heating oil delivery

[sprucebunny]

The fill pipe has been in the same place for 21 years. The upright ( but short ) freezer has been in front of it for 12 or more years. Now, the company I've used for all those years can't deliver oil because the five foot tall guy they hired might not be able to reach it. 

I'm not kidding !!! I've always left a step ladder in front of the freezer to make it easier but now a delivery guy can't climb 2 steps up a ladder ( well...maybe more if you're only 5 feet tall...) because it's a liability.

So I either have to remodel or switch oil companies which is way easier than remodelling !! But it amazes me that things that were easy and/or normal for years are now full of liability. And what if there is some new rule about how high a fill point can be ? 275 gallon tanks are are a particular height; will upright ones be outlawed to accomodate short delivery guys ???

I'm 5'6" and I've poured 5 gallon cans in it more than once without dying.

[SwampDonkey]

All kinds of craziness since the New Millennium. Insurance will cancel you up this way for a 10 year old tank. That rule hit us pretty much 20 years ago.

[Southside]

We have become quite pathetic and the pace is accelerating.

Beginning of the week a guy was telling me who the stupid kid was that blocked one of my gates last week, I almost got red paint on my disc harrow as a result which would have been awful, anyway, he says "He is only 18, bla, bla, bla". At 18 I was handed a map and dropped off in Kuwait with instructions to head north.  

Can't imagine what 10 more years will bring. 

[Hilltop366]

I delivered heating oil and fuelled up fishing boats one winter 30 years ago (one winter was enough for me), I still can feel myself hitting the frozen ground as the ladder rung gave way, I ended up on the ground with my legs still stuck in the third ladder rung.

Question... is your fill pipe inside or your freezer outside?

[sprucebunny]

The freezer is outside in a covered garage space that's open at one end.

The ladder is fiberglass and aluminum. I wouldn't use or provide a wooden ladder ! They are coming to "inspect" it tomorrow.

You would think that if it was a problem, one of the previous delivery men would have said something.

[newoodguy78]

The "softness"(kindest word that came to mind) of the up and coming workforce as a whole is flat out disturbing.
If he's that short did you ask him how he even gets in the truck or does he pole vault through the window? ;D

[moodnacreek]

The other day a truck came with the new drive pully: 7 C x 11" pd that weighs about 50 lbs.  They had it strapped to a pallet, that pully is 11" dia by the way. The driver wanted the forklift, no problem.  I am 72 and my back is killing me but I picked it up against my belly and walked away.  What is this country coming to?  So far and for a long time I haul, at night, all my liquid fuel.  Would you like to here about the propane delivery problems?      God help those who can't do it themselves .

[newoodguy78]

We get trucks in here all the time wanting packages unloaded with the forks. 9 out of 10 times it's faster and easier to pick it off by hand.

[SwampDonkey]

Not the kind of whimps that will hand carry and pile 100 lb jute bags of spuds onto trucks, then pile over onto rail cars I suspect. And do it all day??  :D

I know guys that have hauled fuel for over 30 years. It pays the bills.

I've had a couple transport trucks making home delivery here in the last 3 years. Items on pallets, nothing more than 50 lbs, they at least came with their own pallet lift. These were large dimension items that you're not going to wrap your arms around to lift, in those cases I have to lean in their favour. ;D

[Roxie]

In their minds, the word "customer" has changed from someone you want to have and you need into someone who's dependent and needs you. 

It's big of them to come to inspect a system you've used for 20 years. 

[Tacotodd]

It's big of them to come to inspect a system you've used for 20 years.

And very ridiculous as well !

[peakbagger]

I hate to inject reality into the discussion but frequently these rules are tied to insurance and workmans comp. Osha is pretty clear When climbing a ladder 3 point contact is required (usually inferred to be two feet and one hand) but in the act of climbing, for some period of time a foot is in travel and thus two hands are needed. Thus carrying anything in one's hands while going up a ladder is citable by OSHA. So if a ladder is needed to haul the hose over the freezer then an employer subject to OSHA could decide that climbing ladders with an oil hose is not acceptable. The ladder supplied may be premium quality but even the best ladder can be dangerous in icy conditions. Its lot easier to tell the employees to not use a ladder at all then to leave it to their judgement. Workmans comp may also weigh in. The problem is that the employee is probably tempted to climb the ladder and yank on the hose and that exposes an employee to a fall. In the past many heating oil companies were small family companies with a few employees and they took their chances and hoped that an accident didnt shut them down but those family companies are rapidly going corporate. Large corporations and hedge funds are starting to buy home heating oil firms and with that comes loss prevention that gets paranoid about losses. 

