The best heating oil delivery software depends on the dealer. A home heat dealer with a service department fits ADD Systems' ADD Energy E3 with Raven in the trucks, or Cargas Energy. Cooperatives should look at Red River's RR Fuel. A distributor already running stores or wholesale on PDI can add PDI's fuel oil and propane suite; PDI bought Blue Cow Software in 2023. A jobber or petroleum marketer adding heating oil to commercial delivery and its own books should look at FastDragon. Any of them has to forecast each tank from degree days and turn plans and assistance awards into correct bills. FastDragon is ours, so weigh our entry with the same eye as the rest.
How this guide was put together
Vendor facts come from each vendor's own pages, read on October 24, 2026. Weather is NOAA's, for Hartford Bradley International Airport, turned into degree days with EIA's formula. Market prices come from EIA's weekly Connecticut survey, and laws and program rules come from the statute or the state's own page. The house and every plan price are a worked example. I have worked on the back office side of fuel since 1995, and the plans and splits below are where a heating oil delivery turns into a bill.
Degree days and the K-factor
A heating degree day measures how cold a day was. EIA takes the day's mean temperature, the high plus the low divided by two, against a base of 65°F: a day with a high of 33°F and a low of 25°F averages 29°F and counts 36 heating degree days. A house's K-factor is the number of degree days it takes to burn one gallon, so a K-factor of 7.0 means a gallon every 7 degree days. Keep-full programs run on this arithmetic.
One house through the January 2026 cold
Worked example. A house near Hartford, Connecticut has an oil boiler that also heats its water, and a 275-gallon basement tank the dealer counts as full at 250 gallons. The reorder level is 70 gallons, about a quarter tank. The K-factor is 7.0, and hot water takes 0.6 gallons a day in any weather. The truck filled the tank on the morning of January 2, 2026. The degree days are real, from the daily highs and lows NOAA recorded at Hartford Bradley International Airport, station USW00014740.
| Days | Degree days | Heat gallons (degree days ÷ 7.0) | Hot water gallons (0.6 a day) | Estimated gallons left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2 to 8 | 264.0 | 37.7 | 4.2 | 208.1 |
| January 9 to 15 | 192.5 | 27.5 | 4.2 | 176.4 |
| January 16 to 22 | 287.5 | 41.1 | 4.2 | 131.1 |
| January 23 to 28 | 312.5 | 44.6 | 3.6 | 82.9 |
| All 27 days | 1,056.5 | 150.9 | 16.2 | 82.9 |
Degree days: NOAA daily highs and lows, Hartford Bradley International Airport, EIA formula. Gallons: worked example.
January 2026 ran cold at Bradley: 1,270 degree days against a 1991-2020 normal of 1,176. On January 24 the high was 13°F and the low 1°F, 58 degree days, and the house burned 8.9 gallons. In the mild week of January 9 it averaged 4.5 gallons a day.
On the morning of January 28 the estimate stood at 91 gallons and was falling about 8.3 gallons a day, so the dispatcher put the house on Thursday's run. The forecast said it would take about 167 gallons. The driver found the gauge near a quarter, and the meter read 181.4 gallons.
That is 14.3 gallons over the estimate, so the K-factor was too high. Recompute it from the fill: 181.4 gallons delivered, minus 16.2 of hot water (27 days at 0.6), leaves 165.2 gallons of heat, and the 1,056.5 degree days since the last fill divided by 165.2 gives 6.4. A dealer with no separate hot-water figure divides the degree days by the gallons delivered, 1,056.5 ÷ 181.4 = 5.8, and that K-factor carries the hot water inside it. On 6.4 the house comes due about two days sooner in a cold month.
Summer shows why the hot-water figure matters. The 1991-2020 normals give Bradley 135.4 degree days from June through September, 21 gallons of heat at a K-factor of 6.4. Hot water takes 73 gallons over the same 122 days. A forecast on degree days alone misses three-quarters of the summer's oil, and the first fall delivery comes late.
