Truck driver shortage impacting gas supply in US

 Newsmax:

The current shortage in gasoline tanker truckers could lead to gasoline outages and/or increased prices this summer, reports the Hill.

With potentially millions of people poised to break the pandemic seal on their home’s front door this summer and head out for a road trip, that trip may end up being fuel challenged.

While there isn’t a shortage of actual gasoline, there is a shortage of the truck drivers needed to deliver the gas to stations.

Early pandemic-related lockdowns as well as business shutdowns caused tanker truck drivers to seek other work because gasoline demand plummeted.

"We've been dealing with a driver shortage for a while, but the pandemic took that issue and metastasized it," Ryan Streblow, executive vice president of National Tank Truck Carriers, told CNN Business.

The industry's trade group, the National Tank Truck Carriers, said somewhere between 20% to 25% of tank trucks in the fleet are parked heading into this summer due to a paucity of qualified drivers.

At this point in 2019, only 10% of trucks were sitting idle for that reason, they said.

Not every truck driver can drive a tanker truck, it requires special safety certification.
...

There is more.

Schools that teach drivers the special requirements for gas tankers were also shut down during the pandemic.  It is not clear whether the anti-fossil fuel Biden administration will deal with this situation to increase deliveries.  It seems to want increased prices and its "fact-checking" media fans like to blame the increase in price on increased consumption. 

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