Best Propane Delivery Software in 2026: A Dealer's Buyer's Guide

The best propane delivery software depends on the dealer. A dealer that delivers propane and heating oil and runs a service department fits ADD Systems' ADD Energy E3 with Raven in the trucks, or Cargas Energy. Cooperatives and fuel dealers should look at Red River's RR Fuel. A distributor already running convenience stores or wholesale on PDI can add PDI Propane and Commercial Fueling, and a multi-line distributor that wants one cloud ERP can look at iRely Petroleum. A jobber or petroleum marketer adding propane to commercial delivery and its own books should look at FastDragon. Any of them has to forecast each tank from degree days, keep the tank and safety records, and turn rent, plans, tax 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 25, 2026. Weather is NOAA's, for Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport in Michigan, turned into degree days with EIA's formula. Market prices come from EIA's weekly Michigan residential propane survey. Laws and rules come from the statute or regulation itself, or the state agency's own page. Industry practice comes from the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC), the industry's council. The farmhouse, its tank, the dealer's terms and every plan price are a worked example.

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 for heat, so a K-factor of 5.0 means a gallon every 5 degree days. Propane also runs the water heater, the range and often the dryer in any weather. That base use is counted in gallons a day and kept out of the K-factor.

By PERC's figures a gallon of propane holds about 91,500 Btu and a gallon of heating oil about 139,400. At the same efficiency a house burns about 1.5 gallons of propane for each gallon of oil, so its propane K-factor runs lower. Keep-full programs run on this arithmetic.

One farmhouse through the January 2026 cold

Worked example. A farmhouse outside Traverse City, Michigan heats with a propane furnace, and propane also runs its water heater, range and dryer. The dealer owns the 500-gallon tank in the yard and fills it to 80 percent, 400 gallons. The reorder level is 30 percent, 150 gallons. The K-factor on file is 5.0, and base use is 0.9 gallons a day. The truck filled the tank on the morning of Friday, January 2, 2026. The degree days are real, from the daily highs and lows NOAA recorded at Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport, station USW00014850.

Degree days: NOAA daily highs and lows, Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport, EIA formula. Gallons: worked example.

January 2026 ran cold at Traverse City: 1,404.5 degree days against a 1991-2020 normal of 1,297.2. On January 23 the high was 4°F and the low 4 below zero, 65 degree days, and the estimate took 13.9 gallons off the tank. In the mild week of January 9 it averaged 7.8 gallons a day.

On the morning of Tuesday, January 27 the estimate stood at 162.4 gallons and was falling about 13 gallons a day, so the dispatcher put the farmhouse on Wednesday's run. The forecast said the fill would take about 249 gallons.

The gauge, the meter and the ticket

The driver read the float gauge at 25 percent before the fill and 80 percent after. Those readings are 55 points of a 500-gallon tank, 275.0 gallons. The meter read 267.5 gallons. PERC describes a float gauge as an approximate measure, so the gauge checks the fill and the meter sets the bill. The gap here is 7.5 gallons, 1.5 percent of the tank.

Worked example. The price is near EIA's Michigan average for the week of January 26, 2026, $2.270 a gallon before tax. Tax: Michigan Department of Treasury.

That is 18.4 gallons over the estimate, so the K-factor on file was too high. Recompute it from the fill: 267.5 gallons delivered, minus 23.4 of base use (26 days at 0.9), leaves 244.1 gallons of heat, and the 1,128.5 degree days since the last fill divided by 244.1 gives 4.6. A dealer with no base figure divides the degree days by the gallons delivered, 1,128.5 ÷ 267.5 = 4.2, and that K-factor carries the base use inside it. On 4.6 the farmhouse comes due about two days sooner in a cold month.

Summer shows why the base figure matters. The 1991-2020 normals give Traverse City 280.2 degree days from June through September, 60.9 gallons of heat at a K-factor of 4.6. Base use takes 109.8 gallons over the same 122 days. A forecast on degree days alone misses almost two-thirds of the summer's propane, and the first fall delivery comes late.

Where the forecast goes wrong

A K-factor assumes the house burns propane the same way all winter. A cabin closed for the season, a month away with the thermostat down, or a new wood stove cuts use: the truck finds the tank well above its reorder level, and the fill after it pushes the K-factor too high. A new propane appliance, such as a pool heater, a fireplace or a standby generator, adds load outside the K-factor's history, and that is the run-out case: no heat, pilots out, and a leak check before the gas goes back on. iRely's propane page names date-sensitive holds for vacation and winterized properties. A tank monitor reports the real level, and the driver's gauge reading at each fill corrects the rest.

