We’re seeing the panic begin to set in with the Governor’s announcement today of shutting down non-essential businesses (but not you) – run on the banks, empty bread aisles at grocery stores, and now homeowners asking you to top off their fuel.

If your customer is on automatic delivery, then the amount and timing of deliveries is in your hands, by contract. If a will-call customer is asking to be topped off, per state law, you can’t deny someone a fuel delivery if they are willing to pay with cash, but again the timing and pricing is up to you. For deliveries under 100 gallons, outside your normal delivery area, or outside normal hours of operations, you can add a delivery surcharge.

We are advised by the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) that you should apply a uniform policy to all these top-off requests. Just treat all customer requests of this sort equally. If a customer complains to DCP that you wouldn’t deliver 50 gallons to her for another month, but you delivered to her neighbor in just a week, then that might show favoritism on your part (or worse, discrimination).

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Herb, chris@ctema.com.