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?
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?
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...
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).
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?
