They said it at the LP Gas Growth Summit

October 25, 2023 By LP Gas

Retailers and partners went on camera at the 2023 LP Gas Growth Summit to address notable propane industry issues.

Van Buren

Retailers on propane and the environment

“I think at the heart of it is, at least having a conversation and being proud of what we do. And letting folks know that it is part of an energy solution that’s going to help our environment – you’ll be that much more cleaner in the future versus other fuels.” – Tom Van Buren, Meritum Energy Holdings

Loeb

“It’s very important every touchpoint we have with our prospects or customers to educate them about our fuel. A lot of times we get grouped in with other fossil fuels, and people don’t really understand how dynamic of a fuel propane is, how resilient it is, how low carbon emission it is, how it really is part of the solution in the energy climate moving forward.” – Jon Loeb, ThompsonGas

Scaturro

“We promote biofuel/bioheat and renewable propane on our trucks via stickers. Also on our website, there’s a little blurb about biofuel and renewable propane. Our renewable propane, we pick it up at our supplier, which is up the street from us, and they bring it in via supplier Ray Energy. And that comes out of Vermont. It’s a byproduct. So, it still burns, it’s still clean, it’s just, you know, renewable. So we can promote that.” – Chris Scaturro, Upstate Energy

Finder

Retailers on autogas

“Autogas, No. 1, starts internally. And with the adoption and embracing of autogas within our own fleet, that gets very important that we’re stewards of our own product and our industry and the environment. It’s the most important way we can educate our customers and our communities.” – Jon Loeb, ThompsonGas

Stapp

“We do have a fleet of vehicles that runs on propane. We’ve got a lot of propane-powered bobtails, a lot of propane-powered service vehicles, as well as our management fleet is also propane powered. We’d love to see more autogas in Phoenix.” – Robert Finder, Arizona Propane

Carper

“Most propane providers don’t have propane autogas on their own fleet. And we don’t understand why. All of our bobtails, our trucks, at one time my great grandparents had an airplane on propane. So, you name it, if we can put it on propane, we do.” – Krista Stapp, Oklahoma Liquefied Gas Co.

Grimm

“We don’t have any autogas accounts yet. But we’re aggressively chasing them. We’re visiting school districts, municipalities, transit. So, we’re going to get autogas accounts. We don’t have it yet, but we’re going to get it.” – Butch Carper, Rutland Bottle Gas

Partners on industry trends

Hardy

“It’s all related to the customer. So, what can our company, our customers, do to help their customers? What can we do to help our customers? Again, technology is at the forefront of that – it used to be in the background; now it’s at the forefront. Just anything that can enhance the relationship between the company and the customer.” – Todd Grimm, Cargas

Soulon

“We certainly continue to see good growth in the construction market, whether it’s new homes or renovations, those type things, which bodes well as a manufacturer of propane tanks. We’re seeing some movement between states, and that creates opportunities for marketers to grow.” – D.D. Hardy, Quality Steel

Sheehan

“The main thing we’re seeing is a drive toward a propane engine. We’re still struggling to get there, but the industry is pushing all the chassis manufacturers and engine manufacturers to offer a propane engine. We strongly recommend that any propane marketer reach out to their local truck dealer and ask that dealership to communicate the demand from the field up to their corporate channels.” – Jason Soulon, Westmor

“There’s been a really big push toward capturing safety information electronically. What happens when a fire hits your location, and you lose all of that paper-copied safety information that you really need. So, getting that into an electronic format and saved and backed up into either a cloud environment or an off-site backup, so you always have it.” – Kyle Sheehan, Rural Computer Consultants

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