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market price," Cook said, "or put a bid in if you think the market is going to go down. So if you're going to buy something two months out, and you think the market is going down a couple more cents, you would put a bid in for that [lower] price and you could set an expiration date and leave that bid out there till it expires." Previously, Cook said, "If you were
looking at a forward month you would have to call and tell somebody how many gallons you wanted to purchase and they would have to call you back with a price. If they were real busy, you might not hear anything for ten or fifteen minutes and by then that price might have changed." The online enhancement eliminates
that back-and-forth, with its potential for delay and lost opportunity. "You see the price, you know what it is and you can buy it or you can put a bid in," Cook said. "It frees up a lot of time." Ian Cook of C.E. Kiff said the new online
feature allowed the company to come up with a contract price for customers year- round, instead of only within a limited-time offer. "In the past we would only offer a pro- gram to the customers for a sign-up period of one month," he said. "If they missed the program [sign-up period] for whatever rea- son they were just going to pay the market price," Cook said. "Now a customer can come in November or April and ask us for a price program and we can do it." Ian Cook noted that the capability to
execute small-volume forward contracts is beneficial to C.E. Kiff's commercial diesel fuel customers as well. Those customers include off-road diesel customers, such as excavating and construction companies, and farms, and on-road diesel customers such as trucking companies. C.E. Kiff started as a feed dealer in
1882, and expanded into gasoline, heat- ing oil and kerosene. John Cook joined the family business in 1983, and Ian, his son, joined in 2002. C.E. Kiff's employees include three service technicians who also install boilers and hot air furnaces. "Last year we bought two other businesses," the elder Cook said – a Goodyear tire dealer, and a septic company.
www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | MAY 2012 25 On the fuel side, the company runs
three fuel oil delivery trucks and one trac- tor with a tank trailer that the company uses to haul its own fuel, from a Sprague terminal in Rensselaer, N.Y. "We were making commitments to our customers quicker than we could get
commitments from our supplier on price," Ian Cook said. "Sprague has offered us the opportunity to match our commitments" at both ends with respect to price, and to exercise greater control over volume and timing of delivery, Cook said. l FON
