Mastering Summer Deliveries
Have we grown so accustomed to profiting only in the winter that we accept controllable losses during the summer? Our experts review some steps to help you prevent seasonal losses and boost profits.
Stop thinking Macro – Start thinking Micro
In our industry, we often rely on averages: Average annual HDDs, gallons per delivery, time spent on service calls, etc. Sure, it's convenient but we should be asking if using averages makes things easier; “I would rather remember one number for the number of stops made per hour than look at every stop.” Interestingly, all those averages are derived from individual data points... Could focusing on the micro-level make us more efficient without overwhelming us with too many numbers?
Do I Really Need All These Trucks?
When you look out into the yard during the summer, what do you see? Trucks, lots of trucks. Some are out making deliveries, but the rest are there just sitting there, waiting. Trucks are the backbone of your business, and you wouldn’t survive without them BUT do you really need all of your trucks?
The Silent Profit Killer
With consumption falling, governmental intervention increasing, and competition becoming wiser and nimbler, it appears the only true lever for a fuel distributor to keep their margins is by increasing prices. However, higher prices don’t help with the silent killer of profits in a world where others are managing those risks. How high will you be able to take prices to offset inefficiencies that are only getting worse? How long will it be till your customers wonder why the competition is cheaper?
Maximizing Profits – A Data Driven Approach
As operating costs continue to rise, efficiency becomes paramount to maintaining profits. Many fuel marketers are turning to their data to identify metrics and devise plans for improvement. Here are some simple points to consider...
Optimizing Delivery Efficiency
In the world of heating fuel distribution, efficiency is paramount. Today's heating fuel dealers face the day-to-day challenge of ensuring timely, dependable, and cost-effective deliveries to their customers. Optimizing delivery operations not only enhances customer satisfaction but also streamlines business processes and positively affects your bottom line. To help get you started, our team has put together a few strategies you can implement to optimize delivery efficiency (and profits).
Deliveries need to be bigger – but not all of them
Keeping customers warm through the winter is the most important part of your business. So, it’s no surprise that deliveries are the largest component of your expenses. When you dig into ways to cut down on those expenses in many cases it comes down to making larger and (therefore) fewer deliveries. However, simply targeting larger deliveries may or may not be optimal and as such may not decrease but actually increase delivery costs! How do you define an Optimal Delivery?
Who’s Monitoring Your Monitoring?
Tank monitors are meant to take away the uncertainty of asking yourself, “How much will I deliver to this tank today?” Better put, tank monitors put an end to the challenge of relying on questionable K-factor consumption calculations. If you know how much you will deliver to a particular tank, you can achieve the two most important improvements imaginable: increased delivery size and optimal fleet management.
A Modern Approach to Delivery Planning
Most fuel marketers still rely heavily on K-Factors to predict, prioritize and route their deliveries. This method of calculating next delivery based upon a mathematical formula has allowed fuel marketers to operate as efficiently as possible. But are K-factors really the most efficient option?
Data, data, and – oh, yeah – more data
They say history repeats itself and nothing is more true than when it comes to your customers. To maximize profitability, it is imperative that you look at your customer data history, leveraging it to find the ways you can increase your future profits. Weather history, degree-day history, delivery history, price history, equipment installation, and service history -- this data is your most prized possession. Not only is it your customer list and your “official record” of customer behavior – but if utilized correctly, it provides insights into their future behavior...