CookiesRV
Palm Bay, FL
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Joined: 05/29/2022
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Marcus, I just listened to the CEO of Pilot stations talking to Congress regarding them being notified by the Pacific Railroad that the rail company was told to reduce the amount of diesel fuel shipped by 20%. This also is to include a shortage of DEF Fluid.
So what this means is any campers, RV's that own diesels will be effected. I would ask that the Good Sam Club send a letter, email, member forums for members to call their representatives on this matter. I just went to both Rural King and a Walmart Super Center and both were out of DEF fluid. We RV with a group of 6 all who own diesel trucks. This will totally effect our future travel as none of us want to be on the side of the road out of fuel or DEF fluid.
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cptqueeg
Idaho
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Joined: 04/11/2020
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Deregulation of the railroads
This is 3rd leg of transportation deregulation, airlines, and motor carriers(trucks) are the other 2.
I shipped fresh produce by rail for 30 years and the railroads do what's best for their shareholders, customers and employees be damned. I had a customer say many times that in a time of war the railroads wouldn't go out of their way to help the US.
The rr will fix this when they get good and ready. And to some degree shippers that were truck dependent have hopped on rail to minimize their reliance on trucks. (Nobody wants to be a trucker cause the industry deregulated and made the trucking business miserable.)
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bgum
South Louisiana
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Who told the RR to ship less diesel? Most fuel is pipeline. Then trucked from distribution terminal.
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ppine
Northern Nevada
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Take shorter trips. Don't stop going out there.
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bgum
South Louisiana
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It appears we are living in a chicken little world. I dont pay much attention to those who run around yelling "the sky is falling".
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Camper445
Sticks
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CookiesRV wrote:Marcus, I just listened to the CEO of Pilot stations talking to Congress regarding them being notified by the Pacific Railroad that the rail company was told to reduce the amount of diesel fuel shipped by 20%. This also is to include a shortage of DEF Fluid.
So what this means is any campers, RV's that own diesels will be effected. I would ask that the Good Sam Club send a letter, email, member forums for members to call their representatives on this matter. I just went to both Rural King and a Walmart Super Center and both were out of DEF fluid. We RV with a group of 6 all who own diesel trucks. This will totally effect our future travel as none of us want to be on the side of the road out of fuel or DEF fluid.
Told by whom? If someone is telling them that in an attempt to influence prices that is a violation of antitrust laws no matter regulated or not.
Walmart is also sold out of French cut green beans. Did the Jolly green giant tell farmers in France to cut the bean crop by 20%.
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cptqueeg
Idaho
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bgum wrote:Who told the RR to ship less diesel? Most fuel is pipeline. Then trucked from distribution terminal.
The Union Pacific RR (UNP) requested that Pilot reduce their shipments of fuel and DEF and UP has requested reduced shipments from other industries as well, fertilizer for one.
When rail traffic gets so heavy their minimal staffing levels and lack of "power", what we call locomotives, means there is no way to move the volume of freight that otherwise could be moved.
With today's labor situation and being VERY fussy w whom they hire it's tough to respond to what probably is unprecedented demand. A few years ago they had so much power available and less demand so they mothballed hundreds perhaps more locomotives. I'm not sure if, or how quickly they could put them back into service of if there are enough crews to operate them if they were available.
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bgum
South Louisiana
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The rail companies are locked into contracts to haul for Pilot. They can now charge other shippers of products more than the Pilot contract calls for. They "requested " that Pilot ship less so they can charge others more. Fat chance unless Pilot is pulling one of their tricks. It appears this is going to be a contrived shortage. Since this is interstate commerce the regulators need to come down fast and hard on the railroad.
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cptqueeg
Idaho
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Read the entire article
"These cuts in the workforce, and now the scrambling to hire people amid “labor shortages,” is contributing to issues in meeting heavy transportation demand: Union Pacific temporarily suspended traffic from Los Angeles into Chicago, and BNSF has started to meter traffic into Chicago, to allow them to catch up unloading the trains that are stuck in their Chicago railyards. The resulting pot-banging by frustrated shippers has gotten the attention of the STB.
“The railroads cannot strip down to bare-bones operations,” STB chairman Martin Oberman told the Wall Street Journal. “It’d be like a professional football team only having one quarterback.”
The American Chemistry Council – which represents companies in the chemical industry, such as BASF, Chemours (the DuPont spinoff), Chevron Phillips Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil Chemical, etc. – lamented in a letter to the STB, cited by the WSJ, that railcars were waiting at railyards for over a week and travel times for some routes more than doubled. Some factories were running out of materials because shipments had gotten hung up and were approaching the point where they’d have to close, and other factories have cut production.
The railroads “clearly weren’t as prepared as they should have been for the increase in traffic,” Jeff Sloan, senior director of regulatory and technical affairs at the Council, told the WSJ. The deteriorating service shows that the railroads cut too deep before the pandemic and were unable to catch up, he said."
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jetboater454
Camping or home
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Joined: 07/21/2009
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I would imagine that walmart is fairly low on the DEF food chain. Truckstops will be the priority and even they are running out of DEF and diesel at a lot of truckstops. Friend was at a truckstop with over 30 trucks waiting in line to fuel that was out. Some have resorted to a 75 gallon max.
2011 Toyota Tundra DC Long Bed
2001 Harley Dyna Lowrider
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