This is a story about the Pilot Travel Center along Route 17 South in Mahwah, New Jersey. Most days, the store gets steady traffic from professional drivers, local motorists and commuters.
Last week, however, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the store served a steady two-mile-long line of vehicles that didn’t let up for more than 36 hours. Area residents in need of fuel – not only for vehicles but for gas-powered generators used to heat their homes during massive power outages – waited in line for about two hours at the Mahwah Pilot.
Here’s the scene at the Pilot Travel Center in Mahwah as a Fox Business reporter visited the store on Nov. 2 – amazed that Pilot was up and running and providing fuel despite the fact that 80% of gas stations in New Jersey had no electrical power and weren’t able to operate their fuel pumps as a result:
YouTube video – Pilot Travel Center in Mahwah ready with fuel after Hurricane Sandy
A lot of hard work and planning led to our ability to provide fuel to customers in Mahwah. Here’s Pilot Flying J Chairman Jimmy Haslam sharing more about our preparation efforts leading up to Hurricane Sandy and our fast-moving efforts on the ground after the storm:
YouTube video – Pilot Flying J acts early to have fuel available after Hurricane Sandy
Our team is very proud of the work and coordination by so many team members and partners here at our corporate headquarters in Knoxville, Tenn., across the region and in the storm-affected areas that helped us continue to serve our customers in their time of need. This includes stores across the region including the Mahwah Pilot Travel Center as well as Pilot Travel Centers in Bloomsbury and Hampton, New Jersey.
On the ground, the Pilot Flying J teams at these stores did much more than fill fuel tanks. They worked hand-and-hand with elected officials, law enforcement and others to fill needs in the community:
- Our stores gave priority status to first responders like police, fire and EMT as well as local hospital workers, county road crews and town and township workers, ensuring that these groups were fueled and able to travel in order to provide their critical help and services to those in need.
- Our store teams set up great systems for communication with managers and employees to direct traffic and keep lines moving as quickly as possible, and the staff answered non-stop phone calls from local citizens with questions about fuel availability. The staff also was well prepared to help guests understand the New Jersey Governor’s executive order on Saturday for odd/even gas rationing.
- Our stores never put a limit on the amount of fuel customers could purchase to ensure that those in need of fuel, who had waited hours in line, could get the amount they required.
- The Mahwah travel center reached out to the mayor’s office to offer help, and at the mayor’s request, the store prepared and donated 50 lunches to be distributed to the disabled and elderly in the area over the weekend.
- In the Hampton/Clinton area of the state, the store partnered with Mayor William Bischoff to secure police escorts for Pilot Flying J tanker trucks so the trucks could reach our stores to drop off fuel and keep the supply steady for customers.
There is so much devastation from Hurricane Sandy and a lot of work left to do. But, already, people in these communities are working together to rebuild and take care of each other.
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our hardworking managers and staff at the stores in the hurricane-affected areas and our company partners, tanker truck drivers and others employees across the region. At a critical time when everyone needed to do their part to help, you went above and beyond to make fuel available to those who needed it for emergency vehicles, for generators to heat their homes and more.
Pilot Flying J is proud to be part of the many communities we serve across the U.S. and Canada. We’ll continue to work hard to be there for our customers when you need us, come rain or shine.
