Fuel Tanker Driver Here

[BBDartCA]

Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
beercan
I don't buy gas at Costco. Two reasons:
1) long lines
2) They won't take our Mastercards.

Signed
30 year beer hauler


Best post on BITOG, ever.

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted by BBDartCA
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
beercan
I don't buy gas at Costco. Two reasons:
1) long lines
2) They won't take our Mastercards.

Signed
30 year beer hauler


Best post on BITOG, ever.


I prefer Amex (have personal and corporate) with combination points … so that cooled me off some.
Also, doing enough research they just are not the cheapest on many things inside the store

 

[Luftmasse]

Originally Posted by GoldDot40
Originally Posted by Deo
Companies like Shell and Exxon are specifically advertising the additive benefits in their premium fuels (anti-friction for example). Is the additive package actually different in premium fuel, or is it simply a higher percentage of the same stuff found in regular-grade? I have a hard time believing there are separate storage tanks at the terminal for these supposedly "premium-only" additives which they advertise, but maybe I'm wrong.

Finally got to talk to one of the terminal operators who is a bit more "talkative" than the others. He is also likely the most technical of all of them. Brought this up this morning. Here's the scoop.

ExxonMobil premium gets the exact same additive as Regular Unleaded...it's just right at 3X the amount of regular.

Food for thought, Chevron's Techron additive mixed at .01% is just as potent as EM's additive at their blend rate.


So Chevron is better?

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by y_p_w

Keropur is BASF's brand name. There are 15 different versions of Keropur 205.

BASF also sells Keropur to the German OEMs as a service additive - while you get rebottled Techron from a Mercedes or BMW dealer parts counter, they sell relabeled Keropur elsewhere in the world.

Chevron is unique in the fact that they have an in-house additives arm, Oronite that's based out of their Mississippi refinery. Everyone else works with BASF, Lubrizol(like Costco) or Afton(who started out making Ethyl).

 

[BBDartCA]

Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by y_p_w

Keropur is BASF's brand name. There are 15 different versions of Keropur 205.

BASF also sells Keropur to the German OEMs as a service additive - while you get rebottled Techron from a Mercedes or BMW dealer parts counter, they sell relabeled Keropur elsewhere in the world.

Chevron is unique in the fact that they have an in-house additives arm, Oronite that's based out of their Mississippi refinery. Everyone else works with BASF, Lubrizol(like Costco) or Afton(who started out making Ethyl).


Oronite is based in Richmond, CA I believe.

 

[wensteph]

Originally Posted by nthach

Chevron is unique in the fact that they have an in-house additives arm, Oronite that's based out of their Mississippi refinery. Everyone else works with BASF, Lubrizol(like Costco) or Afton(who started out making Ethyl).


Infineum is a joint venture owned by XOM and Shell. I assume they would use Infineum additives.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by BBDartCA


Oronite is based in Richmond, CA I believe.

That's where Chevron's main R&D and lubricants facilities are. A friend used to work for Chevron, I think she worked at the Oronite plant in Louisiana as an intern and then transferred to the lab in Richmond.

 

[BBDartCA]

Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by BBDartCA


Oronite is based in Richmond, CA I believe.

That's where Chevron's main R&D and lubricants facilities are. A friend used to work for Chevron, I think she worked at the Oronite plant in Louisiana as an intern and then transferred to the lab in Richmond.


Oronite has several plants. Gonfreville,France is one of the largest facilities I think.

 

[loneryder]

A Costco attendant once told me that the additive system is automatic but if it breaks down, they have to pump it by hand. It is a real pita because it is very thick.

 

[ammolab]

Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by VetteElite
Marathon stations are (I believe 100%) franchise, while Speedway stores are wholly owned by Marathon Petroleum Corp. There was an activist investor push a few years back to spin off Speedway, but MPC decided to keep them.
I probably buy most of my fuel at Speedway but I've tried to stop doing so as much lately. One reason is they [censored] me off the way they jack prices up 30c to 50c in a single day and most other stations follow suit and the second is, at least with the Speedway in our small town, their prices are always 25-40c higher than other Speedways in the next (larger) towns over. The few other stations in our town match their pricing too.

Regarding what fuel they get, as we're finding out from GoldDot40, the name on the tanker doesn't mean a whole lot. Speedway has their own branded tankers or I've seen Marathon-branded tankers filling their tanks. I do want to say that the Speedway tankers are typically pulled by a Marathon tractor though so it's nothing more than a rolling billboard in that sense.

I do have to wonder now, since Speedway isn't a fuel processor, can they sell any brand of fuel from their stations ? Or does their Marathon ownership dictate it is in fact Marathon fuel ?

A lot of corporate politics involved behind the scenes. Certain chains such as Speedway may have a contract through Marathon to only sell Marathon. However, if the store is unbranded, they may still sell Marathon Unbranded product...it's still Marathon...just with a generic additive package vs the premium quality package. All depends on their contract terms.

Circle K for instance are all over the place with brands. We have some Circle K sites that are branded Shell, branded ExxonMobil, branded BP and some branded Marathon. Then we have Circle K sites that are in fact unbranded. Some get Exxon unbranded, some get BP unbranded, some get Trafigura, etc, etc.

 

[dnewton3]

Not sure why we BTT'd a 3 year old thread here ... and not comment ...
Locked.