Where the forecast goes wrong
A K-factor assumes the house burns oil the same way all winter. A month empty with the thermostat down, or a new wood stove or heat pump, cuts oil use: the truck finds a tank three-quarters full, and the fill after it pushes the K-factor too high. A new resident or a boiler overdue for cleaning does the opposite, and that is the run-out case: air in the line, a no-heat call and a burner restart. Cargas names vacation homes, backup generators and restaurants as tanks degree days fail to predict. A tank monitor reports the real level, and the driver's gauge or stick reading at each fill corrects the rest.
The money side
Automatic and will-call
Connecticut defines automatic delivery as delivery on the dealer's own calculation of the customer's needs from the customer's consumption (CGS § 16a-17), so a run-out on an automatic account is the dealer's miss. Will-call customers watch their own gauge and order. Automatic houses come up on a due list; will-call orders arrive with a requested date.
Minimums and small drops
A dealer may set a minimum for will-call orders and charge a small-delivery fee under it, since a short drop takes nearly the truck time of a full one. Connecticut caps the minimum a dealer can require of a regular residential customer at 100 gallons, or 75 percent of the primary tank if that is less (CGS § 16a-22a).
Budget plans
A budget plan, or level payment plan, spreads a season's oil cost over equal monthly payments. Connecticut defines it as at least three installments over at least 120 days, with a first payment of no more than half the balance (CGS § 16a-23m). Worked example, the same house for 2026-27: normal degree days give 919 gallons of heat (5,883.3 ÷ 6.4) plus 219 of hot water, about 1,140 gallons. At $6.15 a gallon, near EIA's Connecticut average of $6.154 for the week of October 19, 2026 before tax, that is $7,011.00: 12 payments of $584.25, 11 of $637.36 or 10 of $701.10.
The true-up settles the difference at the end of the plan year. If 2026-27 repeats the 6,101.5 degree days at Bradley from July 2025 to June 2026, the house takes about 1,172 gallons, 32 more than the plan, and the true-up bills 32 × $6.15 = $196.80. A mid-season review needs care: December 2025 through February 2026 ran about 12 percent above normal degree days, and a mild spring gave part of it back.
Price plans
A prebuy is gallons paid for in advance at a set price. A fixed price is set ahead and paid on delivery. A cap costs a fee, then the lower of market or the cap. A prompt-pay discount takes cents off a bill paid fast. Worked example: the 181.4-gallon January 29 fill under each plan.
| Plan | Terms | This delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Posted price that day, $3.87 | $702.02 |
| Prompt pay | $3.87 less 10 cents, paid within 10 days | $683.88 |
| Fixed | $3.39, signed the summer before | $614.95 |
| Cap | $3.59 cap after a $99 fee at signup; market is above the cap | $651.23 |
| Prebuy | 120 prepaid gallons left at $3.29 ($394.80, paid in August), then 61.4 at $3.87 ($237.62) | $632.42 |
Worked example. Market is near EIA's Connecticut average for the week of January 26, 2026, $3.874 a gallon before tax.
Connecticut allows prebuy sales only from April 1 through October 31 (CGS § 16a-23v). Within five business days of selling a fixed or capped plan, the dealer must hold fixed-price supply for at least 80 percent of the promised gallons; a prebuy can also be backed by a surety bond for at least half the prepaid money. Undelivered prepaid gallons are refunded at the contract price within 30 days of the contract's end unless both sides agree otherwise (CGS § 16a-23n). In March 2026 EIA's Connecticut average rose from $4.287 to $5.601 in three weeks while fixed and capped customers kept their plan prices. The hedge has to match the gallons still owed under every plan, so the software has to show those gallons, per customer and in total. The supplier side is in fuel price protection.
Energy assistance
LIHEAP, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, helps households with home energy bills, energy crises and weatherization. A state may pay the dealer directly; then federal law has the dealer bill the household, in its normal billing, the difference between the cost and the state's payment (42 U.S.C. § 8624(b)(7)). Worked example: an award with $500.00 left and a $702.02 delivery bills $500.00 to the agency and $202.02 to the household.
