Dealers Can Now Map Every Tank in Their Territory From a Desktop

The Situation

Spotting above-ground propane tanks across a service area usually means driving every road and logging what you see. Vexcel, a Centennial, Colorado-based mapping company, launched a tool called Custom Elements on Aug. 19, 2026. It can run that search from a desktop instead, across the company's imagery in 45+ countries and territories. Customers name an object they want to find. The system then searches for it across that imagery library. Propane tanks are among the examples the company cites. Resolution runs 7.5-15cm, and no custom model training is required.

The Facts

Custom Elements is also the company's first product to bring AI object detection to oblique aerial imagery. That imagery is collected at a 45-degree angle from four cardinal directions, at 7.5cm resolution. The angle captures building facades and vertical structures that top-down imagery misses, the company says. Steve Lombardi, VP of Products at Vexcel, said customers consistently bring long lists of objects they want to find. Custom Elements lets them pull out whatever they can see in the company's imagery, he said. Bringing detection to oblique imagery opens "an entirely new view" for the AI and for customers, he added. The company names other uses for the tool. Insurance carriers identify boats and docks, utilities locate poles, and mapping companies find golf putting greens. Insurance Edge, an insurance-industry trade publication, says the same object search gives property and commercial insurers a way to start asset-value conversations. In a catastrophe like a wildfire, it can also confirm whether vehicles or outbuildings escaped damage. The company's fixed-wing aircraft fleet collects imagery in the U.S., UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and across Western Europe. A tank search only works inside those flight areas. Custom Elements is reachable through Vexcel Studio, Vexcel APIs or Vexcel MCP. Pricing has not been published. The company describes the tool only as "faster and more cost-effective than traditional object detection solutions." How much access will cost a propane dealer or insurer remains unclear.

Business Impact

For a propane marketer, Custom Elements turns a windshield survey into a desktop search. A dealer could query "propane tanks" across a county or service area and get back tank locations and outlines. The tool already does the same for utility poles and golf greens in other industries. What this means for your business: 1. Territory mapping shifts from the road to the desk. A sales team could run that query against a target area before sending a truck out. That beats logging tanks block by block. 2. Prospecting could skip manual territory checks entirely. The same object search built for boats and docks could just as easily flag tanks outside your current customer list. 3. Insurers gain an independent check on risk. Carriers already use this imagery to spot boats and docks for asset-value conversations. A tank near a structure could surface the same way during underwriting or a storm claim. 4. Access and cost remain open questions. Pricing hasn't been published. Dealers interested in testing a tank search should start with a vendor conversation before building a territory-mapping budget around it.

Key Takeaways

• Propane dealers don't need to request tank detection as a custom build — propane tanks are already one of the examples the company names for the tool.
• The lack of published pricing means dealers should treat a tank search as a pilot to test with a demo, not a budgeted line item yet.
• Insurance carriers already tapping the object search for boats and docks could extend it to tanks without new development for that use case.

Action Steps

1. 1.Request a Custom Elements demo from the company this week to see whether its aircraft fleet already flies your service territory.
2. 2.Ask your GIS or mapping vendor this month whether they already resell Vexcel Studio, Vexcel APIs or Vexcel MCP access before building a separate tank-mapping budget.
3. 3.Pull your own tank-location list and compare it against what a Custom Elements search returns before trusting the results for new-account prospecting.
4. 4.Confirm with the company whether your delivery routes fall inside its published flight footprint.

Competitive Advantage

Dealers who reach out to the company now can test a tank search against their own territory before pricing is published, using the footprint check to confirm whether its aircraft already fly their service area.