Part 2: Wholesale Rack Markets Once fuel leaves the refinery gate, the next step in the price chain is the wholesale rack. Spot prices have direct impact on rack prices. RACK MARKET Smaller volume market, o en located off a pipeline. Follow pot market direction, can in at pm eac day. A rack is a fuel distribution point – usually along a pipeline – where fuel is supplied. We call it a “rack,” because trucks pull up to an actual loading rack to receive fuel from their fuel suppliers. There are approximately 400 racks in the United States – 220 or so are on pipelines and the rest are not. Unlike spot transactions, which, as we noted, are high volume, these are typically “truck and trailer” A typical rack quantity, or approximately 8,000 gallons. © OPIS by IHS Markit Who Pulls Fuel from a Rack? • Jobbers (or distributors, companies who resell fuel, for whom fuel is a revenue center) • Retailers • End users Some of these customers own their own trucks to transport the fuel or they may hire common carriers to do it for them. They either take the fuel to their own bulk storage facility or to their own retail outlets. Fuel Buying 101, Part 2: Wholesale Rack Markets | Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) © 2020, all rights reserved 13