36 SEPTEMBER 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
delivery truck, for many reasons, includ-
ing regulations and cost, outfitters said.
"A well-built, quality propane truck
would probably be in the $150,000 range"
and maybe more, depending on options,
said Smith of Kurtz Truck Equipment,
who worked on the retail side of the busi-
ness for 27 years for Suburban Propane,
headquartered in Whippany, N.J.
The chassis costs for a heating oil or
propane delivery truck are about the same,
Smith said. The difference is in the cost of
the tank and related equipment. He noted,
for example, that regulations require that
propane tank trucks have a remote emer-
gency shutdown system on the truck.
Base Engineering, Saint John, New
Brunswick, Canada, manufactures wire-
less remote controls for that purpose,
Smith noted. The devices can be solely
"single-function"—in an emergency the
operator hits a button to shut all the valves
and turn off the engine in the truck—or
they can have multiple functions. These
include unreeling and reeling the hose.
Base Engineering markets a remote hand-
held that reads electronic meters as well,
Smith said.
Liberty Propane Equipment Co., East
Hartford, Conn., has sold some propane
trucks with 5,000-gallon tanks, a size more
commonly spec'd in the West than in the
Northeast, said Chris Ouellette of Liberty.
The trucks are spec'd with a tag axle—"a
push axle that can carry a 5,000-gallon
tank," Ouellette said. "Guys really like
them because they can turn real good
with them and they can carry more prod-
uct. They're able to do more stops and
they spend less time having to go back
to their plant or wherever they go to get
their propane loaded. If they can get three
or four more stops done they do better in
the course of a day—more productivity."
A small number of customers have
ordered propane tank trucks that are
fueled by propane, Ouellette reported.
"I've seen some interest in them," he said.
"The engines aren't going to last as long
as a diesel engine," Ouellette said. "You
can't put as big a tank on them because
they don't have enough [power] to go up
some of the big hills. There's no engine
brake so when a driver is going downhill
he's relying on his [service] brakes. But
they also save you a lot of money on fuel."
Ouellette said he had sold four or five
propane-fueled trucks in the past couple
of years.
But a trend toward fueling propane
service trucks with propane could be
developing as the federal government
continues promoting alternative fuels,
said John Hawkins, CEO of H&H Sales
Co., Inc. of Huntertown, Ind. At the
Northeast Propane Show in Boxboro,
Mass., in August, H&H exhibited a bi-
fueled propane crane truck—a Ford
550—that runs on gasoline or propane.
Hawkins noted that the cost of pro-
pane fuel is less than gasoline or diesel,
and propane "burns cleaner. Plus there
is a maintenance saving."
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