ProMiles founder says full effect on fuel prices to be determined post-Helene

With any natural disaster, particularly a Category 4 storm like Hurricane Helene, fuel prices can be significantly affected.

Fuel reports released on Tuesday, Oct. 1 did not reveal any major spikes in average diesel prices by state or across the nation just yet.

But Tony Stroncheck, the founder and co-president of ProMiles – a software company that monitors approximately 12,500 fuel locations daily – said it’s too soon to know exactly how fuel prices will be affected by Helene.

“The major truck stop chains are doing pretty well keeping those (fuel) prices as low as they can,” Stroncheck said. “I think they’ve done a good job of keeping these prices reasonable. The problem is they are going to run out of fuel. If they can’t get those tankers safely back to those facilities and refill those tanks when they need it, those prices are going to increase. Part of that increase is not to try and price gouge anybody, but to slow the amount of fuel that people are purchasing. If you don’t, everybody and their brother is going to go to that cheapest fueling location and fuel up.”

Several Pilot Flying J, TravelCenters of America and Love’s Travel Stops remained closed in states affected by Helene. In addition, some locations were open but not offering fuel services.

“A lot of the fuel distributors are also shut down or closed at the moment,” Stroncheck said. “The impact on fuel prices could come if they have to start pulling from other distributors to bring it in. The biggest challenge that happens with most hurricanes is the cleanup.”

As always, supply is a major area of concern with the fuel market. But in this instance, access adds another concern.

📸 – Southeastern Buncombe County; South of N.C. 9

Scenes like this are common across Western NC today as crews are spread out for #HeleneNC cleanup and recovery.

All roads in Western NC should be considered closed to all non-emergency travel. pic.twitter.com/lqgTgfr3Og

— NCDOT (@NCDOT) September 30, 2024

Links to each state’s updated travel information can be found on this Land Line resources page.

“It’s just a mess,” Stroncheck said. “It’s one thing when you have one state that’s been devastated, but when you have this many states, this big of a path and this much destruction, it’s terrible.”

All roads in western North Carolina were still closed to all non-emergency traffic, according to the state’s Department of Transportation. Tennessee officials told motorists to avoid travel in the upper east region of the state, while the latest report from the Georgia DOT said work was ongoing to clear closed roadways.

“We all need our commodities, we all need our medicine and when these things don’t get where they’re going – it’s kind of like, remember back to COVID,” Stroncheck said. “During these hurricanes, it’s even worse. It’s going to take years to rebuild.”

And during that rebuilding process, an increase in fuel prices is more likely than not.

“We’re just starting to see the problems now,” Stroncheck said. “Some of these areas haven’t seen devastation like this, ever. Right now, the fuel locations are trying to keep their prices at a reasonable number, but they’re going to have to increase at some point as the cost per mile of getting fuel to those locations goes up. And with their locations being shut down, they are going to lose a lot of money with this.” LL

Land Line updates fuel prices daily on this resources page.