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Host Gary Sutton sits down with Will Muller, Commercial Sales Manager at Shipley Energy, to break down the ins and outs of tank monitoring. From saving businesses valuable time to preventing costly emergencies, tank monitors are transforming how companies manage fuel.
Catch the full episode as Gary and Will take a deeper dive into what you will want to know about your home’s air conditioning and how you can save. Enjoy more episodes of the Energy Exchange podcast.
Gary Sutton: Hi, I’m Gary Sutton, and welcome to another edition of the Energy Exchange. And in this room, there’s a lot of energy today here because Will Muller, commercial sales manager, is here with us. And he brings a lot of energy to the table. Will, great to see you.
Will Muller: Hey. Nice to meet you.
Gary: Great to have you aboard. But you’ve got something very specific for us here today on our Energy Exchange. For someone who is unfamiliar and you’re looking at one who is, what exactly is a tank monitor and why is it beneficial?
Will: Sure. So once again, Gary, thanks for having me on today to talk about this.
Tank monitors are a critical component to the business. And, for anyone who operates a business needing fuel, propane, powering their business, and so forth, checking tank levels at any time of the day is a hassle. Takes time out of the day. So, you know, these are not new to the market. They’ve been around for several decades, and they continue to iterate, and get better as the years go on.
But what a tank monitor is, is essentially is inventory management. So as opposed to having to go out, check your tank levels and see what do I need to delivery, do I need to call my supplier to get fuel? This automatically dispatches out to the dispatch team and says, “hey, these guys need a delivery,” and goes from there, mitigating extra time spent in the field, the guys getting tied up looking at tank levels and so forth.
Gary: Now, what are the types of businesses, Will, that would most benefit from having tank monitoring remotely?
Will: Sure. Really anybody. So if, any customer is using fuel and want to have a little bit more efficiency in their operations, either Shipley or any other supplier, generally speaking, can supply a tank monitor for their business.
And so that could go anywhere from agriculture. Right now we’re heading into grain drying season for farmers. And those guys tend to use a lot of juice in a very short period of time. So with not having fuel in tank means the crop can’t get dried. And that’s not a good thing. So that will help mitigate those instances.
Gary: For operations groups that are, you know, juggling a lot of different responsibilities, do a lot of multitasking, how does it make life easier for them? And, you know, make sure they can do those other responsibilities well, and at the same time, do this.
Will: Sure. As in any business, time is money. And if there’s a way to become more cost effective in how they run their operations and if that’s, you know, through the part of a tank monitor, then that’s a great way to help out. So, as far as the savings and efficiencies are concerned is, you know, your guys don’t have to check their tank levels before the end of the day. Say a big construction site is moving through a lot of fuel. This will tell us exactly when to deliver versus having to stop jobs, wait for fuel to get on site. This is just a continuous improvement of efficiency.
Gary: In your experience, can you name one specific example of a business that really benefited from tank monitoring?
Will: Yeah, absolutely. Most recently, we’ve been tapping into the towing and emergency vehicle market. And here, right here, local to, the York market here, there was a family run towing company that we started, you know, talking to. And they being a 24/7 operation or either fueling on the road, trying to get fuel when they needed it. But the idea of having tanks at their shop, a monitor to tell us when to deliver, so that way they can come back, top off their tanks and hit the road for the next job, it was incredible.
And for them as a growing company, taking one thing off of their already busy plate really made a difference for them. And they’ve been having great success with this so far.
Gary: We’re talking with Will Muller this morning, commercial sales manager here at Shipley Energy. Well, when it comes to tank monitoring, what measurable cost savings could be expected? I mean, does it change the way the businesses will budget for energy costs?
Will: Sure. There’s a budgeting component to it. But I also don’t want to say that it’s like a hard number that if you do a tank monitor it’s going to save you X. The one thing that I’d like to say is there’s an operational and time efficiency savings with tank monitors and also onsite fueling. So as opposed to having businesses have their drivers sent to, say Sheetz or a gas station or something like that.
They’re not only waiting in line, you know, at the pump to fill their stuff up. You know, they’re burning company time to wait. And then there could be an insurance liability there, too. So coupled with onsite fueling and a tank monitor that the business owner now can see what they have in-house, they can monitor that through inventory management systems that compare really well with tank monitors.
And they know what their guys are doing at the beginning or the end of the day, so they can set the schedules like, “hey, if you guys can, do you guys come in and fill your tanks up? So that way tomorrow morning we do mornings for and we get out and go.” And a lot of businesses have been seeing a lot of success with that.
Gary: How can tank monitoring avoid stressful situations and emergency rush kinds-of fees that come up during the course of the year, particularly think about in winter a lot of times.
Will: And being that we’re in the northeast, we get snow. And unfortunately for us, you know, we had some snow last year. But one of the things we always like to tell our customers, and this is both for residential or for commercial customers and even our wholesale division is if you guys have a tank monitor on your tank, you’re going to get priority delivery.
So for folks that are, you know, just calling in for delivery to say there’s inclement weather coming in, you know, they may not get the delivery off the bat, whereas monitors put you in line to say, “hey, you know, they need fuel. It’s critical. And, you know, we don’t want to have you guys run out.” So it’s a really good cost savings there.
