How to Prepare for a Heating Oil Delivery

After scheduling a delivery with a heating oil provider of your choice, you should always prep your home to ensure a smooth delivery well before the driver gets there. Here are some simple steps you should be taking to prepare for a safe, quick, and efficient fuel delivery.

1. Confirm Your Tank Location

If you are accustom to ordering fuel to your home, you will already know this. But if you haven’t ordered fuel before — or if someone else at home is usually in charge of this — be sure to confirm where your tank is physically located.

When placing your order with us, we will always need to know:

Where your tank is located
Where your tank’s fill position is located

Your tank’s location and your tank’s fill position are not the same thing.

For example, while your fuel tank could be located underground,  your tank’s fill pipe position could be located behind the house. Or your tank may be located in your basement with the fill pipe position located on the right exterior of your home.

At Just Fuel, we use a simple chart like the one shown below to help quickly signal to your delivery driver exactly where he should look to find the fill pipe for your fuel tank.

Tank Fill Position Location Chart

If you indicated that your tank’s fill position is located at position 8, that would let your delivery driver know that he should pull the fuel pump hose to the left side of your home. This saves your driver a lot of time. It also allows them to take the shortest, most direct path to the tank to mitigate any obstructions.

2. Declutter the Area Around Your Fuel Tank

On the day before or morning of your delivery, you should always make sure the area around your heating tank and its fill position are clear of all obstructions. Failure to do so could result in an incomplete or cancelled delivery. Common obstructions around the tank are:

Snow

Especially in the winter season, snow can cause quite the confusion for your delivery driver. Even a small amount of snow can result in a sheet of white on your property. Before your scheduled delivery, be sure to shovel and salt the area round your tank’s fill position. The delivery driver must be able to visibly see the fill pipe and access it without putting himself at risk.

Shrubbery

It is all too common for leaves, twigs, and branches to pile up around the fueling area. If this shrubbery has been sitting there for a while, it can very quickly hide the tank’s fill pipe, making it impossible for the delivery driver to complete his task.

Personal Property

If you store personal items like tools, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, pails, boxes, old furnishings, or anything else near your tank or the tank fill position, it is important that you clear them from the area. Our drivers are specifically instructed not to move, touch, or alter any of your personal property to access your fill pipe. This is for safety and liability reasons.

Garbage

If you typically store trash outside, make sure it is not near the oil tank. Not only can it be hazardous, it is also just as obstructive as other personal items in the area.

3. Clear Your Driveway and Sidewalk

Your fuel delivery driver will have to park the fuel truck either on the street in front of your house or in your driveway if your home is located far off from the street. They will then need to carry and drag the fuel hose from the truck to your tank’s fill position. The path between the truck location and the tank fill position must be clear of obstructions.

The most common obstructions we see to the driveway and sidewalk are slippery wet leaves, snow, ice, parked cars, and garbage.

4. Ensure Pets and Animals are Safely Kept

Most homes we deliver to have pets. Dogs, cats, or others!

On the day of your scheduled delivery, please make sure your pets are safely kept away from the fuel tank’s fill position. This is to avoid any possibility of them accidentally roaming loose from your property.

If you have a gate or fence that needs to be opened in order for the delivery driver to access your fuel tank, let us know beforehand too. Our drivers will always do their best to close the gate upon completion of the delivery.

5. Final Tips

As the owner or renter of your property, don’t forget that it is your responsibility to prepare your property for a safe and efficient fuel delivery. A few other tips to keep in mind:

Double check that your tank is in safe and working condition.

Any cracks, corrosion, or malfunction can lead to potentially dangerous and hazardous conditions.

If there is more than one fill pipe, confirm which one is yours.

If you live in a multifamily building with separate oil tanks, make sure your tank is properly labeled as yours so that fuel isn’t delivered to the wrong tank.

Lastly, be sure your fill pipe is actually connected to your tank.

Sometimes, fuel tanks are moved or relocated but the fill pipe is not. This can lead to fuel being pumped into an obsolete tank or into an incorrect area.

Heating Oil Delivery from Just Fuel

It is so important to make sure you are equipped with an operational heating oil system, especially during the coldest months of the year. You will most likely need several heating oil deliveries to refill your tank throughout the season. That is where Just Fuel is happy to help!

If you are a homeowner or renter in the New York area, you can set up your own personal customer account with us that will store all your pertinent delivery details such as tank location, tank size, and any other notes. This makes the process of ordering a refill for your heating oil tank a lot quicker and easier than ever before.

Just be sure to follow all the recommended pre-delivery preparation discussed in this article. And when it is time for your heating oil delivery, you can simply leave the rest to us!