GETAC USE CASE
How Taylor Oil & Propane Cut Winter Ticket Posting from Most of the Day to About an Hour with Getac F110 Rugged Tablets
Every winter, the deliveries pile up and so does the paperwork. Taylor Oil & Propane, a family-owned heating oil, propane and HVAC provider in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, was running peak heating season on handwritten delivery tickets. Office staff spent six to seven hours a day keying them into the back office while phones rang and drivers came back in to finish their paperwork.
Taylor Oil & Propane mounted Getac F110 rugged tablets in every delivery truck and made them the single system of record for the fleet. Tickets now post straight from the field, drivers see customer accounts in real time, and winter ticket posting takes an hour to an hour and a half with the same staff.
At a Glance: How the Getac F110 Took Taylor Oil & Propane Paperless
Customer: Taylor Oil & Propane, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Industry: Heating Oil, Propane and HVAC Services
Solution: Getac F110 Fully Rugged Tablet, mounted in each delivery truck
Primary Use Case: Field delivery ticketing, route management and DOT pre-trip inspections
Key Result: Daily winter ticket posting dropped from six to seven hours to an hour to an hour and a half, with fewer billing errors
Taylor Oil & Propane replaced handwritten delivery tickets with vehicle-mounted Getac F110 rugged tablets fully integrated with its back office platform. Drivers run preloaded routes, digital DOT pre-trip inspections, GPS-validated deliveries and field ticket posting, closing the loop from dispatch to billing without a trip back to the office.
Why Did Taylor Oil & Propane Trade Paper Tickets for the Getac F110?
Paper could not keep up with winter. With up to 10 trucks on the road and daily delivery volume between 30,000 and 50,000 gallons, handwritten tickets that were hard to read or missing details landed on an office team that was also answering the phones. Posting them took most of the day, and every manual step was another chance for a billing error.
Taylor Oil & Propane wanted the field and the office working from the same live record. The Getac F110 gave each driver a mounted, glove-compatible tablet that could take the extreme cold, heavy vibration and constant daily use of winter delivery, so delivery data is captured once, at the truck, and posted immediately.
What Did Taylor Oil & Propane Need the Getac F110 to Handle?
Taylor Oil & Propane evaluated rugged devices with Getac reseller John Geary, weighing durability, usability in winter conditions and long-term value against the realities of daily fuel delivery. The fully rugged Getac F110, with its 11.6-inch display and glove-compatible LumiBond touchscreen, met every requirement and became the standard device across the delivery fleet.
Key requirements included:
- Winter durability: Reliable operation through extreme cold, heavy truck vibration and all-day use
- Readable, glove-friendly screen: A large display drivers can use without taking off their gloves
- Back office integration: Delivery tickets created and posted directly from the field
- Location validation: GPS and geocoded checks so deliveries happen at the correct customer location
- Compliance built in: DOT-required pre-trip inspections completed digitally as part of the daily workflow
- Long-term value: Warranty coverage and total cost of ownership over the device lifecycle
What Changed for Taylor Oil & Propane After Deploying the Getac F110?
Since deploying the Getac F110, Taylor Oil & Propane has cut back office workload, improved billing accuracy and responded faster to customers during peak winter months, all without changing staffing levels.
Key outcomes included:
- Daily winter ticket posting reduced from six to seven hours to an hour to an hour and a half
- Roughly two people's worth of winter office work absorbed with the same team
- Fewer billing and documentation errors after handwritten tickets were replaced
- Drivers finishing routes without returning to the office for data entry
- Fewer missed deliveries thanks to GPS and geocoded location alerts
- Simpler onboarding and training for new drivers
Who Is Taylor Oil & Propane, and Why Did It Turn to Getac?
Taylor Oil & Propane is a fourth-generation, family-owned energy provider based in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1951 when Francis W. Taylor bought his first delivery truck, the company has spent more than 75 years serving the same Southeastern Pennsylvania communities with heating oil, propane and HVAC services. Today it runs with 22 employees, eight of them Taylors.