States add their own rules. Connecticut's 2026-27 vendor agreement requires the agency's authorization before every delivery, automatic accounts included, and a ticket or invoice showing the client's name and energy client ID, the day's residential retail price, the gallons and the meter start and stop. A heating oil dealer is paid either DTN's daily rack average, the wholesale price at its chosen terminal, plus $0.55 a gallon, or its lowest posted retail price less $0.35. Invoices go to the agency within 30 days, payment comes within 10 business days, and a life-threatening no-heat call must be filled within 18 hours.
Sales tax on home heat
Tax follows the building's use. Connecticut exempts fuel for heating a residential dwelling (CGS § 12-412(16)). New York exempts residential fuel oil from the 4 percent state tax, while some counties, cities and school districts tax it (Publication 718-R); a mixed-use building certifies its residential share on Form TP-385, and 75 percent or more exempts the whole purchase (TB-ST-775). Pennsylvania exempts fuel oil for a buyer's own residential use and presumes mixed use is commercial unless the buyer files Form REV-1220 with the residential percentage (61 Pa. Code § 32.25). The software taxes each delivery by the site's use and keeps the certificate with the site.
Biodiesel blends
Since July 1, 2025, heating oil sold in Connecticut or New York must contain at least 10 percent biodiesel. Connecticut's floor rises in steps to 50 percent by July 1, 2035 (CGS § 16a-21b), and New York's, for what its statute calls bioheating fuel, to 20 percent on July 1, 2030 (ECL § 19-0327). Each blend is its own product on the ticket and invoice. More in our biodiesel article.
The kinds of heating oil software
Back offices built around home heat
Four established systems keep tanks, forecasts, plans and receivables in one database. ADD Systems sells ADD Energy E3 and E360, and its heating oil and product pages name forecasting for tank wagon deliveries, pre-buy, capped, budget and installment plans, and recurring web payments. Cargas Energy, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, handles automatic, will-call and monitored tickets in one place and runs MyFuelPortal for payments, autopay, and budget and pre-buy sign-up. Red River sells RR Fuel to jobbers and propane dealers with degree-day and K-factor forecasting and prepaid and budget heating contracts. Blue Cow Software of Middleton, Massachusetts has belonged to PDI since February 2023, when PDI said Blue Cow had about 375 customers across North America; its web address now forwards to PDI. Our ADD Systems and Red River profiles go further.
In-truck and route systems
Each vendor sells truck software for its own back office. ADD's Raven runs on Windows or Android tablets and phones, works with the major meter register brands, and numbers more than 8,000 in the field by ADD's count. Cargas's driver app records the gallons delivered, prints the ticket and takes a signature or a payment. RR Fuel runs on Windows tablets that can be wired to the meter head. Ask each which registers it reads and what the driver sees when the signal drops. Stop order is covered in route optimization for fuel delivery.
ERP
PDI sells fuel oil and propane delivery inside a larger platform: an ERP, one system for the whole company, with routing, customer management and accounting, in-truck delivery and service modules, a customer portal and app, and cloud hosting. It fits a distributor that already runs convenience retail or wholesale on PDI.
FastDragon
FastDragon is a back office for jobbers and petroleum marketers, with heating oil delivery in its Tank Wagon module, covered below.
The vendors at a glance
| System | Kind | Heating oil pieces named on its own pages |
|---|---|---|
| ADD Energy E3 / E360 with Raven | Back office and in-truck app | Tank wagon forecasting; pre-buy, capped, budget and installment plans; recurring web payments; tank monitor interfaces |
| Cargas Energy | Back office and driver app | Automatic, will-call and monitored tickets; a ticket when a monitored tank hits a set level; autopay, budget and pre-buy sign-up online |
| RR Fuel (Red River Software) | Delivery inside the back office | Degree-day and K-factor forecasting; prepaid and budget heating contracts; Windows tablets wired to the meter head |
| PDI Propane and Commercial Fueling (owns Blue Cow Software) | ERP | Fuel oil and propane delivery; in-truck delivery and routing; portal for orders, pricing plans and payments |
| FastDragon Tank Wagon | Delivery inside the back office | Degree-day forecast with the K-factor recomputed at every fill; budget, price plan and energy assistance billing; phone app with meter start and stop |
Source: each vendor's own pages, read October 24, 2026. ADD Systems, Cargas, Red River and PDI post no prices. Links are under Sources below.