Sure a private individual can do all sorts of stupid things and get away with it and employees in the past were expected to take risks with their bodies routinely in the past and some employers may still ultimately try to get away with it but the odds stack up that at some point it starts costing the employer more for insurance for ignoring the rules. I review contractor bids on occasion and one key thing is EMR rates which every contractor subject to OSHA record keeping rules has hanging around their neck after three years. EMR is Experience Modifier Rate and is multiplier for workmans comp rates which are tied to hours worked and risk category. A contractor with more than average accidents per manhour worked will have an EMR over 1, a safe contractor will be less than 1. When a job is labor intensive, the contractor with the high EMR just cant make a buck as they are paying far more for workman's comp while a firm with a low EMR can bid lower.
 

[Resonator]

I've heard horror stories of customers switching from oil to gas, and the heating oil company not getting the message. Truck driver ran the hose into a pipe outside running down into the basement, and pumped in a few hundred gallons where the tank USED TO BE.

[sprucebunny]

I understand your point, Peakbagger and this company was taken over by something bigger several years ago.

I was thinking today that a 5 foot tall person was likely to be out on workman's comp pretty quick because Many fill points are going to be over his head and tough on the shoulders. There are no NFPA rules about how high the fill point has to be. When you put an upright tank on legs and finish the 2" piping it's likely to be 62" high like mine.

The freezer makes it real easy to fill with 5 gallon cans so  tomorrow I'll put a couple in and shop for more firewood. 

The manager couldn't come look at it today because it's raining :

[SwampDonkey]

I've heard horror stories of customers switching from oil to gas, and the heating oil company not getting the message. Truck driver ran the hose into a pipe outside running down into the basement, and pumped in a few hundred gallons where the tank USED TO BE.

It shouldn't really happen these day, the system detects such things when pumping stove oil. I've had them shut down too early when pumping and only fill half a tank. Spider webs in the intake or not a good seal with the pipe.
What used to happen was the pipes were sometimes PVC plumbers pipes, with plumbers glue, if your lucky, and none in some cases. The pipe would disconnect inside at an elbow and you continue pouring and send diesel onto the floor. Without you knowing until 200 or 250 gallons flowed in, then you had a suspicion something flew apart. Too late. Been improvements to the system since then.

[dougtrr2]

Is building a small set of steps an option?

Doug in SW IA

[sprucebunny]

OSHA mandated run and rise, top landing and safety rails would make a set of stairs WAY too big. It would severely limit the use of the space.

I've looked at it hard and decided that I can reorganize the "stuff" and move the freezer over 2 feet. Then I could build a platform ( so I can still reach to pour in 5 gallon cans) and build some steps that would slide under the platform when not needed. 

I won't be calling the same company for oil. They have ticked me off by not bothering to call and say there was a problem and not coming to look at what They now deem to be a problem. I've never been on any auto deliver thing so I call when I need it. The guy asked if I was low....well...yeah, that's why I called  :

[thecfarm]

Don't know what others are either.
I work at a hardware store, carry 50# is normal. Than people park 50 feet away and expect me to carry it. As they say, It's only 50 feet. Than I say, I do this all day long, you drive over here, unless you want to carry it? 
Than they drive over.  :

[Roxie]

Well Sprucebunny if it's any comfort I'm ticked off for you too. 

[SwampDonkey]

Don't know what others are either.
I work at a hardware store, carry 50# is normal. Than people park 50 feet away and expect me to carry it. As they say, It's only 50 feet. Than I say, I do this all day long, you drive over here, unless you want to carry it?
Than they drive over.  :

I here ya. :D Reminds me of what went on here with potatoes. Depending on time of year and how full the potato shed was, which the pile of spuds could be 130 feet from the entry door. Some old fart would roll in and want a 50 lb bag of taters for instance. Well dad would hand select them potatoes, carry them 130 feet and ask $5.00. Meanwhile they "might" have the trunk open, mostly not, and want to talk a good 10 minutes while dad is holding the bag for them to open a trunk or door. :D We used to ask dad once in awhile if they expected him to go unload it and cook them to? :D :D 
Gotta see it from both sides. ;) ;D

[Bruno of NH]

The young can't think anymore. 
FedEx dropped a box of new bands Friday night while raining. Under the eaves of the shed , right in front of the opening . You can't make this stuff up.