The money side

Automatic and will-call

Automatic customers leave the timing to the dealer: the software forecasts each tank, and the truck comes before it reaches the reorder level. Will-call customers read their own gauge and phone or click in an order. Automatic tanks come up on a due list; will-call orders arrive with a requested date. The example dealer sets a 100-gallon minimum on will-call orders and charges a small-delivery fee under it, since a short drop takes nearly the truck time of a full one.

Tank rent

A dealer that owns the tank can charge rent for it and can waive the rent when the customer buys enough propane. The example dealer's own terms: $90 a year for a 500-gallon tank, billed each January for the year before, and waived in any year the customer takes 600 gallons or more. The farmhouse takes about 1,875 gallons a year, so its rent is waived. A cabin whose tank was set on June 1, 2026 and took 210 gallons by December 31 pays rent for 7 of 12 months: $90 × 7 ÷ 12 = $52.50. The software has to count gallons per tank per rent year, keep the set and pickup dates, and prorate.

Budget plans

A budget plan, or level payment plan, spreads a season's propane cost over equal monthly payments. Worked example, the same farmhouse for 2026-27: normal degree days give 1,544 gallons of heat (7,104.1 ÷ 4.6) plus 329 of base use (365 days at 0.9), 1,873 gallons, and the dealer plans on 1,875. At $2.44 a gallon, near EIA's Michigan average of $2.434 for the week of October 19, 2026 before tax, that is $4,575.00. Michigan's 4 percent tax adds $183.00, for $4,758.00 in all: 12 payments of $396.50 or 10 of $475.80.

The true-up settles the difference at the end of the plan year. If 2026-27 repeats the 7,140.0 degree days Traverse City recorded from July 2025 to June 2026, the farmhouse takes 1,552 gallons of heat plus 329 of base use, about 1,881 gallons, 6 more than the plan, and the true-up bills those 6 gallons. January 2026 alone ran 8 percent above its normal degree days, so a mid-season review needs care.

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 267.5-gallon January 28 fill under each plan.

Worked example. Market is near EIA's Michigan average for the week of January 26, 2026, $2.270 a gallon before tax.

EIA's Michigan average rose from $2.335 to $2.434 between October 5 and October 19, 2026, the first two weeks of this season's survey. A dealer that sells fixed, capped or prebuy gallons has to buy or hedge supply to match them, so the software has to show the gallons still owed under every plan, 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, weatherization and minor energy-related home repairs. A state may pay the dealer directly; then federal law has the dealer charge the household, in its normal billing, the difference between the actual cost and the state's payment (42 U.S.C. § 8624(b)(7)). Worked example: an award with $400.00 left and a $600.00 delivery bills $400.00 to the agency and $200.00 to the household. Check the state's vendor agreement for its paperwork and price terms.

Sales tax on home heat

Michigan taxes propane, fuel oil and other home heating fuels sold for residential use at 4 percent. The general rate is 6 percent, and Michigan's sales tax is a state tax only. Treasury counts houses, apartments, condominiums and mobile homes used as dwellings, with a bathroom, a kitchen sink and cooking facilities, as residential. A hotel, motel or nursing home falls under the 6 percent rate, and other exemptions, such as agricultural producing, may apply to other uses (RAB 1994-8). A seller of these fuels from a retail location for residential use gets the buyer's written statement that the fuel qualifies for 4 percent, and Treasury's return instructions put delivery charges into the taxed amount (Form 5096). The software taxes each delivery by the site's use and keeps the statement with the site.

Tanks, safety and the truck

Who owns the tank

The tank record has to name the owner. Michigan law bars anyone from moving propane into or out of a stationary tank without the written authorization of the tank's owner. A violation is a misdemeanor, a civil suit can recover actual damages or $2,000 per violation, whichever is greater, plus costs and attorney fees, and a dealer suing to collect for a fill has to prove it had the authorization (MCL 429.112 and 429.113). Minnesota and Delaware bar anyone but the owner, or someone the owner authorizes in writing, from filling a container marked with the owner's name (Minn. Stat. § 299F.40; 16 Del. C. § 7202). In Michigan the rule works both ways: the farmhouse's tank belongs to the dealer, and a customer-owned tank needs the customer's written authorization before the dealer fills it.

How full a tank gets

Liquid propane expands as it warms, so a tank keeps room above the liquid. Dealers fill a home tank to about 80 percent of its volume as common practice, which puts about 400 gallons in a 500-gallon tank. On a cylinder, PERC describes a fixed level gauge whose tube reaches 20 percent into the cylinder and signals at 80 percent full. Texas fills a single-opening DOT cylinder under 101 pounds of propane capacity by weight only, at 0.42 times its water capacity in pounds, so a cylinder with a water capacity of 47.6 pounds takes 47.6 × 0.42 = 19.992 pounds of propane (16 TAC § 9.136). Delaware makes it unlawful to fill a container over 30 pounds past the amount NFPA 58 allows, or to fill one at a customer's property without a fill tube or gauge unless it is weighed before and after (16 Del. C. §§ 7202, 7207). The bobtail's own tank follows the table in 49 CFR 173.315(b): 45 percent of the weight of water it holds, for a tank over 1,200 gallons carrying propane with a specific gravity of 0.504 to 0.510.

