As local drivers hurt, gas situation expected to improve
May 14—MARIETTA — As Marietta restaurants and delivery drivers report feeling the sting of the region's gas shortage, transportation leaders and a local economist say the worst has likely come and gone.
Multiple restaurants around Marietta Square reported Thursday afternoon their usual delivery or to-go drivers weren't driving because of the scarcity, which began last Friday with a cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline. The cyberattack shut down a pipeline that delivers nearly half of the East Coast's fuel supply.
"We've had ... a few employees call and say, 'Look, there's no gas in my area. I'm sorry, I can't drive," said Christian Cipollina, a manager at Marietta Pizza Company.
Because of the lack of drivers, Cipollina said, the restaurant has had to let quite a few hopeful customers down.
"Yesterday was horrible. The takeout person had to tell at least like 35 people we can't do deliveries — all day, she said," he said.
Cipollina said the restaurant has also seen an uptick in customers calling to order delivery because they don't want to leave their homes and a decrease in customers dining in for the same reason.
In a normal shift, he said, the restaurant will reach around 130 orders by 5 p.m. But on Wednesday, a few days into observable gas shortages in the region, Cipollina said the number of in-house orders barely broke 50.
At House of Lu, co-owner Johnny Tam said he's seen what seems to be fewer Uber drivers coming to the restaurant to pick up orders.
"I've noticed today there's a lot less Uber Eats in the morning," he said. By 1 p.m., Tam said he'd seen two Uber delivery drivers carrying three orders, compared to the usual six or seven drivers carrying 10 to 15 orders.
Tam also said his restaurant has had to up its charge for delivery from $3 to $4 because of the fuel scarcity. Because House of Lu only carries deliveries 5 miles out from the restaurant, it seems its own deliveries have been stable so far, he said. But, he added, the test would come Thursday evening and on the weekend.
Tam said the real impact comes from the catering side of the business, which makes deliveries much farther — to Austell, for example.
"That affects us," he said. "We just have to eat some of the cost."
He also said the effects of the gas shortage, though short, could trickle down to the food. The price of flank meat, for example, had already risen because of supply chain issues during the pandemic. If it rises much more because of concerns over fuel for shipments, "we can't pass that on to our customers."
"We'll just say, 'We're out of beef,'" Tam said. "I hate to say that, but I don't want to have this meat here and have customers say, 'Oh my God, it's too expensive, I'm not going to buy it.' So then what's the point in selling it?"
Just down the street, employees of the Domino's Pizza on South Marietta Parkway said the demand for deliveries hadn't changed much. But delivery driver Joel Lahaie said he has felt a little uneasy about finding gas on his routes.
Lahaie said he's borrowed a more fuel-efficient vehicle and is thankful to have it as gas prices continue to rise.
"I'm just going to keep hope that I will be able to find gas when I need it. I probably have enough for a couple days right now," he said, adding that delivery drivers pay for their own gas but are compensated for the mileage they cover. "When I do need it, hopefully, I can go out and find some — that part I just kinda want to leave to future me."
Lahaie did say, however, that the higher prices are eating into the money he makes in tips on his deliveries.
"Yesterday, I felt like I made a lot in tips, but in the end, I felt like a lot of that was going to go back into my tank," he said.
THE FORECASTColonial restarted the pipeline late Wednesday afternoon, but company officials said service won't be fully restored for several days.
Nevertheless, consumers have likely seen the worst of the price spike and supply shortage, said Roger Tutterow, a professor of economics at Kennesaw State University. In addition to resupplying service stations, suppliers will also have to replenish reserves that have been depleted over the past several days.
Transportation service organization AAA sought to calm motorists in Georgia and other Southeastern states on Thursday, saying they can "expect to see fuel flowing at local pumps in coming days."
"The restart of the pipeline is very positive news for motorists," said AAA spokeswoman Jeanette McGee. "While impact won't be seen immediately and motorists in affected areas can expect to see a few more days of limited fuel supply, relief is coming. Station pumps will be full of fuel in several days. This is an especially good update ahead of the Memorial Day holiday."
AAA also announced amid the fuel concerns this week that it expected millions more American and Georgian motorists to travel for the holiday weekend.