What to bring to a demo
Bring these cases to every vendor and have each one shown on screen:
- The wrong K-factor. A house whose last two fills ran 15 gallons over the forecast. Show the fill history and how to keep one odd fill out of the K-factor.
- The budget customer behind. Two missed payments and a delivery due Friday. Show the plan balance and what the dispatcher sees. The collections side is in credit and collections for jobbers.
- The prebuy that runs out mid-drop. 120 prepaid gallons left and a 181.4-gallon fill. Show one invoice with both prices and the plan named on each line.
- The LIHEAP split. An award with $500.00 left and a $702.02 delivery. Show both invoices, the award balance and the agency's delivery report.
- The Sunday no-heat call. Show the emergency fee, the weekend charge and the restart charge on one ticket.
- The mixed-use building. A store and two apartments on one tank. Show how the tax splits.
Where FastDragon fits
FastDragon runs heating oil delivery in its Tank Wagon module, on the trucks, drivers and runs of FastDragon Hauling. Here is the same house in it.
The customer is set to Automatic, and the tank carries its K-factor and a daily hot-water figure. FastDragon takes daily heating degree days, base 65°F, from the NOAA station nearest the house, and shows the estimated gallons left and the date the tank reaches its reorder level. Each morning the due list sorts the automatic tanks by days to their reorder level, with the gallons each should take. On January 28 the dispatcher picks the house for Thursday's run; a person decides every order that goes on a truck.
The customer gets an "on the way" email with an arrival time, and the office sees the truck on the board map. On an ordinary phone the driver scans the tank's QR label, enters the level before the fill and the meter start and stop to three decimals, and takes a signature and a photo, with or without signal. The invoice is written at the drop, and the ticket goes to the customer by email with the signature and photo. The fill recomputes the K-factor from the degree days since the last fill and the gallons delivered. A tank monitor reading or a driver's stick reading overrides the estimate, and a reading under the tank's threshold sends one alert.
A prebuy draws its gallons down with each delivery, then bills at market. A cap bills the lower of market or the cap after its fee. Fixed, market and a prompt-pay discount are there too, and the invoice names the plan that priced it. A budget plan splits the season estimate, gallons times the plan price, into 10, 11 or 12 payments, shows the plan balance on every statement, proposes a new payment at the mid-season review, and refunds or bills the difference at the true-up. Customers pay online by card or bank, and budget customers can set up autopay.
Will-call orders come in through the customer portal, and a drop under the customer's minimum carries the small-delivery fee. A Sunday no-heat call adds the emergency delivery fee, the weekend charge and a restart charge. For an energy assistance household, FastDragon bills the agency its share and the household the rest, draws the award down with each delivery, and produces the agency's delivery report. Tax follows the site's use, home heat or commercial, with the declaration or certificate on file. FastDragon connects to QuickBooks Online and exports in QuickBooks format, and FastDragon quotes to your operation.
Picking one
- You deliver home heat and run an HVAC service department: ADD Energy E3 with Raven and Pegasus, or Cargas Energy.
- You are a cooperative with fuel, stores and card fueling: Red River.
- You already run convenience retail or wholesale on PDI, or you run Blue Cow today: PDI.
- You are a jobber or petroleum marketer adding heating oil to commercial delivery in one set of books: FastDragon.
Grade each on the demo cases above, with your own houses. For the trucks, see transport vs bobtail, tank truck compartments and hazmat placards; heating oil ships as UN 1202 or NA 1993. For commercial diesel routes, see best fuel delivery software, and for propane, propane and LP-gas distribution. Will-call and automatic customers and the season's swings are covered in the heating oil business explained.
