Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, May 13, 2021:
Colonial Pipeline restarting operation, 10 states can permit overweight fuel shipments on interstate, federal highways
Colonial Pipeline said it initiated the restart of pipeline operations Wednesday afternoon.
Following the restart, the company said it will likely take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal and some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial said it will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.
Colonial Pipeline had been struggling to get its operations back in order following a cyberattack over the weekend.
Love's reported Wednesday night more than 20 stations were without fuel (either gasoline or diesel), and 63 others were at-risk. Pilot Companies reported 26 of its stations were similarly affected.
The White House and DOT have determined that 10 states with previously issued declarations of “major disaster” issued by President Biden within the past 120 days are allowed to use interstate highways in their state to transport overweight loads of gasoline and other fuels to help overcome any fuel shortages related to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware hack.
According to DOT, each state must continue to follow its own procedures for issuing special permits authorizing the loads, but the added flexibility lawfully permits trucks to run on the Interstate Highway System and other federal highways. This flexibility is in addition to preexisting authority for States to issue special permits allowing the trucks to run on State highways.
