It was the absolute worst day for Jackson Carpenter to be late.

Carpenter needed to get to his 9:30 a.m. operations management class at the University of Alabama that was about four miles away from his house. When he climbed into his white Ford F-150 and started the engine, he had that all-too-familiar dread of seeing a fuel range of five miles to empty flash on the dashboard.

As he pulled into the West Commuter parking lot off of 4th Street, his truck was out of gas. Carpenter looked across and could see the Shell station off University Boulevard, but worried that he wouldn't be able to make it. As he walked to class he thought, "Man, I would pay to have one of my friends to come fill my truck up right now."

Cue his eureka moment: a gas delivery service. Carpenter partnered with his cousin Owen and began brainstorming a way to get this idea, dubbed Tankr, on wheels.

"[We] started reaching out, and I probably sent out 10,000 emails through Blackboard [Learn], to just students all across campus that I've ever had ever had a class with, and got about 1,100 responses," Carpenter said. "And the main question being, 'If this service was offered, would you consider using it or would you use it?' I think it was 82% of the people that we surveyed said, 'Yes, I would use a service.' So, game on."

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Tankr is a mobile gas delivery service where customers can request a truck to visit their location through a mobile app. A truck will then arrive with either regular or premium fuel and will hope to offer diesel soon. The app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.

The Natchez, Mississippi native and former Crimson Tide walk-on quarterback has ties to the West Alabama community as both his father and grandfather worked at The Tuscaloosa News.

"I'm looking forward for Tuscaloosa being the first place that we can build," Carpenter said. "Tuscaloosa, like I said, it's not necessarily my hometown, but it's like a second home to me."

Carpenter said his idea is now live, with trucks offering to fill vehicles with regular or premium gas, as well as diesel.

"Our trucks are equipped with a 400-gallon skid tank that can hold multiple products," Carpenter said. "We have one truck that runs all diesel, but it can hold on-road and off-road. And then we have a separate truck just for the gas delivery, which is what you see on the app side, because it's gas-only right now."

For customers who are interested in getting gas delivered to them, they can download the Tankr app and request a truck to their location. Tankr is also on Facebook, so check out their page here.

"We're looking to prove the model here in Tuscaloosa and then we hope to expand into Birmingham and Mobile," Carpenter said. "I think that that will give us a really good opportunity to show what our business can do in three relatively different markets."

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