Written on: July 8, 2025 by Phillip J. Baratz
As the heating season winds down and Summer takes hold, many of us in the heating oil business look forward to a well-deserved break—relaxing by the pool, enjoying barbecues and maybe even sneaking in a long weekend or two. While the grills are sizzling and the sun is shining, it is the perfect time to focus on those behind-the-scene tweaks that can make all the difference when the cold weather returns. A little strategic effort during the Summer can set you up for a much more profitable and efficient Winter.
Here are three high-impact areas to focus on before the next heating season:
1. Dig deep into service call patterns
It’s easy to look at your average service call numbers and assume things are under control, but averages can hide costly outliers. This Summer, identify customers with an unusually high number of service calls—say, eight or more—and drill down into the specifics. Are these calls due to recurring maintenance issues that point to a need for better technician training—or do they signal aging equipment that presents an opportunity for an upgrade sale?
Don’t accept chronic loss-makers in your service contract portfolio. If you already know a customer’s equipment is problematic, use this downtime to address it proactively—either by improving staff training or by having a targeted conversation about equipment replacement. The goal: no more losing money on known problem accounts.
2. Analyze your most unpredictable deliveries
Delivery efficiency is a major profit lever, but unpredictable tanks can wreak havoc on your schedule and margins. Use your delivery data to calculate not just average delivery size, but also the variance (standard deviation) for each account. Tanks with high variability are “predictably unpredictable”—these may be homes with supplemental heating, tanks that sometimes get filled by another distributor or simply customers with erratic usage.
Once you’ve identified these accounts, consider your options:
The less time you spend chasing unpredictable deliveries, the more efficient—and profitable—your fleet will be.
3. Focus on gallons per truck, per year—your key metric
If you’re not already tracking gallons delivered per truck, per year, now is the time to start. This single metric encapsulates gallons per delivery, deliveries per day, and delivery days per year. For heating oil, a typical truck might be on the road 100 days per year (more for propane). Even modest improvements—reducing idle days, increasing average drop size or optimizing routing—can have a dramatic impact on your bottom line.
Analyze your data:
The right data, analytics and planning during the Summer can set you up for significant gains when the busy season returns.
While Summer is a time to recharge and enjoy some well-earned downtime, it’s also the best season to fine-tune your business for the challenges ahead. By getting ahead of recurring service issues, taming your most unpredictable deliveries, and focusing on the metrics that matter most, you’ll be ready for a more profitable—and less stressful—heating season next Winter. ICM
