Most Labor Day celebrations run on fuel.
The grill that starts at noon. The generator keeping the lights on at the campsite. The boats on the lake. The trucks moving food to stores that stayed open. The equipment sitting idle on a job site, ready to start again Tuesday morning.
None of it moves without the people who moved the fuel first.
I have spent the last few years sitting beside the people who do this work.
Dispatchers who start before 6am and do not stop until the last truck is accounted for.
Drivers who show up on holidays because the customer’s tank does not know it is a holiday.
Billing managers who stay late because the invoice has to go out today, regardless of what day it is.
Terminal operators who work through the weekend because the rack does not close for Labor Day.
And when something goes wrong, a terminal goes down, an allocation changes, a truck gets delayed, or a customer suddenly needs another load, someone has to figure it out.
Usually quickly.
This industry does not get talked about much outside of itself.
And the people running it rarely get recognized outside of the operations they hold together.
So today, before the weekend ends and the workweek starts again, I just want to say something simple.
To the fuel marketer who dispatched a driver at 5am so a construction crew could work Tuesday morning.
To the dispatcher who rerouted three loads when a terminal went down on Saturday.
To the driver who spent two hours on a job site fueling equipment in the heat so the project stayed on schedule.
To the billing manager who caught an error Friday afternoon and fixed it before the customer ever saw it.
That work is not glamorous. It does not get headlines. But it is the work that keeps everything else moving.
Before fuel becomes transportation, construction, agriculture, emergency power, or another day’s business, somebody has to get it from the rack to where it is needed.
Happy Labor Day to everyone in fuel distribution.
Thank you for showing up when it matters.
See you Tuesday.
— Dibyesh