GH Berlin on Target for $250,000 Annual Savings
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A couple of years ago, Dave Waltz, president of GH Berlin Oil Company began looking into remote tank monitoring to help his company handle customers on the periphery of its territory more efficiently. These customers were the farthest away, hardest to service and least cost-effective per delivery. Waltz knew that he had to find some way to serve these customers better or they would be snatched away by the competition, but at the same time he wanted to make sure that every delivery out to these customers was both practical and profitable.

Distribution Efficiency
GH Berlin looked into and tested three different remote tank monitoring systems and decided that the Centeron Wireless Monitoring System was both the easiest to install and operate and the most reliable. The company initially purchased 25 systems and placed them on the tanks of its most distant customers. Within a couple of months, GH Berlin could see that its test of Centeron was going to be very successful. It had completely eliminated run outs to these customers and was able to reduce the number of bi-monthly deliveries from 26 drops per year to 18 - a savings of over $400 per year per customer.

Inventory Management
Excited by the success of its first Centeron trial, GH Berlin began to explore other ways that the Centeron System could be used. The company decided that using Centeron for inventory control among its bulk facilities could offer a huge cost-savings opportunity, so it installed both high-level alarms and tank monitors on all of the bulk storage tanks at its Hartford and Canterbury plants. Read more >>

Like many petroleum marketers, Davis Oil Company is continuously on the phone with customers, either taking orders or collecting tank level information. And many times, sales reps spend the better part of their day sticking tanks rather than picking up new customers. Often, despite the efforts of these individuals, the dispatcher receives calls from customers 40 miles away from the plant, who need a delivery five minutes ago.

Prior to using the Centeron® Wireless Tank Monitoring System, Davis Oil classified its customers in three ways, will call, weekly fill or keep full. In some situations, this system worked, but several customers had extremely erratic usage patterns and were located too far from the plant to make regular tank level measurement practical. Or they frequently called to schedule an emergency delivery when they were completely out of product. Davis Oil, quickly began to see that these types of customers were costing a great deal more money to service that the typical customer, so they started looking into methods for controlling this cost.

After researching several options, Davis decided on the Centeron System because the wireless monitor required little installation cost and the data center provided accurate, up-to-date tank level information on a daily basis for tanks that were difficult to manage. Davis purchased seven Centeron monitors and placed them on tanks at the three different customer locations that were causing the biggest headaches. Read more >>

Just over a year ago, Volume Transportation added a 15,000 gal. diesel fuel tank to its Lithonia, Georgia, facility. The idea was to buy fuel in bulk at wholesale prices, so the company could save thousands of dollars per year versus purchasing fuel at retail facilities on the road. While this idea worked to some extent, it was not until the addition of a Centeron Wireless Tank Monitoring System that Volume was able to realize their full savings potential.

Prior to purchasing Centeron, Danny Lovern, Volume’s Controller, was charged with the duty of sticking the 15,000 gal. bulk tank each morning. The tank is located at a separate facility about a mile away from his office, so he had to make a special trip each day to fulfill his duty. Some days, after sticking the tank and returning to his office just in time to answer a ringing phone, he would forget about calling in his order and the next day, the tank would run out. This is not the only instance in which Volume ran out of product. At times, Volume would call in an urgent order, but before a delivery could be scheduled, the tank once again ran out.

As you can imagine, this daily game of cat and mouse quickly grew tiresome and Volume’s fuel supplier suggested the addition of a Centeron monitor. After the installation of the Centeron System, Volume set up a log-in for both itself and their fuel supplier. Each user could log on to the Centeron Data Center and see an accurate, up-to-date account of the bulk tank’s inventory eliminating the tank management headaches for every party involved. “Centeron has been a godsend for me,” stated Lovern. “I feel much better about being out of the office or on vacation, because I know I always have someone [Dave Polak of EZ Fuel & Tank Solutions] looking over my shoulder.” Now, Volume’s fuel supply issues have been eliminated and they never worry about running out of product.  Read more >>