What Georgia and Indiana's tax holidays tell us about what's next for margins

Upside just published May Fuel Trends and the state-level gas tax holiday data is directly relevant to what happens to stations over the next 30–60 days as the Strait reopens.

Short version: Georgia waived 33.3¢/gallon, and only 27.3¢ made it to the pump — over a month later. Indiana waived 59.3¢, saw 28.2¢ in relief. In both states, stations ended the period earning below-national-average margins. Not excess profits — recovery. That's the more useful frame for thinking about how rack price normalization will actually flow through, and when.

Nationally in May: sign prices and rack prices both up 30+ cpg, Midwest and Northeast margin gains mostly catch-up from three consecutive months of compression. We have all of it at the station level.

Dr. Thomas Weinandy authored the analysis and knows this data cold — if you want to get into any of it with him, let me know and I'll set it up.

Thanks for your time.

Best,

Jane Coloccia
​JC Communications
​917-930-0062
​Jane@JCCommunicationsllc.com