[Paul_H]

A man I worked with had lost his right leg at the hip in a logging accident the next valley over from where we were working while spooling the lines on a grapple yarder. He got pulled in and went around the drum and there is really no room for a person. He was around 50 years old then and recovery was slow.
Around 10 years later he came and ran our hydraulic log loader. He got out of the truck every morning with his lunch and his crutches, set everything on the track and swung himself up onto the track then crawled to the ladder and up onto the deck then up a couple of stairs into the cab and loaded trucks and swung logs all day. He could have stayed at home and collected comp the rest of his life but enjoyed logging.

On the other end of the spectrum a guy I went to school with never really liked working at at all and ended up working for his BIL who owned a bulk plant driving fuel deliveries. I was in my early 20's then and had a mobile equipment steam cleaning business during winter when the logging was shut down for snow. I got a call one day to meet the owner of a tug boat down at the harbour. It seemed our friend had gone down to fill the tug with diesel and a day or two later when the tug was under way down the sound with a boom of logs they were in the habit of boiling up some water for tea. Well when they turned on the water tap ,diesel came out. They wondered if I could flush it and the answer was sorry, no.
He managed to keep his delivery job but lost it a short while later when he forgot to reel in the fuel hose and drove down the highway and through town with the hose and nozzle skipping along behind.

 Uffda! :D

[thecfarm]

Or another high light.
I have a 50# bag of grain on my shoulder and they open the truck and say, Oh wait, I have to move the groceries.
I wait by the door and make sure they are all ready. But some customers will say, all set, and than they look in the truck and start moving groceries. 

[sprucebunny]

I got the freezer moved. Had to use a 4 foot extension cord.... doesn't everyone carry one of those ??? Darn useful in my life  :D

Now the mini driver can use his own darn ladder if they get here before I get a promise from a new company.

Found a fill cap behind the freezer !

Decided I would just build a shelf and keep a 12 volt battery out there so I could use a fuel pump to transfer the oil. I have a bunch of electric pumps from my snowcat rescue days and still have to use one to fill my unregistered plow truck cause the fill line is Not slanted and you can't pour it in cause it's under the flatbed too far .

[sprucebunny]

I called the company that delivers propane to this house and my old house ( now sold but had them 40 years...) They said they needed to see the oil tank. That's fine. Someone would call to make an appointment for this afternoon. They didn't. I called at 1. Next story is he would be here between 12 and 4. That didn't happen either. Since I was home all day dusting the tank and cleaning up my garage, I know the first company hasn't been here either.

I had called 2 other oil companies. One doesn't deliver out this way and the other isn't taking new customers. Have 2 more companies to call tomorrow : Then I'll just buy a couple more cords of wood and hope that lots of it is ash. I do have a large ash tree to take down but it has a lot of rot.

Was outside looking around and a tree had fallen on the electric line. Only about 4" diameter where it lay on the line. Broken 10 feet up. Got that down without much excitement.

[moodnacreek]

Spruce bunny, What ever happened to your state motto?

[sprucebunny]

Live free or die ? It's still around but no longer applicable to many situations.

To add to the whole mess... On Sunday I drove 20 miles to a gas station that has off road diesel. It costs 20 cents a gallon more than heating oil for some reason. It was just going to be a test run cause I only had 2 five gallon cans.

The pump was incredibly slow and then the power went out ! It came back on quickly but I would have had to put my card in again and that seldom goes well so I just went home and put the measly 4 gallons in my excavator. The guy in the store said the pump was slow cause it hasn't been used much ??? I thought that was pretty strange !

I need to get more 5 gallon cans and find a closer and cheaper provider !

[snowstorm]

The outfit I get diesel fuel and heating oil from is ok. I pay a set amount over the rack price. He has it easy it's 15 miles from the tank farm to here. I had a long talk with another dealer last summer. Most get .60 to .70 a gal. To deliver it. And should there be a price drop they may not pass it on.he said some try to get .90 to 1$if they have more customers then they want. As I was told it's a easy business to get into. Buy a truck and within two weeks you will have all the business you can handle

[snowstorm]

Diesel and heating are the same thing here bolts ultra low sulfur . Off rd diesel they add sales tax here and for heating oil in the garage in the house no tax.diesel will go up another .20 or so in dec. when they start winter blend.in the northeast there is a 99.9% chance it's Irving fuel no matter what it says on the pump

[stavebuyer]

Live free or die ? It's still around but no longer applicable to many situations.

