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Afaik they stopped the pipeline itself because they could not figure out who to bill.

• londons_explore 5y ago
  When you are transporting cargo worth $X, and your fee for doing so is $X/100, it really matters if a small percentage of clients take more of the goods than they should... In many cases, the client might not even have their own records of volumes - they just run the pumps till the tanks are full, and then wait for the bill from Colonial. If Colonial can't produce said bill, they have made a massive loss.
  • yebyen 5y ago
    That's outstanding. They avoided the loss! If there was ever a better example of cutting the nose in order to spite the face, I never saw it. If we've automated ourselves out of the capability to operate for a few days with paper and pen, when the alternative is a nationwide crisis where untold million humans were impacted by resource shortfalls... How many pennies did we save by shutting down the pipeline, and did we successfully externalize the costs of the worst of the effects of the hack... if so then job well done! LOL Never change, Colonial Pipeline! Never change a thing.
• daniellarusso 5y ago
  This was my original theory. I was looking at Google satellite photos of their Roanoke, VA site, and you can see there is a regular gas station nearby, but is connected and has a giant loop for tanker trucks to fuel up. In past jobs where I had driven a company vehicle, there was always a special gas card with a PIN, and when you would swipe at the pump, it would ask you to enter the current mileage of the vehicle. If you cannot verify or authorize transactions, there is no point in giving away free product.