Gary: When it comes to tank monitoring, are there a lot of infrastructure changes that you have to make. And if so, how long does it take to install. And, who handles that part?
Will: It’s very easy. You would think something like this would be pretty involved to implement. But for on the fuel side of the business — we’re talking diesel, gasoline — This is what this monitor is for here. And it’s solar powered, so it faces the sun, so there’s no batteries or anything. Everything is internal. And this piece here is called a pressure sensor. So basically reads the pressure in the tank, and that’s what tells us to go for delivery. But for fuel tanks, there’s usually a couple of available ports on top of the tank. You unscrew the one port, you screw this in, put the pressure sensor and it’s ready to roll.
The newer versions that, that this company has come out with are a little bit smaller, but effectively are the same premise of how to operate. And then for propane, it looks a little different. But again, premise is exactly the same and doesn’t take all that much installed.
Gary: It’s still a pretty manageable two as far as being able to put those in there and install and get away.
Will: A lot of times if, customers own their own tanks, we’ll ship it directly to them and all they just need is a big wrench to take off the top and ready to roll.
Gary: So how does this tank monitoring improve the customer and the employee experience in the long run?
Will: Just saving time and hassle. As I mentioned, construction companies, landscapers, you know, guys who are constantly on the move this time of year, worrying about looking at their tank levels, wondering if they need to call their supplier, maybe even waiting on a phone queue to get Ahold of somebody.
This circumvents all of that. And you know, when they’re out there moving and grooving, you know they’re making money. And so long as they have fuel at the end of the day or the beginning of the day, you know, I think their business is going to be well run.
Gary: Well, sometimes you come into some real emergency situations where people are really up against it in a moment. And there’s one situation I heard you talk about a little bit about birds, but it happened last year in a cold time of the year. Tell us a little bit about that specific example and what you were able to do to help that person.
Will: Sure. As a company, we deal with a lot of agriculture. And it’s mission critical that those farmers and businesses have the fuel that they need to operate. So back earlier this year, if you all remember it, we had the major cold snap.
And cold means going through a lot of propane. And this particular individual, had, small birds in his barns. And those barns need to be kept between 95 and 100 degrees at all times when they’re little. He called us in a panic that his supplier couldn’t get to him in time. So we were able to not only get him set up within a day, but also get him the supply he needed to make sure that his birds are kept warm during that cold time.
And we also hooked him up with the tank monitor. So that way, going forward in an emergency situation, that doesn’t happen to him again. And that for him was a huge sigh of relief. And knowing that he can call in knowing “Hey, is everything good?” Dispatch: “have you guys received the delivery?” “We’re taking care of.”
Gary: Will, sometimes you’re in the middle of nowhere and people would ask the question, “well does that still work?” And if so, how’s that go?
Will: Yeah. A couple weeks ago, we actually just set up a job site, again north of here. And it’s, quite frankly, in the middle of nowhere. And, I had to drive over some mudflaps to get to the job site to drop some stuff off. So to the point of will these, pieces of equipment work? Absolutely. They are powered by the sun. So the batteries charged with solar, and it’s done through a cell signal.
So long as there’s enough satellite and cell to get to talk to us, we’re good to go. And I know for, you know, job sites, you never know where they’re going to be. There’s a lot of individuals who have farms kind of out in the middle of nowhere. They will all work depending on where you’re at.
Gary: Have you had reaction buy people have had these so far compared to the normal experience before. Tell me a little bit about that.
Will: A few months ago we started working with a site developer, up a little bit north of here, and they had never heard of anything like this before and realized our tank came outfitted with it. And they’re like, “this is the best thing in the world. Like, I don’t have to look at my tanks. I have fuel all the time. My guys don’t have to worry about it.” And over the years, it’s been fascinating to see. Still, folks, you know, have that a-ha moment of, wow, these are actually really cool and can save me a lot of time.
Gary: You talk about years. Let’s look ahead here, Will. Five years from now, you’re talking to a business owner. What role will the tank monitoring have played by that particular point in time?
Will: Yeah. So one of the benefits is, as with most technologies, there’s always improvements. And as I alluded to before, there is another version of this exact tank monitor. And that’s just a testament to this company figuring out better ways to do this.
And you would think, oh, just a tank monitor, but it’s longer battery life, extended time frames, etc. But talking in the future, I think everybody that we’re doing business, will have a tank monitor like this. I been talking all product lines that we have. And again that helps our operational team out. It helps our sales and delivery teams out.
But it also again, it helps the customers out because they’re not relying on, “Oh I forgot to check my tank today. There’s snow coming. What’s going to happen?” You know, these are the little tools that make a huge impact for businesses.
Gary: Well, you certainly made an impact immediately because I didn’t know anything about that. But I’ll tell you what.
That’s something I would sign up for. And again, another example of Shipley Energy fueling smarter and tank monitoring that pays off here. Well, thanks so much for joining us.
Will: Thank you again. Appreciate it.
Gary: A real pleasure. And thanks to Shipley Energy who’s out there working for you all the time making, fueling and making things like the tank monitor here help to make your life a little bit better.
I’m Gary Sutton, till next time.
