Switching from oil quarts to drums

[ricoexport]

hey guys and gals need your help

long story short, we currently use, buy and stock quarts of oil for our oil changes, im paying $2.29 a quart and $1.59 per common filter

im looking to convert to a quick lube shop, a in-and-out 10 minute center, so im looking to cut my parts price if possible

we have never bought oil drums so have no idea how much they cost, what we need as far as pumps etc/ and where can i buy it?

looking to cut my cost so i can ultimately lower my prices to complete with near by companies

not looking for high name brand oil just your basic oil in different weights

we have stocked autozone brand oil, wolf's head, parts plus and other no name oil's just looking for something cheap and reliable

also if anyone else is getting a better price on filters or quarts of oil let me know where i can purschade them

i understand that states prices may vary, im in central florida

thanks for help in advance

Edited August 29, 2012 by ricoexport

[Jon]

I just recently switched to drums after using quarts for 20 years. All i can say is I should have convinced my father to do this sooner. I did not want to make a large investment in equipment (tanks & dispensers) to find out that it wasn't what we wanted so what I did was purchase a drum cradle that you can lay the barrel on its side and use like a beer tap. This gave me a way to move the barrel and dispense it, and it only cost $135.00 from Granger. You can see the product here My link.

 

I first only purchased one cradle and one drum of 5/30 oil and found it to fit my needs perfectly and now i am going to switch all of my oil to drums

 

Hope this helps.

[ricoexport]

I just recently switched to drums after using quarts for 20 years. All i can say is I should have convinced my father to do this sooner. I did not want to make a large investment in equipment (tanks & dispensers) to find out that it wasn't what we wanted so what I did was purchase a drum cradle that you can lay the barrel on its side and use like a beer tap. This gave me a way to move the barrel and dispense it, and it only cost $135.00 from Granger. You can see the product here My link.

 

I first only purchased one cradle and one drum of 5/30 oil and found it to fit my needs perfectly and now i am going to switch all of my oil to drums

 

Hope this helps.

 

that is excellent!

exactly what im looking or like you said to start with, i will definitely look into this

but my main question is how much am i cutting my costs by?

for example how much is that drum of 5/30? what brand is it? and where can i buy them?

thanks again for the info jon

Edited August 29, 2012 by ricoexport

[Jon]

Oil prices I'm sure will very by location, but I just purchased two barrels of regular 5/30 & 5/20 for $428 each comes out to be $1.98 for a quart. I purchased from Jones Oil company which has a local branch here in Houston. My quart prices got up to 3.50 a quart, so it saved me a lot. The brand is just their house oil similar O-Reilly brand type oil. I just started calling oil companies asking for prices.

[CARMandP]

I switched to drum last year from quarts. One you don't have to deal with the mess of the quart bottles. I actually switched to Pennzoil because I wanted to be able to offer a good known brand not just "cheap" oil. You will need to price it but I can tell you it costs much less to buy in bulk. If you are planning to buy a lot each month your local supplier may be able to supply you with the displensers and pipework. Make sure you call around to get the best price. I am buying Pennzoil at $3 a quart instead of the $3.99 for the oreilly brand.

[xrac]

My oil dispensing equipment is furnished by my bulk oil vendor at no cost to me. We have a 275 gallon tank with pump, reel, and meter (5-W-30). We do not have room for more tanks so we also have a steel rack with three 120 gallon square plastic totes that we use for 10-W-30, 5-W-20, and Mercron-Dextron ATF. These totes have ball valves and ends for dispensing product much like the drum racks your are describing. The vendor comes with a bulk oil truck when I need it and fills the tank and/or totes. Buying bulk oil is much cheaper than buying quarts or 55 gallons of oil. Our oil costs substantially less than $2.00 per quart. You can choose what type of oil you want. Do you want the house brand (cheapest) or a name brand (higher). The advantage of this system also is that there are no extra drums of oil to store, there are no drums to man handle, and there are no drums or oil bottles to dispose. My recommendation would be to contact a bulk oil vendor in your city and see what could be possible.

[xrac]

Talking about oil changes. What do you guys charge for an oil change with a standard filter and 5 quarts of oil? We are at $29.95 plus $2.00 environmental. We are going to $31.95 plus $2.00.

[CARMandP]

$31.97 up to 6 quarts with the standard filter.

[ricoexport]

im charging $24.95 up to 4 quarts with standard filter

$3.99 each additional quart

 

call me crazy but i dont charge shop supplies/ disposal fees / etc

there are some local shops charging "$15.99" for oil changes and after there obnoxious fees and taxes the customer leaves with a $30 bill

maybe i should charge "$10" for oil change plus fees and make it come out to $25 lol maybe ill get more traffic around here

[CARMandP]

I personally charge shop supplies on every ticket. It covers the brake cleaner I use to clean the block with, the rag that I use to wipe it clean with, the rag I use to check the oil with, covers my oil stickers, covers the crush washers that I use. You can't charge individually for all that.

[Dennis R.]

im charging $24.95 up to 4 quarts with standard filter

$3.99 each additional quart

 

call me crazy but i dont charge shop supplies/ disposal fees / etc

there are some local shops charging "$15.99" for oil changes and after there obnoxious fees and taxes the customer leaves with a $30 bill

maybe i should charge "$10" for oil change plus fees and make it come out to $25 lol maybe ill get more traffic around here

 

 

We charge $42.95 for our standard oil change 5 qts and filter - and we have customers leave them for the entire day just for an oil change because they know we will look over their vehicle and make sure it is safe -- We even polled over 1000 customers and asked them if they wanted us to put in a quick lube bay so they could wait and get a quick oil change by a margin of 20-1 all wanted to keep the oil changes just as they are and would rather leave their vehicles

 

As far as oil , we have always had bulk , the oil companies paid for all the equipment 20 years ago and gave it to us -- we have a 500 gallon oil tank but usually only fill it with 100 gallons at a time since oil is so expensive right now -- using store brand oil we pay $2.23 per quart buying it 100 gallons at a time -- we are planning on buying more and more this summer and fill the entire tank before winter hits to not have to put out $1000 each time we buy a 100 gallons during the winter if business slows down.

[SHP Bobby]

I'm at $40 for a full service (up to 6 quarts house brand), $30 on a oil/filter only, and I offer a "take home DIY kit" that goes for $20. I don't really sell any of the DIY kits, but when the customer realizes that I can do it for only $10-$20 more than he can do it himself it makes the service an easy sell.

 

After looking at how much I'm burning though on rags, cleaners, pigmats, etc, I started adding shop supplies to all of my tickets. $3-$5 for most jobs, and $1 on oil changes unless I'm offering a special that month. Easier than trying to bill out something like .5oz of sealant.