After a run-out

When a tank runs out or service is interrupted, PERC tells customers to have the retailer or a qualified professional perform a leak check, restore service and light the pilots. A new tank set gets a leak check before the gas goes on, as common dealer practice. Some states write the run-out check into their rules. Florida's LP-gas rule covers both cases: a tank that ran out gets its valves closed and its appliances and lines checked, with written notice left when no one is home, and a system whose gas supply was interrupted gets a leak test, with the results documented, before it goes back into service (Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-20.044). The software has to know which sites ran out, hold them, and keep each leak check with its date, technician and result.

The bobtail

Propane ships as UN1075, Petroleum gases, liquefied (or Liquefied petroleum gas), or as UN1978, Propane. Both are Division 2.1, flammable gas (49 CFR 172.101). A bobtail's tank is a bulk packaging, so it carries FLAMMABLE GAS placards on each side and each end with any amount aboard (172.504), the identification number on each side and each end for a tank of 1,000 gallons or more (172.302), and the name of the gas on each side and each end in letters at least 2 inches high (172.328(b)). The tank is built to Specification MC 331 (178.337), one of the cargo tanks 49 CFR 173.315 authorizes for liquefied petroleum gas, and carries a QT or NQT mark near its specification plate for the steel it is made of (172.328(c)). Texas's LP-gas rules define a bobtail driver as one who runs an LP-gas cargo tank motor vehicle of 5,000 gallons water capacity or less in metered delivery service (16 TAC § 9.2). Test intervals are in cargo tank inspections, and placards in hazmat placards and UN numbers.

Cylinders

Cylinder exchange is its own count: full cylinders out and empties in, by size, at each stop, with deposits. Texas has the filler look over each container or cylinder before filling it and refuse to fill any that is dented, bulged, gouged or corroded enough to substantially weaken it (16 TAC § 9.137).

The kinds of propane software

Back offices built around delivered fuel

Three established systems keep tanks, forecasts, plans and receivables in one database. ADD Systems sells ADD Energy E3 and E360, and its propane page names forecasting, tracking of where each tank and cylinder is, tank rental and cylinder leasing, tank monitoring, and single or recurring card payments over the web. Cargas Energy keeps leased tanks under the customer's account, shows tank monitor readings in the system, handles automatic, scheduled, will-call and monitored tickets in one place, and sets cylinder exchange schedules from turnover rate, average drop and delivery history. Red River sells RR Fuel to jobbers and retail propane dealers, with degree-day and K-factor forecasting, prepaid and budget contracts for propane customers, tank and contract detail per customer, and pre-buy pricing across usage tiers set before the heating season. Our ADD Systems and Red River profiles go further.

ERP

Two vendors sell propane delivery inside a larger platform: an ERP, one system for the whole company. PDI Propane and Commercial Fueling combines delivery routing, CRM and accounting, with in-truck delivery and service, a customer portal for orders, pricing plans and payments, a customer app, and cloud hosting. It fits a distributor already running convenience retail or wholesale on PDI. iRely Petroleum is a cloud ERP for multi-line wholesalers, propane distributors, carriers and store operators. Its propane page tracks equipment down to the appliance, tank sets, leak checks and gas checks per tank, and billing for company-owned equipment, and it delivers on will-call, keep-full, degree day, set intervals and tank monitors. Our iRely profile goes further.

In-truck systems

Each vendor sells truck software for its own back office. ADD's Raven runs on tablets and phones, works with all major register brands, captures leak and pressure test readings, tracks cylinder cages, and numbers more than 8,000 in North America by ADD's count. Cargas's driver app records the gallons delivered, prints the ticket and takes a signature or a payment. RR Fuel installs on tablets and laptops in the truck and can be hard-wired to the meter head. PDI's in-truck delivery updates the office as each delivery is completed. 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.

FastDragon

FastDragon is a back office for jobbers and petroleum marketers, with propane and heating oil delivery in its Tank Wagon module, covered below.

The vendors at a glance

Source: each vendor's own pages, read October 25, 2026. PDI is priced by quote. 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 tank whose last two fills ran 18 gallons over the forecast. Show the fill history, the base use, and how to keep one odd fill out of the K-factor.
• The Saturday night run-out. Show the site on hold, where the leak check is recorded with the technician and the result, and the after-hours fee and restart charge on one ticket.
• The rent waiver. A customer who reached 600 gallons in November, and a cabin whose tank was set in June. Show the rent waived on one and prorated on the other.
• The customer-owned tank. Show the owner on the tank record and where the owner's written authorization to fill it is kept.
• The budget customer behind. Two missed payments and an automatic 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 267.5-gallon fill. Show one invoice with both prices and the plan named on each line.
• The LIHEAP split. An award with $400.00 left and a $600.00 delivery. Show both invoices, the award balance and the agency's delivery report.
• The tank pickup. A customer leaving a dealer-owned tank with 140 gallons in it. Show the pickup order, the pump-out credit and the final bill.

