Fuel dealers refuse small orders

[gopher]

I was buying fuel from Esso for over 20 years and I normally order 500 gal of gas and 300 gal of diesel each time and last fall they told me they would not deliver small orders anymore. I changed to the UFA dealer and things were good until this Friday when they also said no more delivery of small orders. It looks like another small loss of service to the rural way of life. This may also create a safety problem on roads as farmers will start hauling there own fuel in pick-ups and slip tanks.

[grassfarmer]

Our UFA agent still delivers small orders, and from a business perspective one would think that small orders would likely be paid for faster than large ones in some cases given the price of fuel these days !

[WoolyBear]

Esso and the other big fuel companies have been closing and consolidating bulk plants since the late 1980's. Much of the reasoning was environmental upgrades, and the need to push more litres through each location Many plants now serve an area in excess of 100 mile radius with large tandems, some with pups and even small 5 axle semis. With the ever increasing size (and greed) of both the LARGE farmers and the fuel companies..... many are even getting semiload drops right to their yards. As the through put decreases through a bulk plant, then the consolidation continues again.

Are we going to start seeing more cardlocks put up where us smaller producers can go to get our fuel or what?

[WoolyBear]

UFA is building a farm store here and the agent is also relocating the card lock and bulk station, moving it out of town onto a business park with highway frontage.

[grassfarmer]

Woolybear, That's the same as the fertiliser - I was in town picking up about 4 tons back in April and got in the queue behind our local colonies fertilised semi. They had hauled 100 tons out of there three days running! You can see how the agents start to cater for the bigger guys as it's a lot easier selling 100 ton lots than 4 ton lots. Although they will probably take less of a margin per ton off the big operators.

[grassfarmer]

grassfarmer, colonies are usually so self sufficient that likely they only shop locally for fuel, fertilizer and equipment their business is sought after, particularly in the smaller communities that likely don't have many similar large volume customers.

[madcow]

gopher,The scale of things between east and west I know is quite different but this just blows me away,are you saying that the 300 gal orders are too small for them (esso etc)to bother with?.I have a 1200 litre tank and I would say that is probably the most common size tank on farms in the maritimes.We have 1200 members in our beef producers organization here in N.S.and many of them are small producers,under 40 cows and they don't want a bigger tank.I hope the demand is there to keep things as they are.They soak old hell out of us for the smaller drops as it is.I pay about 8 cents more for farm fuel than the farm that is right scross the yard, delivered from the same truck.They fill the other farm tanks about every two weeks and I use between4/5 tanks a year,but they usually do us both in one trip.I could see soaking me for a special trip,but 8 cents and it's no more than 300 feet farther.Screw the little guy, thats how the world turns today,I'm just getting tired of being the little guy.Our abilities to buy tractors is similar in pricing to the fuel,so my 'new' tractor is 16 years old.

[carebear300]

It is a sign of the times all right, but just because it is the way that business is done we don't have to like it or put up with it without complaining. The grievances we all have sound very similar to what happened years ago when farmers banded together to form coops. I see that co-ops have started to become just another big business where the bottom line is the only criteria for gauging the success or lack of success of a business. I offer up as an example the local credit union that used to pride itself on the principle of lending money to people on not only their ability to repay and net worth but on their integrity. Now the hardest place for a farmer to get a loan around here is the local credit union. The new system sucks but we as farmers should have our butts kicked for putting up with it, myself included.

[dalek]

It's just the opposite here. There are so many small horse and other hobby farms, and so few larger farms, that one fuel dealer here does most of their deliveries with a 1000 gallon truck.