To add to the whole mess... On Sunday I drove 20 miles to a gas station that has off road diesel. It costs 20 cents a gallon more than heating oil for some reason. It was just going to be a test run cause I only had 2 five gallon cans.

The pump was incredibly slow and then the power went out ! It came back on quickly but I would have had to put my card in again and that seldom goes well so I just went home and put the measly 4 gallons in my excavator. The guy in the store said the pump was slow cause it hasn't been used much ??? I thought that was pretty strange !

I need to get more 5 gallon cans and find a closer and cheaper provider !

Not sure what you drive; but I would be inclined to get a 50 Gal transfer tank and get fuel whenever I was in town on other errands.

[sprucebunny]

I like the tank idea. Have one in a pickup already but it's going to be hard to move and I won't drive that truck in winter. So I looked at them online. Not cheap. Suppose I could use the pump I have but would need another 20 feet of hose. 

Then the problem of paying an extra $20 per hundred gallons to have it NOT delivered and that's New Hampshire price. And only source is 8-10 miles from my errands .

So I'll just keep feeding the woodstove, get my whole house blower going and hope someone delivers !

[moodnacreek]

I have a 100 gal. in my '92 ford ranger. For fuel oil I think that is legal. the little truck has car plates not commercial . Gotta play games to get anything done.

[newoodguy78]

Unfortunately that's the only way the little guy has a chance. 

[Bill]

Somewhat similar thing happened last winter. To be fair the driveway is long and reasonably steep.

But the Oil company ( same one for last 15 years ) said they wouldn't deliver up the driveway ( in Jan ) till I plowed it . I had just plowed . . .  

I asked why they don't put their chains on . . .  
Answer - now their policy is to only use them for emergencies .

There's an off road diesel station a few minutes away and I found an outfit that sold 55 gallon plastic drums that were fuel rated. A couple fittings, a valve and they now can " gravity " feed the fill pipe, from either the atv or the tractors bucket .


Although making extra chores at least I don't worry about getting a fuel oil delivery  and figure I 'm saving a little off the " delivered " price for those times I m not there to burn wood.

btw - the 55 gallon drums strapped in my pickup bed didn't raise any eyebrows among others getting " heating oil " from the " gas " station.

[SwampDonkey]

You should consider an electric furnace and wood stove combination. An electric furnace is just as warm and far cheaper than stove oil purchases. Right now wood is my main heat. But Mid Sept to Mid Nov I use the electric a lot because I don't need much heat, on a sunny day here, the heat is from solar, in through the windows. Maybe a morning smudge and then the sun takes over. The bright sun can drive the heat to nearly 90F in here, an open window is a common thing from solar heating. ;) Now when I get old and crippled up more, I'll be using more Electric and wood for times of power loss, a couple of cords in the basement would likely do me out until they plant me in the ground. Power outages are common, but not a long time unless a hurricane and how many have I seen that powerful way up here in 54 years? One. And only one severe ice event, and that lasted 48hrs.

You're dealing with too much crap! ;)

[sprucebunny]

Electric is not cheaper here. It's something like 25 cents a KWH. It adds up to costing almost twice as much as oil. Also don't have a generator big enough to run electric heat in a power outage but I can run the boiler on a generator. The woodstove isn't really up to heating the whole house when it's less than 20F for days at a time.

I have radiant heat. I considered an indoor wood boiler but it was expensive and I haven't a good place for the chimney. Snow coming off the upper roof would wipe it out.

At this point, I can't afford to change much. Just paid the bill for having a boiler put in my other house. It had hot air heat that was done badly then the furnace died. I spent most of the summer getting the pex up under the floor and in the ceiling and walls for the downstairs. Half a mile of pex.

[Peter Drouin]

At this point, I can't afford to change much.

Sell one house and fix the one you like just the way you want it.

[sprucebunny]

Comparison of heating costs in NH

Fuel Prices | Energy Division | NH Office of Strategic Initiatives




Still fixing the other house. Can't sell the way it is.

[moodnacreek]

The young can't think anymore.
FedEx dropped a box of new bands Friday night while raining. Under the eaves of the shed , right in front of the opening . You can't make this stuff up.

