INDUSTRY LEADER PROFILE
oil,” Breda noted. Via the remote gauging system, he said, “We can tell that the tanks aren’t balanced and they’re not going down evenly. We assume that there is a problem with the equalizer between the two tanks and head that off at the pass.” In such cases, responding technicians often find that the tubing at the bottom of one tank has become clogged, so the fuel has been drawn only from the other tank.
The role of service manager includes teaching and training. Breda is a board member of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association (ICPA) and is certified as an instructor at the association’s school, which is at its headquarters in Cromwell, Conn. With the association’s and his boss’s blessings, Breda periodically conducts the association’s training classes in Sippin Energy Products’ building. “The Sippins were gracious enough to open the building for the classroom and let me teach an oil burner course here for other companies,” Breda said. For Sippin technicians, Breda said, “Manufacturers reps come in from time to time when we have service meetings. Typically I’ll have half the crew come in on Tuesday and half Wednesday at four o’clock and we’ll have reps come in and show us the latest and greatest.”
Breda conducts in-house training on issues of pressing impor- tance or on subjects he is targeting for business reasons.
“I wanted the guys to understand outdoor resets really well because I want to start marketing them,” Breda said. “I pulled in four men at a time and brought them into the conference room and went over the outdoor resets, what was available in the mar- ket and what we want to sell.
“It’s a constant ongoing thing,” Breda said of training. “If you just keep up with it, it’s not that hard.”
For years now Breda has offered an optional class on selected Saturday mornings. The program lagged over the recent winter, with heavy snowfalls causing cancellation after cancellation, but Breda plans to resume it.
“I let the guys tell me what subject they want, whether it’s low- voltage wiring or whatever, “he said. “If they ask me to teach it, I will. They can drive their company vehicles here. It’s completely voluntary on their part. We start at exactly eight o’clock in the morning and we finish exactly at ten o’clock in the morning, and then they can move on with their Saturdays.
“I expected that out of 15 technicians I might have three or four there, which I thought would be a success,” Breda said. “I probably got eight to nine every single Saturday morning, coming in on their own time. I thought that was great.” As the industry undergoes change, Sippin Energy Products has demonstrated adaptability, venturing into air conditioning and
34
MAY 2011 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
