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?
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.
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?
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...
Your ultimate goal is to manage your deliveries such that you spend the lowest amount of time and money keeping your customers tanks with more than enough fuel to satisfy their needs – without risking too many runouts. Managing those expenses requires focusing on both the fixed costs of your assets – i.e., your delivery trucks and associated expenses (insurance, maintenance, etc.), as well as the variable costs – i.e. driver wages and benefits, fuel for the delivery trucks, wear and tear on vehicles, etc.
Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Almost 100% of the objections we see relative to our offerings are based on prior behavior that has become part of a company’s DNA. Routines and mindsets become rooted in consistent behavior and thought – people and…
The largest expenses for heating oil and propane distributors are those related to deliveries. Fixed fleet costs including trucks, insurance, and maintenance, as well as variable costs of wages and fuel during the heating season that always seem to be on the rise. The trick… deliver all your gallons with fewer trucks during all four seasons.…
Your biggest expenses are the fleet that delivers fuel to your customers and the wages for the drivers, dispatchers, and mechanics who make those deliveries and keep the fleet running. In many cases, those expenses can equal 75% of all of your operating expenses. You are (or should be) aware that there are new and modern ways to improve your economics. The costs are minimal relative to the benefits, the implementation is fairly easy, and the results outweigh just about anything you can do with any other delivery and dispatch technology.