Well at least they delivered. We have triangle between 3 roads the does not gps and we never see the same driver twice. You can hang signs at the driveway but that's not what they look at today. Cell phones and gps have taken all the common sense away. Land marks mean nothing. Tell them when they see lumber piles and logs they are here, means nothing.

[SwampDonkey]

Heating oil here would be triple the cost of electric, 11 cents a kwh. Going by real world costs in the middle of a cold NB January, $350 for electric furnace heat, $1200 for a tank oil, and you'll burn a full tank of oil up here. A heat pump is useless below 20F, your just blowing around cold air. I've used that system and they "must" install an electric furnace with it our you'll freeze your hind end off. You have to push air from one end of the system to the other and it is cold on the other end. A furnace is central and pushes heat half the distance.  Heat pump and an electric furnace is $10 grand up here, plus duct. A wood furnace and a side electric is $3500, plus duct. If you have duct already, you can use it. You wouldn't use a generator for the electric side, use generator to use the wood side, to turn the fan. A little stash of wood for the outtages would last years. ;)

The little bit of electric I use this time of year before severe cold kicks in is at most $30 a month.

[SwampDonkey]

January 2021 electric bill, I use electric between 12:00 am and 6:00 am, basically in the night, it's set to 68F. Mostly wood heat and solar all day. The biggest part of the bill there is probably $80-90 for hot water, and about $25 for service, then 15% tax on everything. So not much $$ for heating living space for 6 hrs a day in the coldest month. If I burn wood at night, that drops the bill $20-25 bucks.

[sprucebunny]

The tank passed inspection this morning by the company that stood me up yesterday. Couldn't find the house. The numbers are a foot tall each : but no mailbox. But they won't deliver cause the fill is in a covered area not outside....

The guy told me to move the fill which would have to pass over the electric service entrance and end up 82" high.... he told me to leave a milk crate there !!!! Those are even worse than ladders   Then he was worried about hearing the whistle now that the vent is 16 feet from the tank.

This whole thing is insane. I've gone from being condemned for leaving a ladder as a convienence ( which worked for 15 years ) to being told to move the fill to a location that demands a ladder or other something to reach it.

I feel like I'm in some kind of vortex.....

Good news is I found a small company that says they will deliver next Monday.

[SwampDonkey]

Well, one is always waiting for someone to show up. Hopefully it works out this time. 

[Roxie]

The absurdity of this blows my mind. 

[Southside]

What do you want to bet the original company tries to send you a surcharge one day for no longer receiving oil from them. 

[sprucebunny]

Southside, I think they are too disorganized to find the form. They used to deliver this area Thursdays. One woman told me it was Wednesday for the last two years. Another told me Mondays. They showed up today Tuesday !

I never had any kind of contract. I called when I wanted oil.

I just have no idea how to proceed. If the delivery next Monday happens, that will get me thru most of the winter and is 10 cents a gallon cheaper than the others but they want you to be there and write the check and I've got better things to do most days. ( Next Monday being an exception ! )

Yup, totally crazy.

[Old Greenhorn]

Reading your travails is somewhat mind boggling, but quite believable.
 I had a similar issue which resolved MUCH easier than yours. We've been here 35 years and I started with the major company in the area, but then I started seeing their rates for service, etc climb. I quickly changed to a small family owned company and was happy for a number of years. I purchased a service contract every year because although I could fix almost any issues, (I am the only guy in my family that has not worked in the oil burner business, my Dad had about 40 years in, bother, cousins, uncles, etc). I was tied to my job and had small kids in the house and wanted somebody on call so I could be at work and know the family was taken care of. 
 Eventually the small family company got bought and the service guys got worse, then that company was bought up and it got worse. On a very rare occasion we would get a true journeyman showing up, but he had so many calls backed up and was so overloaded that the workmanship suffered and many times I would have to clean up their work. Eventually there was a large corp that bought up pretty much all the locals and it was a mess blending in all those companies and service systems and they let go of most of the experienced folks and hired cheaper people.
 So one day I come home from work and the wife tells me we had an oil delivery, but the driver refused to put oil in an "unsafe tank" and left without delivering oil. He said the tank was leaning against the house and presented "a major hazard to the structure and inhabitants". I was [ahem] MIFFED. But I went out and looked at the tank to see if anything had changed. Yup, it was at a 3° angle toward the house. The same way it had been for 25 years. No change at all, but yeah, it could be straighter, and no, it presented no "hazard" at all. Still, the following weekend, I pulled the tank upright and set two more patio blocks underneath to level it better. It really made no difference, but some driver doing a route new to him decided that my tank, which others from his company had been delivering to for years was now unsafe. The entire time I worked on it I cursed this "pithant driver who deemed himself a safety engineer" and condemned my tank with his weeks or months of oil delivery experience.
 That was good enough for me to start looking around. 2 months late my boiler split open and flooded downstairs. Between handling all the water I was making calls and found the cost was going to bring us to our knees. I called them all and the price ranges were all over the map. I finally called one remaining local family business who knew me as a firefighter (they service all the firehouses in our district) and did me a solid and got a boiler in and installed in a week for less than half what these corporate owned companies were quoting and even offered me terms, which I declined and paid in full. I switched my service and oil delivery over to them and have had none of those BS issues ever since. The only issue I had was trying to get a service contract the first 2 years. The said I didn't need one, it was all covered under the warranty on the boiler and their workmanship. I did have one component fail (system controller) on the unit the first heating season and the journeyman that came to fix it said "yeah, the manufacturer puts these on the units when they build them and they often fail early, we put a better one on so we don't have to keep replacing them, you'll be good now." They haven't had to come back since.

