5 gallon fuel can

CTOilHeat

Question for other techs out there.

What are you using for oil run outs these days to deliver fuel? The 5 gallon cans I have on my van are a bit old and I'd like to replace them. The style of gerry can I have now is not manufactured any longer.

Thanks for any suggestions or links.

HVACNUT

The new Gerry cans have metric threads and come a plastic spout. Like a bendy straw. What were they thinking?
Where are you located?
Sid Harvey has replacement spouts in 1" steel.

CTOilHeat

In Connecticut. So the new cans are ok, but get a replacement spout? The spouts I have are certainly not metric.

Thanks for the suggestion.

HVACNUT

I had this made before any supplier I could find had an adapter.

The old cans, I could pipe to 1 1/4". These dump a little slower with 1".

CTOilHeat

That's really exactly what I have for my current cans. I'll have to look into the metric thread spout at sid harvey when I order a new set.

Thanks man.


Where did you get your cans from?

STEVEusaPA

CTOilHeat said:

Question for other techs out there.

What are you using for oil run outs these days to deliver fuel?

~~mini rant~~
I go get the truck if it's my fault they ran out (auto delivery), otherwise if it's their fault and it's after 8pm they'll have to wait until tomorrow or call someone else. My days of tipping 5 gal cans are over. Why enable their stupidity? I offer automatic delivery and even track the will calls, to call them when they are getting low and when bad weather is approaching. I offer automatic customers cheaper prices than will calls as well as offer a number of payment options-which I tend to be pretty lenient on when the situation calls. If they ignore all of that, that's their problem. They can go out in the inconvenient cold weather to the gas station, buy 5 gal of diesel and dump it in the tank themselves, and try to start their heater.
The thought of running around with a van full of 5 gal cans is just a poor business practice. And I know of large companies that have to do this all the time.
And WHY do they have to do this all the time? Because they are so greedy they grab more customers than they can possible serve when the weather gets very cold. Then they send their techs out, tipping cans and priming burners until they can get a fuel truck out there.
I pick up plenty of their customers when the weather gets very cold because I only take on an amount of customers to which I can provide excellent service. And I still will work everyday from now thru April, taking off (hopefully) only Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.
~~end of mini rant~~

I only carry a 5 gal for waste oil-when I dump the used heating oil from the filter or from my little bleed tank when priming a burner.

HVACNUT

> @CTOilHeat said:
>
> Where did you get your cans from?
>
>
> Sids.

HVACNUT

@STEVEusaPA , I feel you. If I was on my own, I'd do the same.
I don't know how it is by you, but it's cut throat on L.I. Customer retention.
If a OOO came in Friday night, we'd drop 20 gallons to get them through until Monday. Hauling cans through 3 feet of snow. Half the time the truck was late and the tank would be dry again. Send a tech back to P&S.
When I worked at a full service fuel company, it happened all the time, whether it was the fault of the oil department or client was on delivery hold, we always canned them. The guys I still talk to over there say it's the same. The night guys are fit to be tied, sometimes dropping 80 gallons a night.

CTOilHeat

We are a full service small company but we have over 5000 customers. OOO doesn't happen often but I keep 2- 5 gal cans on my van for the one or two calls I get in the winter. Most of the time it's will call customers but **** happens, and I answer the call when it comes.

Jamie Hall

Not sure which Connecticut oil company @CTOilHeat is -- but keep it up! I switched a year ago, for an odd reason: the company I had had previously had had been doing fine, but switched to a nifty program for figuring when the automatic delivery people (like me) needed oil. Trouble was, it didn't take wind into account -- and the main place I care for can easily run through 75 gallons of oil over a weekend when it is cold and windy, but only perhaps 40 if it isn't windy (can anyone spell "infiltration"?) The result being that I ran out of oil several times after they switched to the new program -- and almost always late Sunday afternoon or evening. I felt sorry for the guys who had to come out! And even sorrier than I might have, as the company had a policy of only dropping five gallons -- which I can get through in two hours. So they had to come out again later...The new company simply shows up every Friday and fills the tank. They're happier, and so am I. If there's a storm forecast, they'll even come out early.

STEVEusaPA

@HVACNUT Yeah it's cutthroat here too. But I evolved my business into more of a boutique or concierge model, so I just stay out of the mainstream model, and focus on customer service.

@Jamie Hall Yeah that's what I'm talking about. All DDAY scheduling programs have a major flaw-they don't accommodate for wind or DDAY and K Factor until after they occurred. Their users always have run outs when cold weather occurs because they don't know to adjust (or they can't override) the DDAY and K factors. They just want to push a button a god get a list of deliveries.
So I wrote my own. It's not 100% automated, because you must add your own experience into the process to truly provide automatic delivery forecasting.
But I've only had one run out in recent memory. An older lady with summer/winter hookup. She called and said no heat, was out of oil, but I was showing a 1/2 tank, so I came out in the service van. Pulling up I noticed 3 extra cars in the driveway, and she was out of oil. Turns out right after her last delivery, her daughter moved back in with her 3 teenage girls. So no way to account for that one before the fact.

The best method is tank monitoring, but it's still a little pricey to put on every customers tank...but it's coming down the pike.

I'll still stick to my initial response: If (especially large) companies only take on the customers they can properly serve, their wouldn't be that many run outs.

Leon82

The cans up here have these safety valves where you have to push on the edge of the filler neck. It slips off sometimes. Kind of a pain.