An Abundance of Caution?

Today the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a press release alerting the public to a potential safety hazard: Some propane shipped to Connecticut in early 2010 may have been inadequately odorized.

The local TV station will run reports on how dangerous propane can be, and consumers will be encouraged to regard their propane tanks as they would armed terrorists.  Business as usual on a slow news day.

Even though the State Fire Marshal’s Office conducted a lengthy investigation and found it unlikely that any poorly odorized propane ever reached Connecticut, we are told this warning goes out “in an abundance of caution.”

Really?  The last time any improperly odorized propane could possibly have reached a consumer was September, 2010.  Four months later is “an abundance of caution?”  After much thought, I find this announcement offensive.

There is, indeed, an abundance of caution, but it has nothing to do with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a press release, or a consumer hotline.

It seems the CPSC assumes that we never thought to check if our propane is properly odorized.  In the propane industry we are well aware of the fact that delivering gas isn’t the same as, say, delivering bark-mulch.

Safety isn’t just an afterthought… it’s what we sell.

We test our propane for proper Odorization three different times:

* When it is delivered to our facility
* When our drivers load their trucks
* When we deliver it to each customer’s tank

If we had ever received un-odorized propane, we would know it.  And yet the CPSC is basically saying: “Perhaps your propane company didn’t notice their propane had no odorant last summer.”  This is like saying: “Perhaps your ice cream store didn’t notice their freezer didn’t work last summer.”

A Plumber You Can Trust!

I don’t know about you, but my experience with plumbers over the last 25 years has been mixed. There was a guy I met in a dank basement in Brooklyn, NY who scared the daylights out of me.  Mostly because I was only 21, and he was covered with tattoos and spoke by belching through a little leather flap covering his tracheotomy.

Over the years, I’ve used plumbers at my houses and my business, and I’ve helped arrange for plumbers to take care of customers who needed work we couldn’t provide. The big plumbing outfits often seemed impersonal and expensive, and the little guys didn’t always respond promptly or were too busy to get to a job in a reasonable timeframe (or they were really scary…)

One of the bright spots in my plumbing experience has been Rick O’Dell who has run O’Dell’s Plumbing & Heating in Morris since he took over the business from his father almost 30 years ago.  Rick always called us back the same day, and he never said he was too busy to take care of us.  When my wife worked with him on a bathroom in our old house, she was comfortable that he understood exactly what she wanted, and how she wanted it done.

Rick and I were chatting recently about what our futures looked like, and I immediately realized that this was someone who shares our business values.  The conversation naturally turned to how we might join forces and offer an improved service to even more people.  Four months later, Rick has formally joined the Bantam Fuel team and now we can offer full plumbing services as well as heating, cooling, and gas piping.