 I wish you a happy end to this gauntlet you are running right now.

[Southside]

Tom, the guy who would not fill your tank has a brother who works for the local utility company as a danger tree inspector.  He wandered by our farm one day and clearly was tired from carring a full can of spray paint so he emptied the can onto a 48" poplar tree that was along the right of way.  Now this tree had been there for many a season but suddenly was an immentnt danger to their infastructure.  The utility sent over thier cheapest, most qualified, warm body occupied tree service contractor who told me they were going to do the old "man pulling a rope" to drop the tree. Ahh - ok, I stayed back about 1,000 ft and even then when I saw the four wires (rural three phase 14,4K distribution and the neutral) all spring, sproing, and snap it still made me think I was too close.  The fleet of trucks that responded to build the line back better, and the crane used to remove the tree was there for two more days IIRC.

There are some men you just can't reach.    

[Old Greenhorn]

OH that is rich indeed! I do hope you pulled up a lawn chair to watch the goings on from your safety zone. Priceless pinheads. They are a very special kind, bless their hearts.

[Southside]

Oh it got better, much better.  The responding vehicles all decided to take a different route across the freslhy germinated alfalfa field rather than parking on the County road and walking in the 100'.  Then each one had to place four cones 20' away from each vehilce as a safety thing, so I had a 4 acre parking lot out there.  Needless to say after a couple of phone calls my field was re-planted care of the tree service company.  

BUT it gets better.

Several years later I am driving down our laneway and I notice something is amiss with an irrigation line.  I stop to inspect it and can see that it has been destroyed, absolutely destroyed, about 120' worth of 6" aluminum piping is flat, cut, smashed, etc.  So I look around and can clearly see were a tracked vehilce had driven within one foot of the "No vehicles past this point" sign, continued past it, ran over then cut my pipe, did a 180, and tried to flee down the County Road.  Can't claim it took much skill to follow the evidence left by the tracked skid steer I found down the road another 1/2 mile or so.  Day or so later a guy in a white, company pickup, and the utility show up at the farm and want to talk to me - yup it's the "man and a rope" moron, one and the same - turns out he has been promoted to some sort of area supervisor and I recognized him.  Even pointed it out and reminded him that he was the one who dumped the tree onto the line.  I had zero patience with him by now as he tried to claim that maybe it wasn't his guy who had run over the pipe.  They ended up buying me some awful nice replacement pipe after that.  

To paraphrase George Thorogood, These days they are so nice to me, they are lovey dovey, when they show up here.  

[Percy]

There are some men you just can't reach.    

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Obviously that special fella benefitted from the Peter Principal. I'm surprised he lived that long. I suppose it's not the worst way to get equipment replaced. Makes you wonder what goes on in those tiny brains they have. "Yeah, this will work......OOOPS". :-[

[moodnacreek]

The power line people do more damage than if nothing had been done. On my state road frontage w/ high lines, I finely cleared all the trees just to get rid of them. You can never, ever tell them where not to drive a truck [on you land]. They specialize in property damage and they love their job.