Where FastDragon fits

FastDragon runs propane delivery in its Tank Wagon module, on the trucks, drivers and runs of FastDragon Hauling. The same farmhouse runs through it like this.

The tank record holds the serial number, the 500-gallon water capacity, the owner, the install date, location notes with a photo, and the last inspection date. The customer is set to Automatic, and the tank carries its K-factor and its base use in gallons a day. 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 27 the dispatcher picks the farmhouse for Wednesday'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 gauge reading before and after the fill and the meter start and stop to three decimals, and takes a signature and a photo, with or without signal. FastDragon checks the gallons against the tank's size and its fill limit. The invoice is written at the drop at Michigan's 4 percent residential rate for the site, 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, after taking out the base use. A tank monitor reading or the driver's reading overrides the estimate, and a reading under the tank's threshold sends one alert.

A run-out or a new tank set puts the site on hold until a passing leak check is recorded, with the date, the technician, the technician's certification number and the result. A run-out call after hours carries the emergency delivery fee and the restart charge. Tank set and pickup orders cover the install, the removal, and the credit or charge for propane pumped out of a tank coming back.

Tank rent bills yearly or monthly per tank, is waived when the customer's gallons for the year reach the minimum, and prorates a part year. 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. 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 buyer's statement or certificate on file. Cylinder exchange counts full cylinders out and empties in by size for each customer, with cylinder deposits. The bobtail's gallons and their cost are kept on the truck, relieved at each pour and checked at the end-of-day count, and the day's tickets and invoices go out after approval. Invoices post to the FastDragon ledger, and FastDragon quotes to your operation.

Picking one

• You deliver propane and heating oil and run an HVAC service department: ADD Energy E3 with Raven and Pegasus, or Cargas Energy.
• You are a cooperative or fuel dealer that wants degree-day forecasting and prepaid contracts in the back office: Red River's RR Fuel.
• You already run convenience retail or wholesale on PDI: PDI Propane and Commercial Fueling.
• You run wholesale, propane, lubricants, card lock and stores and want one cloud ERP: iRely Petroleum.
• You are a jobber or petroleum marketer adding propane to commercial delivery in one set of books: FastDragon.

Grade each on the demo cases above, with your own tanks. For the trucks and drivers, see transport vs bobtail and CDL hazmat and tanker endorsements. For heating oil, see best heating oil delivery software; for commercial diesel routes, see best fuel delivery software. Where propane fits in a fuel business is in propane and LP-gas distribution.

Questions people ask

Bring a tank from your route and we will forecast it live

Sources

Read October 25, 2026. Weather: NOAA daily highs and lows, Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport (USW00014850), July 2025 to June 2026, NOAA 1991-2020 monthly normals, same station, NOAA 1991-2020 annual and seasonal normals, same station, EIA, Degree days. Prices: EIA, Heating Oil and Propane Update, EIA, Weekly Michigan Propane Residential Price. Industry practice: PERC, Safety Guide for Propane Users, PERC, Propane Technical Pocket Guide, PERC, Measurements and Calculations with Propane (Lesson 5), PERC, Handling Propane Fuel (Lesson 8). Law and rules: 49 CFR 171.8, 49 CFR 172.101, 49 CFR 172.302, 49 CFR 172.328, 49 CFR 172.504, 49 CFR 173.315, 49 CFR 178.337 (Specification MC 331), Florida Administrative Code r. 5J-20.044, Texas Railroad Commission LP-gas rules, 16 TAC chapter 9 (9.2, 9.136, 9.137), Delaware Code title 16, chapter 72 (7202, 7207), Minnesota Statutes 299F.40, Michigan Act 241 of 1959 (MCL 429.111 to 429.113), Michigan Treasury, Sales and Use Taxes, Michigan Revenue Administrative Bulletin 1994-8, Michigan Form 5096 instructions, 2026, 42 U.S.C. 8624, HHS, LIHEAP. Vendors, on each company's own site: ADD Systems propane, ADD Systems Raven, Cargas Energy propane, Cargas fuel delivery, Cargas cylinder exchange, Red River RR Fuel, PDI Propane and Commercial Fueling, PDI Technologies, iRely Petroleum, iRely propane delivery. The farmhouse, its tank, K-factor, base use, gauge and meter readings, the dealer's rent, minimum and plan terms, and the energy assistance award are worked examples.