buying cheaper fuel.

Would you rather drive a better performing, easier starting truck for a few pennies more a gallon or a sluggish, hard starting one because you took on a load of bad fuel. It really does make a difference fuel economy wise and you save money because you don't have to change your fuel filter as much.

I'm not saying every Pilot or Flying J is bad, but I have noticed more problems with their brand then any other I've used.

 

Go sit at a tank farm and the same truck that delivers to mom/pop is in the same line as the T/A, Petro, Pilot and so on. It just a matter of who has the cleanest tanks in the ground. Its just the large chains have the biggest overhead so the mark up is going to be higher. And some will price it at the cost of the next load or which ever is higher

 

I wouldn't agree with Pilot/Flying J, in general, having the lowest quality fuel. It all comes from the same terminals in the area. And I presently have almost 40,000 miles on this Davco filter, using Flying J / Pilot / and Loves almost exclusively during that time. I will finally change the fuel filter, as it is now approaching 3/4 full, when I change oil this weekend.

That doesn't mean one can't ever get a rotten load of fuel. It can happen. But I get substantial discounts over what I could get at small truck stops, mom and pop outlets, or even wally world using their card. I fueled Monday at Flying hook in LaSalle, IL..... got 34 cents off the cash pump price. Factor out the state fuel tax (like anyone should to see why they are actually paying for fuel), and the cost per gallon came in at about 2.93 a gallon. Cheapest place in the nation right now.

 

And this helps, I use the Paypal Mastercard Business. You get back 1.5% into your account for every swipe. This wipes out the Comdata chgs. plus I make a little.

Simple to get too, www.paypal.com create account and request card. get card and link to your bank, then tfer what you need over and run. Just don't debit anything, it has to be a credit that you sign for. ( no % for debit )

Works for me........( forgot, this is not a credit card. It's a prepaid chg card. They have a c.c. you can apply for but I don't know how it works. I use truck money and recharge this)

 

I quit buying Flying J fuel in '01 when I quit ConWayNow and moved to Mercer.

Flying J wouldn't allow me to switch my MasterCard loyalty card deal to Mercer and they wouldn't transfer my points to a new account so I lost 2500 pts (now I could care less about loyalty cards). Found out later that my "deal" on fuel with the J was a scam... CWN got 14 cents for every gallon I bought but only passed on 3 cents to me... all with the blessing of Flying J who administered the program... that's when I quit buying from them.

I stopped buying from Pilot after the J merger and Pilot's big mouth CEO told the press they could now raise their fuel prices 3-4 cents per gallon now that they bought their major competition...F you.

Speaking of "loyalty cards"... what a piss poor deal .... you buy $3.75 fuel and ONE PENNY per gallon discount? That's .375 %! And we get excited about that?

Let's see how many extra cars are in Wal-Marts parking lot when they have that big .375% off sale... even redneck America isn't that stupid...

 

I find it hard to believe that youve "noticed" more problems from any certain chain.PFJ ( or any other major truckstop) isnt a "brand" of fuel. They buy from who gives them the best price/contract price. BP, Marathon, Husky , Valero etc.All suppliers must meet a minumum quality requirement , its tested before its available to be loaded at the rack. Usually the PFJ trucks load the same exact places/stuff as the Loves or TA trucks do. Its all the same stuff. Every truckstop usually has a contract for "X" amount of fuel per month from a certain supplier. They will also play the market for a few loads if there is product available for less than their contract from another supplier. If anything , theres less chance of "bad fuel" at a truck stop due to the high volumes that they do. Fuel is usually turned over on a daily if not hourly basis.Some plazas do 20+ loads per day. 99% of the time , the only way your getting "bad fuel" is theres a tank problem or you have a condensaton problem, more likely condensation.

Ditto what Krooser said. PFJ wont get my $. Haslam is an arrogant tool, who doesnt deserve my $.

 

I talked to a fuel trasport driver at a casino in WI a few weeks ago. We talked about where they usually get their fuel from... Marathon has the largest presence in NE Wisconsin... I used to drive for Cenex Co-op as a casual fuel transport driver and that's where most of their fuel comes from, too.

One thing that driver and I agreed about... if your load is one of the last loads from the bottom of the tank there are often water and sediments that go unfiltered with those last loads. Often the tank farm will consolidate the bottom product and the fuel wholesaler will sell that product to a buyer at a discount. Sometimes it goes to a customer with a fuel oil burner and ity's used for heat or industrial boilers. Sometimes it makes it way into diesel fuel... if you have a truck stop chain that has the opportunity to buy diesel at a big discount i would imagine they would figuring that they can dilute it with good product and make some extra cash...

They also have a product they sell that is a mix of products that come thru the pipeline... when they send a new load of, say, diesel thru the line they use a "pig" that is sent thru the line (pushed by the product)... it's intended to kinda seal the pipeline and prevent products from mixing. It works... to a point. But there is always co-mingled product... it's inevitable.

You may have gasoline, aviation fuel, kerosene, diesel, lube oils, naphtha or any combination. So that mixed product is separated and stored... when they get a full tank they sell it to the highest bidder. Again, some of it makes it into highway fuel. Most goes to be burned in industrial boilers.

Back in the 80's I went to an industrial auction to buy some machine tools. They also sold the 8 year old heating oil that was in the fuel storage tanks of the business. Who bought it? the local Shell oil distributor. When i went back the next day to load my tools, their truck was there sucking out the old fuel from the underground tanks... I wonder whose truck that stuff went in to...

 

Would any of you experienced O/O that has some free time while on down time be kind enough to post Fuel states versus non fuel states at least in your experience to get a better end result for IFTA. I would greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

IL, CT, NY, PA, WA & CA all have IFTA refunds over 35cents/gal. Illinois is 41cents now I think, and coupled with competitive pump prices, gives the cheapest fuel in the country. You can do well buying in Ohio also. Indiana is deceptively cheap bc of their 11cent off-pump quarterly tax, but deals are there too.

Good for the midwest runners. I feel bad for people running the coasts though...

 

When i was running for mercer i bought where ot was the cheapest since i didn't pay for my fuel tax.

Now I have to pay my fuel tax again but, to be honest, the most I have ever had to pay in was $90.00/quarter. Now I run mostly WI, IL and IN with some loads to/from Oh, FL and Ga. I really never keep track but I mostly buy in WI and IN (when I'm out).