Noswizard wrote:
The problem is that the company would have to trust you that you hadn't added anything to the bottle contents and as a consequence I 'GUESS' they dump the remaining contents. If they could trust everyone and/or do a test to confirm it's JUST nitrous in the bottle, then they could just top it up but my guess is that they don't, so their charges are fair, although I entirely agree that it seems that the charges are far too high. However, to know that for a fact I'd have to know the business accounts, as it MIGHT be that they MUST charge these prices to cover their overheads.
I hate to think how much they pay for insurance (for example) and the handling & delivery costs would be high.
Hi Trev,
As you've mentioned we can't verify exact contents upon their return and as such cylinders have to be vented when we get them back. The verification at a UK testing house for every returned cylinder would get quite expensive, that charge would have to get passed on and we want to keep this cost effective for everyone (including Nitrous Oxide Supplies). With the on-line refills we don't even top fill customer small cylinders, we always vent and start from empty.
The figure of gas retained from each returned 50ltr cylinder has also been mentioned, for the last few years we have endeavoured to inform everyone at the initial point of contact to base his or her feasibility calculations on a rough figure of 72lb. This is done as we don't know everyone's filling procedure and we don't know what you loose between fills, the last bit literally fills the cylinder at very minimal pressure plus you guys want liquid not vapour which is what’s left, but in turn if you didn't have the vapour, you wouldn't get all of the liquid. We also talk people out of a dip-tube cylinder these days as they get less out of it, ask Webster Race Engineering, they used to use a dip-tube cylinder but we discussed this with them and they now have an inverted non-dip cylinder which they get more out of, does this sound like the actions of a company who wants you to return unused gas? Since I started with the company the quantity of upright cylinders in the market (with a dip-tube) has fallen due to this internal course of action.
To ensure we can help with any arising issues we weigh every cylinder at the point of delivery, so if it would appear you got far too less out of it we can help by trying to figure out what happened and this initial weighing will give us a start point to work from. Without this start point we'd have far too many variables.
In regards to rental charges we believe our Nitrous Oxide 50ltr cylinder rental fee is cheaper than all of the other major gas companies (for this type of cylinder), they may look the same as an Argon cylinder for example but they're not. You also have to factor in the fact that our charge also covers retesting at a specialist (UKAS registered) testing facility, then don’t forget all of those lovely people who "loose" cylinders every year and then vanish leaving us no room to allow to recover that money. Its unfortunately a similar story to why we all pay more car insurance, the few dishonest people cost the honest chaps more as the money has to be recovered to replace those cylinders in our fleet.
We currently charge £80+VAT per cylinder, per year (£6.67 per month). We have price lists from other gas companies with the list price being around £11/£12+VAT per month.
We also on your invoices we don’t charge hazardous or environmental charges, if you have a gas account with one of the other major UK suppliers for welding or cutting gases for example then check your invoice, add this to the gas/rental price and it doesn’t work out quite so cheap when you factor those in.
Nitrous Oxide Supplies ship these cylinders the length and breadth of the UK with diesel currently around £1.40 per litre and a maximum 10 cylinder weight restriction, so if one or two chaps order two or three cylinders each ranging from Devon to Manchester, most of our carrying capacity has gone with only our standard £20+VAT fee per delivery. Then as mentioned there are the insurances, upkeep of a high mileage vehicle, hotel money for overnight stays on the South Coast due to the length of time our driver is allowed to travel, plus not to forget the increased costs of the ADR trained driver himself.
In all we supply at a profit yes, but not what people may believe. We simply offer this service as the MD is a bona fide petrol-head and with his gas industry experience this was a no brainer to help the Drag Racing Industry get hold of high quality gas at a fair price, most of the UK gas companies are now pulling this gas from supply too without medical licence, if needed you can ask the chaps at Turbo Dynamics this happened to them only recently and they’ve come on board as a re-filler on the South Coast.
For the last few years I personally sound like I’m talking people out of getting a 50ltr and inform them of local re-filler’s like Trevors lads at WON before take the plunge of getting their own 50ltr cylinder, in times such as these what other companies sales people would do that?
I hope I've helped fill in some blanks for everyone and I am more than happy to discuss any issues with any current or prospective customers, below is my personal mobile number and my company email address...
simon@nitrousoxidesupplies.co.ukMob: 07852 249183
ALSO, WERE ABOUT TO ANNOUNCE ANOTHER PRICE FREEZE ON OUR STANDARD 50LTR GAS PRICE FOR 2012, MEANING BY THE END OF THE PERIOD WE HAVEN'T INCREASED OUR STANDARD PRICES FOR THREE YEARS.