[Resonator]

yup it's the "man and a rope" moron, one and the same - turns out he has been promoted to some sort of area supervisor

I've seen that in big companies where the guy that screws up gets promoted to management. As he obviously knows safety, and what to do and not to do, or they just want to avoid firing people. :D

[moodnacreek]

Propane is the absolute worst because around here the owner operated supplier is long gone for many years.  Once i had a leak on their rusty 'asprin bottle 'tank. Reported it and you guessed it, notice on door: no leak found. Then at thanksgiving it blows out and we lose all the gas [and they keep it full]. After they put in a new tank we get a new driver who can't back up, he goes in the ditch and rips the culvert out from under the drive he is not supposed to be on. Next 4" rain and washed out drive way. I discontinue service and fix tank so they can't put gas in because people who pay their bill can't discontinue. They charge me rent on their tank as I try to use up the gas. Then I give up as they say they will credit me the remaining gas. So with half the drive fixed [at my cost] I load their tank on their truck. Next I get a $110 bill for picking up the tank.  I should have taken them to court but I have work to do.

[sawguy21]

Did you duly note and file that bill? The bulk dealer had been filling our older top load trailers for a number of years with no problem then notified us they would have to be bottom load only, mumbled something about new regulations we couldn't find any rcord of but the petroleum supplier had taken over distribution. Bottom line was the drivers refused to exert themselves and climb on the catwalks citing 'safety concerns'. To be fair I didn't want to be up there either. One of our people had to jump off our fuel truck when the hose separated from the pump and the Jet B caught fire as he was filling.

[SwampDonkey]

There's such as thing as safety concerns for sure, and I can't blame anyone for looking out for their safety. But there should be common sense between the ears to. ;)

[jimbarry]

All kinds of craziness since the New Millennium. Insurance will cancel you up this way for a 10 year old tank. That rule hit us pretty much 20 years ago.

Hot water tanks too now, or sign a waiver to absolve insurance company of liability...as if they would pay anyway.

[SwampDonkey]

Plus heating with wood adds onto your premium cost. It's 'heat surcharge'.

[sprucebunny]

The oil got delivered this morning by a father and son with a nice recent model Kenworth.
Son looks around 25-30 and dad is 55-60+ but I'm probably bad at guessing ages.

I told the son the rest of the story about the second oil company because he asked how I had heard of them. He said he didn't see anything at all wrong with where and what is there. So I have a new oil company for this house and they are 10 cents a gallon cheaper.

They don't deliver as far as my other house, unfortunately.

[newoodguy78]

Glad you got that figured out, shame on the other company. 

[sprucebunny]

Thanks.

The other Two companies !!!

[SwampDonkey]

Well good on them. There are still some common sense folks around when you go looking. I know one thing, if something gets over regulated, something like an oil tank doubles in price because you are now at their mercy with the government backing them. :

[Ron Scott]

Nothing is simple anymore! >:(

[Dave Shepard]

Don't know what others are either.
I work at a hardware store, carry 50# is normal. Than people park 50 feet away and expect me to carry it. As they say, It's only 50 feet. Than I say, I do this all day long, you drive over here, unless you want to carry it?
Than they drive over.  :

I remember when grain bags went from 100# to 50#. I asked why. I was told too many people couldn't lift the 100# or were getting hurt. I said I didn't mind the 50#s, because I could carry more at once, and took five of them out to the truck. Got yelled at by the manager of the store. 250# was nothing for a 17 year old sasquatch.  ;)

[SwampDonkey]

I know dad used to lift full potato barrels up on to the flat bed truck, this was before barrel hoists. Never saw my father complain about any aches and never limped around either. Dad wasn't tall, but he was built solid with big hands. My grandfather taught boxing in these parts. I wonder if that was some influence. :D

[Bill]

I m a bit stiff still from the weekend . Topped off the oil tank by filling up 2   55 gal drums with off road #2 at the local ( gas ) station at ~ $2.70 / gal which I believe is a bit low because they 've had this oil for a few months ( lower prices ) . I suspect it 'll be going up as they said they were near to ordering a refill . Over the road is $3.99 .  And even with the tractors bucket there's a fair bit of pushing involved to get those full drums moved around.

The - former - oil company ( the one that doesnt use chains any more ' ceptin if there's an emergency ) sent me a bill . Turns out I have a $4.59 credit - hardly an inducement to order from them after they wouldn't deliver in the middle of Jan '21 and left me to call them to find out that their truck wasn't coming ...