Many Taylor Oil & Propane customers are the children and grandchildren of original customers. In a commodity market where customers can switch providers easily, the company competes on reliability, trust and showing up when the weather turns. That makes winter the season that matters most, and the company has always invested in technology that makes a small team's day simpler rather than slower.
Taylor Oil & Propane required a solution capable of:
- Serving as the single system of record for every delivery
- Posting delivery tickets from the truck in real time
- Giving drivers immediate access to customer account details and delivery history
- Letting office staff add emergency stops and adjust routes during the day
- Holding up to cold, vibration and constant daily use in a delivery truck
What Was Slowing Taylor Oil & Propane Down Before the Getac F110?
Taylor Oil & Propane's operations depended on manual, paper-based workflows that broke down every peak delivery season. In winter, with up to 10 trucks on the road and 30,000 to 50,000 gallons going out each day, handwritten tickets created a backlog the office could not clear without giving up most of the day.
Tickets were often hard to read or incomplete. Office staff were posting them while handling high call volumes and questions from drivers and customers, which led to missed steps and downstream issues. Drivers regularly returned to the office to enter delivery information by hand, and limited real-time visibility made it hard to reroute, prevent customer run-outs or respond quickly to emergencies.
Key challenges included:
- Six to seven hours a day of manual ticket posting during winter
- Illegible or incomplete handwritten tickets leading to billing errors
- Office staff split between data entry and constant phone calls
- Drivers returning to the office to finish paperwork instead of delivering
- No real-time link between the office and the field to prevent run-outs or add emergency stops
How Did the Getac F110 Move Taylor Oil & Propane's Paperwork into the Truck?
Taylor Oil & Propane worked with Getac reseller John Geary to evaluate device options and deployed Getac F110 rugged tablets across its delivery fleet, fully integrated with its back office platform. The F110 was chosen for its durability in harsh winter conditions, its large 11.6-inch display and its glove-compatible LumiBond touchscreen, along with warranty coverage and total cost of ownership.
Drivers now start each day with a preloaded route, complete their DOT pre-trip inspection on the tablet, run every delivery through the F110 and finish without a stop at the office. Tickets post from the field the moment a delivery is done. Cellular connectivity keeps every truck in sync, so the office can adjust routes and add emergency stops in real time.
Key capabilities of the Getac F110 deployment include:
- Delivery tickets created and posted directly from the truck
- GPS and geocoded validation that alerts drivers at an incorrect location
- Immediate driver access to customer account details and delivery history
- Digital DOT pre-trip inspections built into the daily workflow
- Real-time route changes and emergency stops added by the office
- Redundant F110 devices across the fleet to keep operations running
How Much Time Did the Getac F110 Give Back to Taylor Oil & Propane?
"On the office side, it substitutes probably two people's worth of work in the wintertime. Now the posting of the tickets takes an hour to an hour and a half instead of six or seven hours. It really helped without making errors – it fixed the efficiency, but it also stopped a lot of errors," said Chris Taylor, CTO of Taylor Oil & Propane.
Key results included:
- Winter ticket posting dropped from most of the workday to about an hour
- Billing accuracy improved once handwritten tickets were gone
- Drivers spot customers who are due while on route and deliver on the spot
- GPS alerts reduced the chance of a delivery at the wrong address
- Faster response to emergency calls during heating season
- New drivers up to speed faster with a simpler workflow
"Once you remove handwritten tickets, you remove a lot of mistakes. People are multitasking, phones are ringing—it just cleaned all of that up," said Pat Taylor, CFO of Taylor Oil & Propane.
How Does the Getac F110 Keep a Fuel Distributor Reliable All Winter?
For a fuel distributor, reliability is the product. Taylor Oil & Propane customers never see the ticketing system, but they notice when a delivery is late in January or a bill is wrong. Moving the entire delivery workflow onto the Getac F110 gave the company a closed loop from dispatch to billing that holds up when demand peaks.
With redundant F110 devices across the fleet and a fully digital workflow in place, Taylor Oil & Propane can scale its operations, onboard new drivers faster and keep the standard of service it has built over 75 years through even the most demanding winters.
