Travel Could Get Expensive this Summer Because of Gas Shortages
As more people get vaccinated and travel restrictions begin to ease up around the country and the world, travel demand continues to rise. But those who hit the road, or look to book their next flight, might find out that everything is getting more expensive. Increased demand usually drives up prices, but gas shortages could soon be another reason.
And there is no shortage of crude oil or gasoline. Instead, it is tanker truck drivers needed to make deliveries to gas stations who are in short supply these days. According to the National Tank Truck Carriers, between 20% to 25% of tank trucks in the fleet are parked heading into this summer, CNN Business reports. There are just not enough drivers to get those trucks moving. At this point in 2019, only 10% of trucks were sitting idle for that reason.
“Last year, during the pandemic, many of the drivers retired or they went to different industries, and that created a shortage,” Jeanette McGee, an AAA spokesperson, said in an interview with ABC News. Drivers left the business when gasoline demand nearly halted completely during the early months of the pandemic. Most trucking loads at the time involved food deliveries and essential items.
Even truck drivers looking for work, need special training to haul oil. But some driving schools have closed amid the pandemic, making the problem worse.
With a shortage or drivers, even those trucks that are moving are getting paid more, making gas deliveries more expensive. The rates that shippers pay to trucking companies are now higher than pre-pandemic, after a big drop in 2020. “Rates on Uber Freight for example, were hovering at just $1 per mile during the summer of 2020, about half of what they were before the pandemic,” a spokesperson for Northeastern Transport Company said. “Now you often see rates well above $3 per mile, but the issue is finding new drivers. They’re just in short supply nowadays.”
Demand for gas is already back up to 97% of where it was at this time in 2019. The average price of gasoline across the country was $2.87 a gallon this week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Association. That’s an increase of $1.10 from a year ago. With higher gas prices, you can expect not just your next fill up to be more expensive, but likely your next plane ticket as well.
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School not open, people are paid ok anyways with all the stimulus money, it just doesn’t make sense going to work and then pay babysitters for your kids at home, might as well get that unemployment benefit and sit at home and babysit your own kids.
Stock market all time high, Feds are still printing money buying corporate bonds with record high amount of money going into stock buybacks pumping up asset prices and inflation, I wonder how this whole thing can ever benefit the poor.
The writing is on the wall – the future of transportation is based on electricity, not fossil fuels.
So the damn oil corporations don’t want anything cutting into their profits? Blame everyone else except these companies, right?
They put unreasonable restrictions on drivers hours, driver qualification during licensing for Class A CDL’s, ban pipelines, take away jobs and put all sorts of other limits. We shouldn’t be surprised by rising fuel prices. Elections have consequences.
Yes that’s completely right. Trump couldn’t manage the pandemic so it dragged on longer than it should have. If trump did a proper lockdown and everyone wore masks we could have had it under control by last summer. Thank goodness we had an election and now have a president who has put us back on the right course.
More misery imposed by politicians and governments.
If they had just done nothing, none of this would be happening.
If people had just been able to live their lives, the situation would never have gotten to this point.
Kind of like in India?