TSD Fuel Discount What Happened?

[Xpress21]

On our Hurricane run we stopped to fuel and when we used our TSD card this time the savings was significantly reduced....


9/25/20 Loves Travel stop Mossey Head, FL

61 gallons
Unit price $2.42 gallon
TOTAL Price $148.83
Savings $9.81


Previous purchase

1/20/20. Loves Travel Stop Mossey Head, FL

34 gallons
Unit Price $2.473
TOTAL Price $84.16
Savings $19.59

What happened?

Thanks,
Steve and Daphne

[fagnaml]

Steve --

Let me the "Refinery Operations Manager" guy give a very educated "guess" as to why the TSD discount is low. The spot (wholesale) price for diesel this past Friday was $1.08/gallon ($45/barrel) on the Gulf Coast. The price for crude oil was $40-41/barrel meaning the "gross margin" for a refinery to manufacture diesel was $4-5/barrel. The cost to make diesel is $4-6/barrel depending on size and sophistication of a refinery (higher cost for smalller, less complex refineries). As such, refineries are have zero or negative margins manufacturing diesel and as such can offer very little in the form of price discounts to wholesale marketers like Loves and Flying J and can only offer minimal discounts to brokers such as TSD.

Diesel "margins" are expected to be very low for refineries for the foreseeable future. What this means is folks with diesel engine powered vehicles will enjoy low prices at the pump (currently $1.80 - $1.85/gallon near my home) with minimal discounted prices from brokers like TSD.

For reference, here is the link to the Energy Information Administration webpage showing spot (wholesale) prices for crude oil, gasoline, diesel, etc. as of this past Friday, 9/25 --> https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/

I hope this info is useful.

[Gary.Jones]

The problem is you patronized Loves.

For reasons that I dont understand, but not long after the introduction of the EFS card through TSD apparently some owners or other users of diesel started complaining about pricing at various places and Loves supposedly got a lot of crap for discounting diesel purchasers for motorcoaches through TSD. You know that TSD negotiates their price with each vendor and even in many cases, with each location.... it is individually negotiated. For whatever reason, Loves reduced their discount to (reportedly) 16 cents a gallon regardless of price and gone were the days of us motorcoach owners getting 50 cents off a gallon at Loves. The Loves discount became crap in the early summer months. Consequently, I no longer buy 100 gallons of diesel at a clip from Loves... good riddance.

In the past three or so months (maybe longer) Loves has been replaced by TA and Petro. Their price discount is still in the 40-60 cent area. What you need to do is look at all the prices along your route . They all show there in the EFS app, and then pick the company that you want to patronize. You can plot your course of travel for that day (lets say Dallas to Shreveport) in the EFS app and it will show you all the current prices at all truck stop oriented stations based on their current negotiated discount. I usually have a choice of all the majors (TA, Petro, Loves, etc) For the past three or 4 months, I have only been patronizing TA truck stops and I get the discount that they have negotiated from TSD which is substantial. You are buying from the wrong place.

Gary

[The Driver]

More specifically, Love's reduced their discount to EFS.

We travelled in late April 2020 and were hitting Love's with discounts of very nearly $1 per gallon. Got an email from TSD a week later about the change for Love's, AND about TA/Petro increasing their discount. TA/Petro is the current low-price leader on EFS.

You gotta search your route ahead on the EFS app to check current prices.

[Harleydeal]

I did two fills recently at TA. Saved about 60 bucks per fill. If the TA’s are along your route.......use them.

[BillJinOR]

What happened is you blindly bought without checking
They ( Loves ) reduced the discount to 16 cents ? 6 ? months ago ! It’s been talked about a lot , guess you must not check in here often. TA / petro has stepped up and has the largest discounts currently. Everyone really needs to check the app’s or TSD web listings ( they have a Facebook page ) to keep on top of where to buy, as things change. I also believe I got a email about it.

[mike625]

TDS has a web site that lists all the current discounts - you should have gotten the site and password when you signed up. I never hit the road without checking it to see if anything has changed.

https://www.tsdlogistics.com/daily-rates/

Fuel is a commodity and you need check the prices and should just be another check when trip planning.

[Butte64]

Originally Posted by fagnaml

Steve --

Let me the "Refinery Operations Manager" guy give a very educated "guess" as to why the TSD discount is low. The spot (wholesale) price for diesel this past Friday was $1.08/gallon ($45/barrel) on the Gulf Coast. The price for crude oil was $40-41/barrel meaning the "gross margin" for a refinery to manufacture diesel was $4-5/barrel. The cost to make diesel is $4-6/barrel depending on size and sophistication of a refinery (higher cost for smalller, less complex refineries). As such, refineries are have zero or negative margins manufacturing diesel and as such can offer very little in the form of price discounts to wholesale marketers like Loves and Flying J and can only offer minimal discounts to brokers such as TSD.

Diesel "margins" are expected to be very low for refineries for the foreseeable future. What this means is folks with diesel engine powered vehicles will enjoy low prices at the pump (currently $1.80 - $1.85/gallon near my home) with minimal discounted prices from brokers like TSD.

For reference, here is the link to the Energy Information Administration webpage showing spot (wholesale) prices for crude oil, gasoline, diesel, etc. as of this past Friday, 9/25 --> https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/

I hope this info is useful.

Thanks for that information but it is really incomplete. The problem is that large chain truck stops have a huge margin. Many truckers don’t care because their companies have a contract for lower prices. But those of us who are not part of a company pay very high prices. Meanwhile if we can fit into a gas station in the same area and often not far away we can pay us much as 25% less. So the cost of diesel production is not the issue here.

[mike625]

Originally Posted by Butte64

Thanks for that information but it is really incomplete. The problem is that large chain truck stops have a huge margin. Many truckers don’t care because their companies have a contract for lower prices. But those of us who are not part of a company pay very high prices. Meanwhile if we can fit into a gas station in the same area and often not far away we can pay us much as 25% less. So the cost of diesel production is not the issue here.

cost of diesel production is not the issue here - kind of disagree with this statement

To the OP what happen to Love's pricing - If Loves fuel hedging "contracts to purchase - same thing airlines do" at X amount - they need to match or close to what others trucking stations are selling. The spread between what they pay and sell it for, is likely why they made the discount smaller so they can still make the money they need to operate. Trucking companies fuel up where they get the best price. So Loves will lose customers in the short term, but likely hopes to weather the downturn in selling volume until they have a better spread before they go bankrupt.

Just like a trucking - will go where I get the best value. I'm still getting the best price using the TSD card at TA than the local stations 99.99% of the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_hedging

[TMyers17]

This was discussed in a prior thread. A lot of the reductions in discounts were due to prior contracts.

Good Sams came up as one of the prior contracted discount programs.

[Spk64]

This has been discussed and on going discussions taking place here.
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/fuel...ue-450563.html