If you’ve driven through Denpasar or Badung recently, you’ve seen it. On 7 October, queues started forming at stations on Jalan Sesetan, Jalan Gatot Subroto and Jalan Ahmad Yani in Denpasar, and on the Ngurah Rai Bypass in Kuta. Pertamina Patra Niaga said they were caused by a delay in Pertalite supply, the subsidised petrol most people on the island ride on.
It’s been a hard few weeks for a lot of people in Bali, including families of our own team. Before anything else, we want to acknowledge that.
There’s also something worth sharing, because it shows how quiet decisions pay off.
Our e-bike riders aren’t in those queues.
We Knew This Would Happen
We didn’t know the exact week, but we knew it was coming, because it had already happened several times.
Look at the past year:
• July 2025: A member of Indonesia’s parliament reported that people were struggling to get fuel, saying some places in Bali had run completely empty.
• November 2025: Bali faced a fuel shortage with long queues at stations, after bad weather at sea disrupted tanker deliveries. Queues stretched in Renon and on Denpasar’s Jalan Hayam Wuruk, and across South Kuta in Badung.
• August 2026: Queues built up mainly in Denpasar, Badung and Tabanan, until Pertamina brought in two tankers carrying 34.2 million litres of fuel on 28 August.
• October 2026: Station managers told police a tanker hadn’t yet unloaded at Pesanggaran, and deliveries to South Kuta stations had been cut by roughly 30–40%.
The cause is structural, not bad luck. Bali’s fuel arrives by tanker through two Pertamina terminals: Pesanggaran in southern Denpasar and Manggis in the east of the island. The island uses around 2,200 kilolitres of Pertalite a day.
When a ship runs late, whether because of weather, scheduling or supply arrangements, it shows up at the pump within days. For a delivery business, that’s an uncomfortable fact: our entire operation depended on a supply chain that runs through two ports and a weather forecast.
The Decision We Made in January
So in January 2026, two months after the November shortage, we moved part of our delivery team onto electric bikes. The reasons were practical:
Dependence. We didn’t want every order relying on the next tanker arriving on time.
Fuel costs. Prices keep moving, and fuel is a real cost in a thin-margin business.
Traffic. Bali’s roads aren’t getting lighter, and e-bikes handle short urban trips well.
Nobody announced it. It was a quiet decision we hoped we’d rarely need.
Nine months later, we needed it.
Save your fuel, we deliver your bottles →
What it Means for Customers
When the queues started, our e-bike riders kept doing what they always do. They charged up and headed out, with no waiting at the pump and no waiting on a fuel truck.
That doesn’t make us immune. Part of our fleet still runs on petrol, and like every business on the island, we’re feeling the pressure. But the e-bikes have given us enough breathing room to keep orders moving.
Orders are still going out, with free delivery and no minimum order, same as always. Things may run a little slower at peak times. If anything changes, we’ll tell you directly rather than overpromise.
The lesson: resilience is built before you need it
The Most Useful Thing We’ve Taken From These Weeks is Simple.
Resilience rarely comes from a dramatic response to a crisis. It comes from ordinary decisions made months earlier, when things are calm, based on patterns that are already visible.
For a delivery business in Bali, fuel is one of those dependencies. For other businesses it might be a single supplier, a single platform, or a single person who knows how everything works. None of these feel urgent until suddenly they are.
We don’t have everything figured out. But this has made us look harder at where else we’re exposed, and what we can fix now, before the next disruption.
Stay Relax with home service massage among Bali Chaos →
To Everyone On The Island
To our customers, our drivers and their families: thank you for your patience. We hope the pumps are back to normal soon.
Until then, we’ll handle the drinks part.
Free delivery across Bali, no minimum order.
Less fuel. No queue. Still delivering.
#GoDrinks #Bali #WineDeliveryBali #ElectricMobility #OperationalResilience
Sources:
• Antrean Beli BBM Sempat Mengular di Bali Pertamina Akui Pasokan Terlambat - katadata.co.id
• Kala Warga Berburu BBM Lintas Wilayah Saat Pasokan Langka di Bali - detik.com
• BBM Langka Hingga Oplosan Masih Marak Ini Sederet - listrikindonesia.com
• Pertamina Pasok 34 Juta Liter BBM Bali - achmadnurhidayat.id
• Bali Krisis BBM Antrean Horor di Mana Mana - detik.com
• Queues For Pertalite At Petrol Stations In Southern Bali - bali.live