Why Do Fuel and Propane Distributors Trust the Getac F110 When It Counts?
Fuel and propane distributors choose Getac because their busiest season is also their harshest. The Getac F110 is a fully rugged tablet built to handle extreme cold, heavy vibration and constant daily use, with a large 11.6-inch display and a glove-compatible LumiBond touchscreen drivers can use without slowing down. A consumer tablet can handle a route on a mild day. Winter delivery means freezing cabs, gloved hands and a device that gets used all day, every day.
Getac has designed and manufactured rugged laptops and tablets as an Original Equipment Manufacturer since 1989. The company that builds the device is the company that stands behind it, which matters when the tablet in each truck is the single system of record for every delivery. Taylor Oil & Propane runs the same F110 in every truck, keeps redundant devices on hand and plans lifecycle upgrades on one platform.
Expert Insight: Why the Getac F110 Won Over Taylor Oil & Propane
"Our focus is making sure customers like Taylor Oil have technology that performs in real-world conditions. The F110 stood out because it delivers the durability, usability, and long-term value required for demanding field environments."
John Geary, Getac Reseller
Delivery software only works if the device running it still works at 6 a.m. in a cold truck on a rough road. That is why Taylor Oil & Propane evaluated warranty coverage, winter usability and total cost of ownership, not just purchase price.
Getac F110 for Fuel and Propane Delivery: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best rugged tablet for propane and fuel oil delivery trucks?
Look for a fully rugged tablet that handles extreme cold, vibration and all-day use, with a screen drivers can operate wearing gloves. Taylor Oil & Propane chose the Getac F110 for its durability, 11.6-inch display and glove-compatible LumiBond touchscreen.
How can a fuel distributor reduce time spent posting delivery tickets?
Post tickets from the truck instead of re-keying paper in the office. After moving ticketing to vehicle-mounted Getac F110 tablets, Taylor Oil & Propane cut daily winter posting from six to seven hours to an hour to an hour and a half.
Do rugged tablets reduce billing errors in fuel delivery?
Yes. Replacing handwritten tickets with structured digital entries removes illegible or incomplete records, a common source of billing mistakes. Taylor Oil & Propane saw fewer errors once tickets were captured on the Getac F110 at the point of delivery.
Can drivers complete DOT pre-trip inspections on a rugged tablet?
Yes. Taylor Oil & Propane digitized its DOT-required pre-trip inspections and built them into the daily workflow on the Getac F110, so drivers complete vehicle checks on the same device they use for routes and deliveries.
How do rugged tablets help prevent missed propane deliveries?
GPS and geocoded validation alert drivers when they arrive at an incorrect location, and real-time account access shows which customers are due. Running both on the Getac F110 helped Taylor Oil & Propane reduce missed deliveries and serve nearby customers on the spot.
Is a rugged tablet worth it compared to a consumer tablet for delivery fleets?
For winter delivery work, usually yes. Cold cabs, vibration, gloves and constant use are hard on consumer hardware, and a failed device stops a route. Taylor Oil & Propane weighed warranty coverage and total cost of ownership and chose the fully rugged Getac F110.
How can a small fuel delivery business keep operating if a tablet fails?
Plan for redundancy. Taylor Oil & Propane maintains redundant Getac F110 devices across its fleet so a truck can swap devices and stay on its route during peak demand.
See the Getac F110 in the Field
Still running winter deliveries on paper, or on tablets that were never meant for a truck cab? Talk to Getac about how the fully rugged F110 puts routes, tickets, inspections and customer accounts in every driver's hands.
"If a driver passes a house and sees a customer is due, they can just take care of it immediately. That changed how we operate day-to-day." – Chris Taylor, CTO, Taylor Oil & Propane
Learn More About The Getac F110
Taylor Oil & Propane modernized fuel delivery with the Getac F110 fully rugged tablet. The F110 gives drivers a glove-compatible 11.6-inch touchscreen for routes, delivery tickets, DOT inspections and customer accounts, and holds up to the cold, vibration and daily use of winter delivery. Learn more about how the F110 supports mobile operations in demanding field environments.
