“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
While the above statement is the unofficial slogan of the U.S. Postal Service, the sentiment could be equally applied to Acme Fuel Company – at least if you’re part of their auto refill propane program. “If you’re on auto refill and you run out of fuel, I don’t care if you live in Lake Cushman and we don’t have a truck out that way,” says owner Christophe Allen. “We’re getting a truck out there because that’s our responsibility.”
Approximately 75% to 80% of Acme’s customers participate in the program, which uses an algorithm to calculate when each household is most likely to need a refill based on factors like tank size, consumption rate, and how cold the weather has been over time. “Everybody’s different,” says Allen. “Everybody’s homes are different, too. You could have ten different people with the same exact house who burn different amounts because of their habits.”
Delivery comes at no extra charge, so if a tank doesn’t need filling, there’s no penalty to customers. “We’re only going to put as much fuel in as your tank is going to take,” Allen explains. “You’re not buying anything you don’t need. And we don’t charge any delivery fees. – just propane and sales tax.”
For customers who prefer to call in when their tanks are low, weather can play tricks. “We often get people who say, ‘Last year you filled me on this day,’” says Allen. “But last winter was extremely mild. This year is a lot colder. Prices are down, so people were using a lot more fuel this year. We had a lot of call-in people run out because they didn’t check their tank in time.” Unfortunately for them, emergency delivery fees run up to $95, a charge that doesn’t apply to auto refills.
Heat is the biggest consumer of propane, followed by hot water. For customers with a very small heating load such as cooking, the system will print out a ticket every 90 or 120 days or even once a year. “Some people want that,” says Allen.
Auto refill saves hassle all year round but the biggest benefit comes in times of crisis, either individual or collective. “It doesn’t happen very often, but if for some reason you did run out and you’re on auto refill, that’s our fault,” he says. “We’re going to come out and get you filled, relight your pilots for you, and keep you warm.”
He takes that promise seriously – and personally. During the 2012 snow and ice storm, an auto refill customer was close to running out of fuel. “There was no way the truck was going to get down their steep driveway. We had to park at the top and trudge through knee high snow to slide propane tanks down the 500 feet long driveway,” he relates.
In a crisis, auto refill customers are the top priority, followed by regular call-in customers. Who is at the bottom of the list? People who have never used the service and call during an emergency. While Acme does make every attempt to take care of these new customers, it doesn’t always work out that way. Acme is one of the rare local companies with a human being answering their after hours emergency line. “The only customers who ever seem to call in the middle of the night are those ones who only call when they need you and they can’t get hold of their regular supplier,” Allen shakes his head.
In one memorable case, the phone rang in the wee hours during a snowstorm. Allen explained that because Acme had never been to the man’s house, they would need to do a safety inspection.
“If we’ve never filled you before we have to do a safety inspection,” he says. “It’s required by our insurance company and it protects the customer and Acme. If we haven’t been out there we can’t just show up and fill your tank.” Inspections are $95 (waived for a new auto refill customer), in addition to the $95 emergency delivery fee, so failing to plan ahead can get expensive.
In this case, it wasn’t worth the risk to the driver and the service technician who would need to do the inspection to attempt it in the dead of night. “He got mad,” says Allen. “He said that he’d called us before and we were two cents higher than some other company. People that shop around all the time might save a few bucks here or there but when push comes to shove they’re going to be left out in the cold.”
For most people, the biggest benefit of auto refill is peace of mind. “It’s less hassle,” says Allen. “You don’t have to worry about it because we’re scheduling it into our regular delivery system. We’re going to take care of you.”
For more information about Acme Fuel Company, visit www.acmefuel.com or call 360-943-1133.
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