3 Key Reasons to Consider Virtual Metering

Sponsored By: One-Tank

Propane is the greener and cleaner fuel option for consumers when compared to natural gas. Propane appeals to the consumer with environmental concerns and to those who favor independence from their local grid. But what about those consumers driven by price, convenience and safety?

If you want to gain more propane customers in a market with high natural gas access, then you need to have an edge in terms of price, ease of use and customer safety.

Virtual Metering Is the Easiest Way to Do All Three

Virtual metering lowers your propane inventory costs and makes your customer service and experience better and easier. It also provides your customers with the safety benefits of remote monitoring. Here’s how virtual metering provides you all of these advantages:

1. Virtual metering lowers your costs.

When you switch to virtual metering, you will have easy access to your leased tanks in the field to be used as space for inventory. You can quickly expand your storage capacity without adding steel, and for a fraction of the cost for what it would take to build bulk plants for the same number of storage gallons. This lets you fill your customers’ tanks during the off-season when prices are at their lowest and lower your overall expense per gallon.

Field inventory space also increases your profit margin. Your customers pay market rate for propane as they use it. When your customers are at their highest usage every year (in winter), they will pay winter prices for gallons you bought and delivered in spring and summer. This provides you the option of lowering the cost to your customer to compete more with price motivated shoppers who are attracted to natural gas — while still maintaining your higher margins.

Virtual metering also saves money by allowing you to avoid price and supply fluctuations so you can plan and budget more efficiently. You will also see game-changing increases to your gallons per drop.

With virtual metering, you will deliver more gallons per mile driven overall. This reduces deliveries during the peak season when road conditions are worse, which cuts down on overtime costs as well as liability and risk to your drivers. With a proper implementation and rollout of field storage, you can get more out of less and reduce the need to hire and keep more drivers.

Virtual metering reduces your costs in the following ways:

• Pay less for each gallon of propane by taking advantage of low price fluctuations year-round
• Avoid price spikes and supply chain issues
• Mitigate wear and tear on your service vehicles
• Cut down on labor and fuel costs by delivering more with fewer deliveries

2. Full tanks are more convenient for customers.

Customers don’t need to worry about paying for fuel in advance or fear running out of fuel in the middle of winter. With virtual metering, customers get their tanks filled in the off season when it’s convenient and they simply pay for the fuel they use when needed.

This takes the pressure off your customer during each step of the process. For many customers, it will reduce the stress of whether they can afford to buy enough fuel or whether they will run out later.

Virtual metering provides the convenience of easily tracking their usage through a mobile app that lets them see how much fuel they’re using. It makes every step of the customer experience less stressful and more convenient.

When propane is easier to use in your customer’s mind, it makes the alternative decision of switching to natural gas that much harder.

Virtual metering gives your customers the same convenience as natural gas and it gives them more financial peace of mind.

• Virtual metering makes the user experience of propane just as convenient as natural gas
• It gives your customer more energy independence
• Gives customers less reason to switch to natural gas

3. Virtual metering is the safest option.

Virtual metering lets your customers track their fuel usage through your own company branded mobile app. While that increases convenience, the most important thing it provides is peace of mind by giving customers real-time information and notifying them immediately of any leaks or other danger issues in their home.

• Give your customers less stress when filling their tanks and more convenience
• Fewer worries about running out of propane
• More confidence that their propane is safe

 

Gaining more propane customers in a market with high natural gas access requires a competitive edge on price, ease of use and customer safety.

Virtual metering gives you the competitive edge in all the following ways:

• Cut costs directly by filling tanks at cheaper rates
• Cut costs indirectly through fewer deliveries and lower labor costs
• Increase your margins white still giving your customers better rates

Increase Your Profits & Competitive Edge

One-Tank’s monitoring and metering system is affordable, reliable and profitable. Observe the advantage and see how you can turn cut inventory costs and customers into assets with a no-cost field storage profit analysis.