Truckers Lane: What Happened to the Diesel Shortage? Plus Updates on California’s AB5 Law

By Robin Peterson

re We at Risk of Running out of Diesel Fuel?

Back in November, the buzz around trucking was that the stockpile of diesel fuel was dangerously low with only a 25-day supply. This was concerning to me, so I looked around for signs of the fuel shortage.

Here’s what I found… I saw a few videos saying there were diesel shortages at truck stops, but these videos didn’t give any locations and didn’t name any truck stops. I chalked them up to YouTube click-bait. On Twitter, I saw tweets that showed a sign that read, “Allentown Plaza – No Diesel”. I looked at the comments below the tweets and found drivers saying that these signs were up last year during a road construction project. Apparently, someone had taken an old photo and made it into a viral tweet, scaring people that the Allentown pumps had dried up. I even saw a MAGA politician retweet this old photo, believing it to be current evidence of the diesel shortfall.

What I didn’t find was any truck stop rationing or running out of fuel.

The explanation I’ve gotten is that there is a constant flow of diesel fuel coming in as well as going out. While the 25-day supply was abnormally low, we have been gradually building up to a 30+day supply. We can get along on low supply numbers as long as everything runs as it’s supposed to. If a refinery unexpectedly shuts down, a pipeline goes out ofRead More