Source: Radio New Zealand
Fuel tanker driver Cody Munro took RNZ’s Charlotte Cook along on his deliveries, to see how Aotearoa’s fuel gets distributed out to communities. RNZ / Charlotte Cook
A Wellington fuel tanker could carry enough 91 petrol to run my Hybrid Rav 4 for nearly 30 years, but it might only cover some petrol stations for one day.
Aotearoa’s fuel tanker drivers have been under the pump trying to catch up after the war prompted panic buying.
Last month some fuel stations ran dry and others faced huge queues as concerns over increasing prices and supply pushed people to fill up more than usual.
Tranzliquid tanker driver Cody Munro is one of the people trying to keep stations full, I joined him for two fuel deliveries.
Tranzliquid is one of the many transport companies that move fuel round Aotearoa, but it’s a complicated process that starts well before hitting the road.
Cody Munro is based out of Wellington and drives one of the 50 trucks for Tranzliquid. The whole company looks after between 150 and 180 service stations and commercial customers, with 20 of them in the lower North Island.
Munro has been behind the wheel for 10 years and starts his day at 12:45am. He likes it that way, the roads are quiet, and he can get to where he needs to go faster.
When I meet Munro it is 6:30am and he has already taken about 40,000 litres to Masterton.
He’s refilled the tanker ready for the next bulk delivery, a split between the Foxton and Bulls Waitomo stations.
He drives a big Kenwood that weighs about 50 tonnes when full.
For this trip, he has a total of 38,716 litres on board for the two stops: 21,199 litres is diesel and 17, 517 is 91.
At today’s average street value, that’s $150,000 worth of diesel and $60,000 of 91.
17,517 litres would be enough 91 to run a Hybrid Rav 4 for nearly two decades. If the whole truck was 91, I’d be set for life.
But, Munro says it doesn’t last that long at the fuel station.
“A busy station can sort of take a load a day, sometimes two loads a day.”
He says both Foxton and Bulls will need a top up in the next 24 hours or so.
After the war broke out, Munro said they were flat out.
“Only recently, the last week, our sites that we deliver to are looking healthy.
“Before that, if we didn’t get there within a day, they potentially would have run dry.”
Many stations across Aotearoa did run dry over those first few weeks after the conflict began, and people feared it was the first sign of low supplies. Munro said that wasn’t the case, it’s just not as simple as just getting a truck there to fill the stations up.
Stations purchase an allocation of fuel per month, which logistics teams monitor and then plan for deliveries.
Munro says the Tranzliquid logistics team plans for school holidays, concerts and events, to ensure everyone gets what they need.
But when people panic buy…
“It blows everything out”
The office meticulously measures what needs to be delivered and creates a route for Munro to follow.
But there are ways trucks can get held up and slow deliveries, leading to lower supplies at stations.
“A loading arm might fail, which means that we can’t actually physically get a certain grade of fuel until that’s sorted,” Munro says.
“It could be an accident out on the road, meaning that you can’t go and do the work in a day.”
Sometimes just getting onto the site to do the delivery is the problem.
“It’s hard, just because the amount of cars that are in there getting fuel and people are not only just filling up their car… Paint tins and things…. It’s kind of a bit silly sometimes, it’s not safe”
At the first stop Munro explains how the truck’s tanks work; they aren’t just one big tank, rather compartments that can take different types of fuel. Because it’s a bulk fuel truck, each compartment must be completely emptied into the station’s tank. He can’t do small amounts here and there like a tanker that might do rural deliveries.
When we arrive in Foxton he checks what the supply is already like; he adds that to what he’s been ordered to deliver, and checks it meets a safe level.
You cannot overfill the tank.
The other area that could go really wrong, is mixing fuel types.
To avoid this, he works thoroughly, step by step, double-checking every movement. There are multiple safety checks on the tanker to ensure this doesn’t happen as well.
He connects the tanker to the station’s tank via a long hose, colour matched – green to green for diesel and white to white for 91.
He says “green to green,” confirming the tanks are matched correctly. I shout “green to green” back in reassurance and the fuel is released.
When it’s finished he taps on the tanker to check it’s empty, an echoey sound responds. Every litre is accounted for.
It’s the same process in Bulls, before we return back to the Seaview Terminal.
But despite being in and out of gas stations all day, Munro needs to fill the tanker itself, after driving 580km.
It costs around $1700 in fuel, just for a days work. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less.
“On a busy day, if I was local, it would be between five and six petrol stations, four loads.
“So that would be sort of 200 to 240,000 litres being delivered just by myself.
“And then if I was going out of town, usually in those days you would do two deliveries, so that’s around 80,000 litres of fuel.”
Munro says the most interesting thing is that on this delivery, it’s only retail.
“There’s a whole lot more fuel that isn’t at petrol stations. Mainly diesel, but it’s a crazy amount of fuel.”
“Seven days a week there will be someone going somewhere that needs fuel.”
On this day:
Total amount of fuel delivered: 80,000L
Dollar value of fuel: about $210,000
Cost in diesel and fuel to run the tanker: $1700
How long it will last in petrol stations: 1.5 days max
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand