the Numbers In 2017, the United States consumed 13.3 million b/d of ground transportation fuels (gasoline and diesel) and heating oil – more than 200 billion gallons for the year. Virtually every gallon moved the final mile to the consumer by tank truck. 25 AFPM estimates that moving this volume of fuels to consumers requires more than 22 million truck trips per year, at least 60,000 trips each day. Tank trucks deliver fuels to more than 120,000 retail outlets, where consumers purchase gasoline and diesel fuels. Smaller distribution trucks
also deliver heating oil and propane used for space heating directly to 11.5 million homes. 26
In 2017 the U.S. consumed more than 200 billion gallons of ground transportation fuels and heating oil. Virtually every gallon was moved the final mile to the consumer by tank truck.
The Fuel and Petrochemical Supply Chains
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