If you’re refilling the temporary equipment, why not just refill the permanent equipment? The issue isn’t that there aren’t places to get fuel, it’s that there’s no fuel at the places to go. Tankers can’t deliver fuel when all the highways lanes are one-way leave town. Ports can’t take on fuel when the infrastructure is damaged/flooded. Underground storage tanks need to be inspected probably before using them after flooding.
As for helicopter delivery, it’s not very practical. A Chinook can lift 24k pounds, or about 4000 gallons. Assuming 20gal tanks, one delivery only fills 200 vehicles.
But, you have to look at cost: ignoring the $20-40M initial purchase, Chinook operating costs are somewhere around $2k-4500/hr. Assuming a flight from offshore to middle of FL, would be around a half hour. So that’s at least $.50 to a dollar a gallon in operating costs, with no markup. And no factoring of operating cost of wherever the birds are coming from.
Now, who has all this capability? I doubt any gas companies own Chinooks, much less franchise station owners. The birds they do have aren’t going to be heavy-lifters. Their people probably aren’t very qualified on sling-load operations. Most tankers are oil ships, and the few gas tankers probably don’t have immediate refueling capability - they dock into special ports to offload. Also, how are they refueling the birds? It’s not like a gas station where you just poke a nozzle in the side of your vehicle.
Is the Army/Navy doing this? (Note the Navy’s Seahawk, their version of the Chinook, only lifts about 9k lbs, not 24k. We’re down to less than 100 vehicles per delivery, ) If so, how is the military picking which stations get fuel? How is the military providing fuel/containers? All our stuff is diesel/aviation fuel, including tankers. Who’s paying for it all? The military isn’t a complimentary delivery service for the oil companies.
This type of stuff is fine in a rescue situation, but isn’t near practical as a fuel delivery system for masses of people driving.
Gas stations along interstate highways are at interchanges. Why would tanker trucks ever have to drive on the interstate? Couldn't they just come to the interchange by way of the intersecting cross road?