Small gas users are a problem and many of us fail to understand just how much it costs to collect, test refill then return tanks.
They go to their hardwear store or petrol station with their BBQ bottles, watch the attendant refill them & think it is just that easy.
Down here, every thank is inspected then tested before being filled because the filling depot does not one to go bang on the filling line.
Some are tested while they are being filled ( water displacement method ) if they are for safe stuff like air, argon, carbon dioxide etc .
So a reasonable rental & distribution cost would be around twice the gas costs.
But in a cut throat market they have adopted the screw the little guy to subsidise the big guy marketing techniques and that is what annoys me.
Simsmets was CIG's ( BOC in local drag ) biggest gas customer and paid no rental or delivery fees at all for the 22,000 ( they counted them ) gas bottles .
All of the employees used to bring their empties in & swap them for full ones when no one was looking .
On top of that we paid about 1/2 the actual gas costs as well .
Small users paid a delivery fee, bottle rental & higher gas cost.
When I had my delivery run I used to do gas bottle swaps because CIG refused to deliver past Emu Plains so from there to Mt Victoria it was do it yourself.
And that was when they charged $ 50 for pick up & delivery.
So I charged $ 40 and was doing about 20 bottles a week.
When that contract ended I was looking at doing gas bottles full time but the regulation hoops I had to go through made it an non entity.
Funny I could drive a van full of general goods into a depot, pull out 3 or more bottles , swap them over & drive out no problems.
If I had nothing but gas bottles I had to carry 1/2 dozen different gas masks, 4 different fire extinguishers , racks that retained the bottles even if the vehicle rolled over , do a 13 week TAFE course plus hold 1/2 dozen safety certificates and get them renewed annually plus pay massive lisencing fee .
No wonder the delivery fee was $ 50.
