Does Your Out-of-Gas Manual Match Your Office's Routine?

The Situation

From the publisher • Propane Insider Staff — Bill Stomp, Editor Disclosure: Propane Insider is published by the makers of Tank Spotter, Custom Fuel App, Blink Fuel, Marketing Department in a Box and Propane Safety Pro; some links go to advertisers.

At 8:10 a.m., a customer calls to say they're out of gas and need a delivery. If your office handles that call without written procedures, Nationwide's loss-control article on out-of-gas calls lists costly legal fees and higher insurance premiums or loss of coverage among the possible consequences. Your manual has a page for that call. What matters is whether it matches what your office does.

In the office

Trained office staff fill in an out-of-gas form. It logs the date and time of the call and the name of the employee who took it.

If the caller smells gas or suspects a leak, give this instruction first: If you smell gas, leave the area right away. Then call your propane company from a safe place away from the leak. If you can't reach them, call 911. Do not go back, even to shut a valve, until the propane retailer, an emergency responder or another qualified professional says it is safe.

The form also records a time when an adult customer will be there. Staff explain the company's out-of-gas policy and any charges that apply, then send a service request to the driver or technician.

At the house

The service record must show, in this order:

1. 1.Qualified personnel inspect the system.
2. 2.They run the required leak checks and make any repairs under the adopted codes and the company's procedures.
3. 3.Gas service is restored.
4. 4.Qualified personnel relight pilots and restart appliances only after the system passes the leak check.

PERC's safety guide says a propane retailer or qualified professional checks for leaks after an interruption, restores service and lights pilots if needed. Keep the completed service record, customer acknowledgment and safety information with the call sheet. The insurer says its claims data highlights documented leak checks on every call and formal training for every propane employee, office staff included. It also stresses regular checks that procedures are actually followed.

The Facts

Where the call sheet goes

Illustrative example: This unnamed propane company and its loss-control visit are hypothetical. This is not a customer case study.

In our hypothetical shop, the manual's out-of-gas page sends the completed call sheet to dispatch. In practice, the office files it with the driver's work order. A new hire following the book would look in the wrong place. The safety lead checks one more thing on that page: whether each listed job matches what the person doing it is trained for. Taking calls in the office doesn't qualify anyone to make technical decisions in the field. A record you can't find costs you the moment someone asks for it. Propane Safety Pro's manual page lists who reads that file: your state inspector, your insurer's loss-control auditor and, on your worst day, a lawyer.

Put the real facts in the book

With the mismatch on paper, the owner has something concrete to give whoever writes the book: the real job roles and where that form actually ends up. Once the book is updated, the owner names one person, by name and title, to own the safety policy and keep it current.

Bulk plants have one more requirement

If you run a bulk plant, Propane Safety Pro's operations and maintenance manual page says NFPA 58 requires written operating and maintenance procedures at every bulk plant, and your state's adopted edition governs. A dealer with no on-site bulk storage likely does not owe them. Confirm with your fire or code official which edition governs your site. The insurer's checklist describes good practice. It doesn't promise a lower premium or a clean inspection.

For your CSR script

That Propane Safety Pro page puts the rule plainly: your drivers tell customers to leave first and call second. Make sure your CSR script and the customer safety pamphlet say the same thing.

Business Impact

The manual page says updating the manual once a year is a good habit, and sooner when a rule, a piece of equipment or the way you work changes. A call sheet that lands on a different desk than the book says is a change in the way you work.

Action Steps

1. 1.This week, have your office manager pull last month's out-of-gas call sheets and check each one against the items on Nationwide's form list.
2. 2.Have your qualified service technician pull the matching tickets and confirm that each documents, in order, the required inspections, leak checks and repairs before gas was restored, then any pilot relighting, plus the customer acknowledgment. Compare the records with your adopted-code procedures.
3. 3.Have your safety lead hold the manual's out-of-gas page next to both records and fix any filing mismatch before your next loss-control visit.