From the time the Colonial Pipeline was taken offline on Friday until Thursday morning, the national gas price average increased 7 cents, according to AAA. That pushed the average to $3.02 this week — the highest average since October 2014. And AAA says the national average is likely to continue to see fluctuation in the coming days. Georgia and other states where prices have spiked are expected to see some relief as the pipeline becomes fully operational.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
As much as motorists may have chafed at spending more than $3 per gallon to fill their cars, high prices were not the greatest threat to the regional economy, Tutterow said.
"The higher gas prices are bad news, but the bigger issue would have been ... the shortages, because that could cause, you know, problems in terms of the moving of freight and the conducting of commerce," he said.
With the current crisis expected to last but a week-and-a-half, Tutterow said he does not expect any businesses to go under as a result of the cyberattack.
"Quite candidly, a couple of days of disruption like this is probably small potatoes compared to what most businesses went through with the pandemic last year," he said.
PRICE GOUGING?Earlier this week, Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order barring gas stations from price-gouging and waived the state's gas tax.
Smyrna spokeswoman Jennifer Bennett said the city has received almost 50 complaints about the price of gas at area gas stations, though some likely concern stations outside city limits. Those complaints, she said, "appear to be based on various levels of perception of what constitutes price gouging."
"The role of our marshals is to report complaints to the State Consumer Protection Division," she said. "We are able to summarize that the comfort level limit of those expressing concern does seem to be at the $4.00 to $4.50 level, but that may or may not represent price gouging as defined by the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Attorney General."
Other Cobb cities polled by the MDJ had not received any complaints as of Thursday afternoon, however.
Marietta City Manager Bill Bruton and Powder Springs City Manager Pam Conner both said they had not received any complaints. And Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood said gas stations in his city couldn't price-gouge even if they wanted to.
"Most of the stations in the city don't have gas so it's like, they can't gouge."
Tutterow said the gas tax Kemp has waived for the duration of the crisis is just under 29 cents per gallon with the burden likely split, like other taxes, between consumer and supplier. Although prices have surged since the cyberattack, Tutterow believes it is likely a reflection of supply issues and a brief spike in demand as some people began hoarding fuel.
GOVERNMENT SERVICES As local delivery drivers struggle, city leaders who spoke to the MDJ said there had been little impact on their governments' services thanks to reserves they were using to weather the shortage. Nor have the cities had to adjust services due to absent or tardy employees.
Bruton said Marietta has long had a four-week reserve for city vehicles.
Joe Bennett, Smyrna city administrator, said much the same.
"We keep an ample reserve of both diesel fuel and gasoline for the automobiles," he said. "So no, it hasn't impacted our services whatsoever, and we have no reason to believe it will."
Acworth has two service stations that provide fuel for city vehicles, each of which set aside fuel so that city services, including policing, could continue. One has already run out of fuel, but Allegood said the city should be fine through the weekend, when conditions are expected to improve.
"I don't think we're concerned right now," he said.
Powder Springs has, in the past, considered asking its supplier to sign a similar agreement that would have it set aside fuel for the city in case of an emergency, Conner said.
Although the idea never moved forward, Powder Springs was well-positioned to weather the current storm. It purchases a month worth of fuel at the end of each month. As such, its current supply will last the city well beyond the expected end of the shortage.
The county's two school districts have also reported few issues thus far.
Like Acworth, Marietta City Schools has received preferential treatment from its fuel suppliers.
Chuck Gardner, the district's chief operating officer, said their suppliers are experiencing shortages of diesel fuel and gasoline but have "prioritized our district."
Gardner also said the district's school buses run on diesel, and that fuel type seems to be less affected than gasoline.
"We currently have a 10-day reserve of diesel fuel, but I cannot speak for other districts," Gardner said. "Our primary supplier has asked us to provide advanced notice for fuel orders. They expect the supply to normalize sometime next week."
For now, he said, the Marietta district doesn't have concerns about the school bus fleet's ability to keep operating. But, he noted, the district will be "closely monitoring the situation over the weekend."
Cobb Schools officials also said the district will also be "closely watching" for any impact on its fleet and that the district had bought extra fuel to "extend our supply as long as possible."
Follow Thomas Hartwell on Twitter at twitter.com/MDJThomas.
