Canadian Propane’s Best-Kept Secret
Canadian propane companies must manage more challenges than most others in the world while still turning a profit. From grizzly bears to frozen tundra, greater distances per customer to longer nights and colder days, the obstacles these companies face are numerous. To learn how they help propane companies tackle these formidable challenges and still turn a profit, we interviewed a Canadian software company that for the last 38 years has helped hundreds of propane companies from coast to coast, even as far north as the polar ice cap, grow profits by:
Today, second generation software engineer and president of Datanova, Felix Rollin, leads his team to make the lives of propane marketers simpler and more profitable. His personal experience is built on his relationship with customers who for the last 25+ years have taught him the ropes of the propane industry including driving trucks during the grueling winter, night dispatch, collections, etc. Felix’s father, the founder of Datanova, has almost four decades of experience helping fuel companies and other businesses navigate the challenges of growing profits and reducing costs/taxes. As a CPA, he has consulted with the owners of hundreds of businesses as their virtual CFO. In doing so, he built a software solution that would implement tactics that only a fuel company insider might understand, and he taught the same to his son, Felix. Since Datanova has customers in every province and territory, they have been able to package best practices into their software that work from coast to coast. So now, 38 years later, their software helps more than 6 billion liters get delivered each year more profitably, with fewer trucks, fewer employees, and fewer run outs.
These days they focus on three things to dramatically impact their customers’ profitability which seem to work for every propane and distillate delivery company:
Your time is valuable. Therefore, you need systems that work for you and not the other way around. The goal is to make every delivery profitable, so Felix and his team have designed advance AI to forecast optimal deliveries. You also need systems that bring you into our current world, which is a primarily paperless one. |
Each piece of paper is costing your company a fortune in handling and processing, notes Felix, based on their studies. Moreover, it is a slow process that makes it harder and harder for your business to scale up. Key areas that produce enormous amounts of paper are sales, compliance, and training. Datanova has targeted these areas and now employs tools to streamline them and eliminate paper, thus eliminating wasted money, time, and effort.
This leads to the next phase in their game plan: integration with the best tools available for propane marketers. “We do not believe in re-inventing the wheel, just using the right wheel for the job,” explains Felix. They have built an integration with the world’s leading app for propane/fuel delivery companies, Tank Spotter, and pride themselves on being the only Canadian software company to have done so. According to Felix, this tool takes over all your manual processes related to sales, inspection, safety checks, and mobile tank installation processes. The “one app to rule them all” for service techs, safety reps, managers, sales reps and of course delivery drivers. Another area they have targeted that steals your precious time is phone calls. You need a tool that allows your customers to conduct business with you outside of your office hours without requiring an expensive answering service, a tool where your customers could order fuel, pay invoices, and consult past invoices. Datanova has just that in a new product they are rolling out, an “Easy Order Fuel app.” This cutting-edge app allows propane marketers to eliminate the expense of a percentage of their customer service reps, clerical work, and sales efforts while improving customer service and reducing run outs. It is also designed to have your company’s own branding, logo, and colors on the app stores so there is no confusion over what app your customers should be using to order fuel. Finally, now more than ever, transactions are paid with plastic, thus putting pressure on your margins. Felix and his team have found that 93.7% of propane and fuel delivery companies are paying double the total credit card rate over what is reasonable. “It’s a real shame that they have been paying thousands or tens of thousands more per month than they should, and we are committed to helping them fix this quickly and easily,” said Felix. He continued, “99% of the companies we have talked to believe they are paying the best rate from ‘their’ guy. At first, they can’t believe it, but when they see their fees cut in half or more, they are ecstatic.” There is an easy way to check this yourself. If you take from your statement the total amount of fees and interest that your merchant service provider charged you and divide this by the total amount of transactions paid with credit cards and it is more than 0.01, you are being taken advantage of. Datanova’s three-prong plan for the propane industry will save each company hundreds of thousands of dollars and help them earn much more as well. They have free Return on Investment Calculators if you, too, are looking for ways to handle the challenges of inflation on your bottom line. Felix and his CPA father have helped hundreds of Canadian propane marketers both meet and exceed their goals. Why not give them a ring if you want new, innovative tools that are sure to reduce costs and improve company growth on your top and bottom line? |
Bill Stomp
Founder
Lieutenant Commander Bill Stomp, a USNA Annapolis graduate and War Vet, led the information warfare efforts on an Admiral’s staff carrier battle group. Bill leads DigitalSoftwareServices.co that builds tech for the propane industry like TankSpotter.com and CustomFuelApp.com. Mr. Stomp has successfully led over 90 propane delivery branch offices to significant profit improvements by leveraging technology.
He successfully started, acquired and sold several businesses and helps companies expedite profit growth by leveraging new technology to improve Safety, Operations, Sales & Marketing. He is a national speaker and technology columnist.
Founder
Lieutenant Commander Bill Stomp, a USNA Annapolis graduate and War Vet, led the information warfare efforts on an Admiral’s staff carrier battle group. Bill leads DigitalSoftwareServices.co that builds tech for the propane industry like TankSpotter.com and CustomFuelApp.com. Mr. Stomp has successfully led over 90 propane delivery branch offices to significant profit improvements by leveraging technology.
He successfully started, acquired and sold several businesses and helps companies expedite profit growth by leveraging new technology to improve Safety, Operations, Sales & Marketing. He is a national speaker and technology columnist.
