Different Methods of Fuel Transportation: What’s Right for You?

Fuel hauling takes careful planning — oil is highly combustible. Your business also relies on fuel to operate, so timely and consistent delivery is paramount. Fuel transport companies might use a combination of ground, air and maritime methods to get fuel where it needs to be.

Ground transportation is often the ideal solution when you need something more affordable than maritime or air and don’t need the oil to travel across a long distance. It’s also how gasoline is typically transported between refineries and fueling stations.

Your shipment might arrive via tanker or rail:

Smaller fuel shipments fit into vehicles specifically designed for combustible liquids, complete with reinforced construction and specialized attachments. Some have multiple compartments within a single tank for bulk deliveries or transporting multiple fuel types in one haul. You’ve likely seen oil tankers on the road before — they’re large, typically silver in color and rounded like a barrel.

Some types of tankers include:

• Bobtail trucks: These are the go-to choice for last-mile delivery propane transport. They’re usually equipped to unload directly into the home or business’s fuel port.
• Compressed gas cargo tanker: These trucks have special modifications to safely haul compressed propane gas, which requires specific internal pressure ratings to prevent explosion.
• Bladders: Bladders sit inside the bed of a large truck and store small amounts of liquid fuels.

Some fuel trucking rigs may be outfitted with additional features, like anticorrosive properties and increased insulation for temperature management.

Thousands of crude oil barrels move by rail across the United States each year. It’s an especially common oil transportation method for the fuel ethanol. Rail offers a more flexible alternative to pipelines.

Both intermodal and freight trains are ideal for long-haul distances, but there are a few key differences:

• Intermodal: Intermodal rail relies on multiple transportation methods to get your fuel to its destination — one of the most common arrangements is for a train to load or unload its shipment at a water terminal before switching to maritime movement. Intermodal travel takes longer than direct freight because it may include multiple stops and frequent reloading, but it’s an effective way to move high-volume shipments.
• Freight: Freight trains carry all types of cargo, and some can accommodate fuel shipments. They move across the country on specialized networks of tracks, which often makes them faster than standard tanker transport. Foster Fuels offers various freight delivery options for commercial fuels and liquids.

Air transportation is a far less flexible and more expensive option than most other transportation methods, but it plays a critical role in natural disaster recovery and other emergencies. It’s also how some remote locations receive fuel for homes and businesses if they don’t have access to crude oil or ground and maritime transport.

You won’t find fuel shipments on regular passenger aircraft — air transport for fuel is a highly regulated industry with strict guidelines for packaging and volume limits.

Maritime tank vessels are how governments and businesses transport vast volumes of fuel across large distances that span seas or small bodies of water and lack land connectivity. Some common types of tank vessels include:

• Crude oil tankers: These carry standard crude oil and may be classified as either a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) or an Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC), depending on their maximum capacity.
• Product carriers: Product carriers transport dirty and clean fuels, including gasoline.
• Parcel tanker: Parcel tankers handle any transports that include chemicals. These are subject to additional international governing codes.
• Combination carriers: Combination tankers can carry both solid and liquid oils and cargo.
• LNG tankers: LNG tankers are designed to accommodate high-pressure fuels, such as compressed natural gas, and are equipped with safety features like double hulls to minimize the chance of explosions.
• Barges: Barges are smaller vessels that transport fuel across rivers and canals.
• ISO tanks: ISO tanks, called tankainers, are built to comply with codes established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). They can carry solids and liquid and gas fuels, depending on the rig.

In some cases, large carriers dock offshore before unloading the fuel onto smaller barges and similar rigs to take over the last-mile delivery to land. This is a process called “lightering,” and it’s often the only way to access smaller ports.

How your business receives its fuel depends on factors like:

• Cost: Some shipments will be more affordable than others, depending on your location and the volume of fuel you anticipate needing on a regular basis. Most businesses prefer rail or ground transport, as it makes the most sense when balancing a budget with timeliness. The farther your fuel has to travel — and the more its unloaded and reloaded along the way — the more the shipment is likely to cost.
• Volume: Businesses that need large volumes of fuel shipments might use intermodal rail and maritime transport, while those with standard fuel needs are generally suited for a combination of tanker and pipeline movement.
• Distance and infrastructure: Consider the type of fuel you use and how it compares to your geographical surroundings, including the location of any bodies of water and proximity to fuel stations.
• Reliability: Some transport methods — like freight rail — are easier to time and have more predictability than others, which is essential if you need fuel delivered at specific times or in set intervals. Many factors can impact how long a shipment takes, including the location of pumping and compression stations and extreme weather conditions.

All fuel deliveries are subject to certain federal, state and local regulations for safety and compliance, which may impact which methods are available to you.

Does your business need fuel delivery? Turn to commercial fuel delivery services from Foster Fuels. Our full-service delivery crew is equipped to deliver fuel shipments of all capacities — and moving 50 million gallons of product yearly has given us the experience needed to strategically anticipate and mitigate issues to ensure timely arrival.

We offer several options to fit your business’s precise needs, including same-day service, direct-to-locomotive delivery, off- and on-road diesel, gasoline, propane and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). We’ll even work with you to develop an emergency preparation plan so you can avoid costly downtime.

Contact a member of our team today to get started.