The second method for reducing the costs associated with filling medical oxygen delivery vessels seems obvious to the level of ridiculous: Install a bulk liquid oxygen tank at the delivery company’s home facility. Often missed are the not-so-obvious challenges and innovative methods employed by some companies.
Typically, homecare oxygen companies considering installation of a bulk cryogenic tank need demand to be high enough to entice a delivery company to come fill their storage vessel and there needs to be a location at their site for semi-permanent installation of a tank. Also, their use level high needs to be high enough to avoid excessive product waste from boil-off evaporation. A company that owns their own facility with surrounding open space and has a use rate of over 1000 gallons a week usually has no problem meeting these conditions and probably already has a bulk tank.
A more interesting twist has been employed by some companies with less demand and/or the inability to get approval for installation of a bulk tank. Several have chosen to purchase a portable bulk tank and operate much like the old book-mobile or roving library. These companies are buying mid-sized (500-850 gallon) portable liquid delivery vessels and truck or trailer mounting them. They are then taking their liquid oxygen vessel to their main site or a satellite facility and parking it so that their delivery drivers can fill more quickly and conveniently without waiting in line at the main liquid supplier. It is also possible for them to tie this liquid source into a small fill system to charge gas cylinders. Some are getting their portable vessel filled in the field by liquid suppliers who bring the liquid to them. Others are still driving to the main supplier for liquid oxygen, but they are greatly reducing waste by having only one truck go to the supplier instead of several. Time is also saved since they are able to schedule their pickups at lower demand times and avoid long lines.
At last night’s SMEI (Sales & Marketing Executives International) Houston chapter inaugural meeting one participant commented that there are a dozen different ways to DO things right. The emphasis remains on the “do” verb.
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