Excerpt from summary of Propane Tank Monitoring Pilot Program conducted by Highland Propane, ADMMicro, and Robertshaw Industrial Products.

       Pilot program included Centeron systems installed on 1,000 of Highland Propane's 20,000 customers.....

    ......While the information for the pilot participants is preliminary and subject to further validation, the winter of 2002/2003 resulted in a 40.9%² average increase in gallons delivered per delivery. For Highland customers this increase means that an average delivery increased from 145.5 gallons to 185.9 gallons. The median increase in gallons delivered was 32.0% within a range of over 400% increase to a loss of gallons delivered of 70%.  Looking at customers based on the size of tank, the percentages of increase in gallons delivered were as follows: for larger than 500 gallon tanks the average increase was 23.6%; for 500 gallon tanks the average increase was 39.3%; for 325 gallon tanks the average increase was 36.1%; for 240 gallon tanks the average increase was 44.1%; and for 120 gallon tanks the average increase was 57.0%. Even though the small tanks saw a greater percentage of increase than the other tank sizes, the absolute value of the gallons delivered remained fairly small because of the tank size.

         Highland prides itself in customer satisfaction and superior customer service. Regardless of the productivity improvements provided by the monitoring units if customers are not satisfied, then the pilot would not be a success. The most noteworthy fact on customer satisfaction is that there were no monitored customers who ran out of propane, even though this past winter was one of the coldest winters customers have seen in several years.  Furthermore, of the contacts with the customer service department, over 93% of the calls made to or taken from customers concerning the pilot resulted in positive comments on the pilot and service resulting from participation in the pilot.

  Conclusion

          The results of the Highland Propane Company pilot installation demonstrate that propane tank monitoring can improve delivery efficiencies when implemented in a strategic manner. The pilot proved that tank monitoring is not an all or nothing proposition as long as the monitored customers are carefully selected and the tank data is incorporated into a dynamic forecasting model. The results of the pilot information support further refinement of the selection process and redeployment of units that are not producing cost effective results. Highland will continue to collect data on strategic accounts in an effort to continually maximize the effectiveness of the monitoring data and to insure superior customer service.

  2 The impact of colder weather has been removed from all calculations.