Questions people ask
What is the best heating oil delivery software?
It depends on the dealer. ADD Energy E3 with Raven, and Cargas Energy, fit home heat dealers that also run a service department. Red River's RR Fuel fits cooperatives. PDI, which bought Blue Cow Software in 2023, fits distributors already on PDI. FastDragon, which publishes this guide, fits jobbers and petroleum marketers who want heating oil, commercial delivery and the books in one system.
What is a K-factor in heating oil delivery?
The number of heating degree days it takes a house to burn one gallon of oil. It is recomputed at every fill by dividing the degree days since the last fill by the gallons delivered, after taking out any gallons counted as hot water. Example: 1,056.5 degree days and a 181.4-gallon fill that includes 16.2 gallons of hot water give 1,056.5 divided by 165.2, a K-factor of 6.4.
How does automatic oil delivery work?
The dealer delivers before the tank runs low, and the customer leaves the timing to the dealer. Software estimates each day's use from heating degree days and the house's K-factor plus a daily hot-water figure, and lists the tanks nearing a reorder level such as a quarter tank. Tank monitor and driver gauge readings correct the estimate, and each fill updates the K-factor.
How do heating oil budget plans work?
A budget plan, or level payment plan, spreads a season's heating oil cost over 10, 11 or 12 equal payments: estimated gallons times the plan price, divided by the number of payments. At the end of the plan year the dealer trues up, refunding an overpayment or billing a shortfall. Example: 1,140 gallons at $6.15 is $7,011.00, or 12 payments of $584.25.
What does heating oil software cost?
ADD Systems, Cargas, Red River and PDI publish no prices on their sites. Ask each what its quote turns on, such as trucks, customers, modules, payment processing, tank monitor connections and data conversion, and get first-year and second-year totals and the contract term in writing. FastDragon quotes to your operation.
Does heating oil software work for propane too?
The established systems handle both. ADD Systems, Cargas Energy, Red River and PDI all name propane on their own pages. Propane brings tank and safety records of its own, so ask to see a propane tank and an oil tank on the same customer account.
Can heating oil software bill LIHEAP energy assistance?
It should. When a state pays the dealer directly, federal law has the dealer bill the household, in its normal billing, the difference between the fuel's cost and the state's payment (42 U.S.C. 8624(b)(7)). The software needs the award per household, the agency's share billed to the agency, the rest billed to the household, and the award balance after each delivery. States add their own price rules and paperwork.
Bring a house from your route and we will forecast it live
Sources
Read October 24, 2026. Weather: NOAA 1991-2020 monthly normals, Hartford Bradley International Airport (USW00014740), NOAA 1991-2020 annual and seasonal normals, same station, NOAA daily highs and lows, same station, July 2025 to June 2026, EIA, Degree days. Prices: EIA, Weekly Connecticut No. 2 Heating Oil Residential Price. Law and programs: Connecticut General Statutes chapter 296 (16a-17, 16a-21b, 16a-22a), chapter 296a (16a-23m, 16a-23n, 16a-23v), chapter 219 (12-412), 42 U.S.C. 8624, HHS, LIHEAP, Connecticut DSS, Energy Assistance Vendor Information, CEAP Deliverable Fuel Supplier/Vendor Conditions of Participation, 2026/2027, New York TB-ST-775, New York ECL 19-0327, 61 Pa. Code 32.25. Vendors, on each company's own site: ADD Systems heating oil, ADD Energy E360 / E3, ADD Systems Raven, Cargas Energy heating oil, Cargas fuel delivery, Cargas tank monitors, Cargas MyFuelPortal, Red River RR Fuel, PDI fuel oil and propane delivery software, PDI acquires Blue Cow Software, February 15, 2023. The house, its tank, K-factor, hot-water figure, plan prices, plan terms and the energy assistance award are worked examples.