As seen in The Landscape Contractor:

Buying Palatine Oil Co., Inc. in 1972 was the “dumbest best mistake I ever made,” says Ron Cox. Through lots of hard work and some good employees, he has turned it into a successful company that continues to grow. He says he credits his ILCA membership and active participation as a part of that success. He has contributed so much to the organization that in 1995 he received ILCA’s Distinguished Service Award.

Since joining ILCA, Ron Cox has served as a resource for members, advertised regularly in The Landscape Contractor magazine, helped sponsor the Golf Outing, exhibited at Mid-Am and Summer Field Day, offered space as a parking site for the Fall Tour, and donated his time and talent to various ILCA activities. In addition, many of Palatine Oil Co., Inc.’s employees have been active on committees.

His wife, Susan, has been by his side, helping with the bookwork, as well as some car washes that they owned for awhile. She still balances the check-book and does the payroll. Now their two children, Amy and Matt, have joined them in the business. Matt drives a semitruck and Amy works in the office.

It all started with a proposition. Susan had an uncle who owned a car wash. He knew of an oil company for sale, but needed a partner. At the time, Cox was a successful stereo equipment salesman for Bell & Howell, and in line for a promotion. But he always wanted to go into business for himself. Within a short time, Cox went from what he describes as a “cushy job to an extremely hard one.”

“My take home pay (at Bell & Howell) was more than the company was grossing in a year,” he says. Now company sales for two to three days equal more than the yearly total when he took over. Together with his division manager, Tom Liston, who was his first employee and still works for him, and the continually growing staff, Cox has built the business into a full-service distributor of gasoline, diesel fuel and motor oil, specializing in above- and below-ground tank installations and upgrades. Palatine Oil Co., Inc. now employs 30 people, many of whom have been there for 15 to 20 years.

“Our motto is ‘ONE CALL DOES IT ALL’,” Cox says. He prides himself on keeping the company on the cutting edge, as well as maintaining high quality, offering competitive prices and excellent service. He says he looks forward to not only many more years in the business, but in ILCA, too.

Testimonials

'Peapod operates a fleet of delivery step vans consuming 5,100 gallons of gasoline per week during our 7 day multiple shift operation. Purchasing fuel at retail locations was costly, inefficient, subject to shrink, and increased potential for vehicle accidents.

The on-site fuel program provided by Palatine Oil Company has eliminated all of these issues. Peapod has reduced fuel cost, increased driver productivity, reduced fuel shrinkage, and eliminated fuel station vehicle accidents.

In addition, our monitoring of fuel consumption per vehicle and per driver has helped our drivers improve their miles per gallon. We also utilize the fuel reader to advise drivers of preventative maintenance schedules.

'Peapod highly recommends the Palatine Oil Company for their customer driven team and attention to detail.'

Bob Kruse
Senior Transpiration Manager
And Facilities Manager

Ken Coslet, Owner
Terra Cotta Truck Service, Inc.
Crystal Lake, IL

Flameshield Tanks Help to Keep Peapod’s Trucks on the Road

The business model for Peapod, L.L.C. depends upon ultra-efficient usage of its stepvans, which are full of pre-sorted grocery orders from thousands of customers.

Peapod is one of the nation’s leading interactive grocers – serving families in metropolitan areas such as Boston, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; Fairfield County, Ct.; Hartford, Ct.; Washington, D.C.; and New York suburbs in Westchester County and Long Island.

Most of its customers choose the items they want from lists accessible on Peapod’s web site. Then they expect Peapod to deliver the items at a designated time. This can lead to logistical challenges.

In the Chicago area, for instance, Peapod covers an area about 100 miles in length and 40 miles wide – from southeastern Wisconsin to south Cook County in Illinois and from the shores of Lake Michigan to the Fox River Valley.

With 60 trucks to cover in hundreds of communities, Bob Kruse, senior transportation and facilities manager for Peapod, knew that the company could not afford to displease customers by wasting time on fueling issues.

The Chicago area’s approximately 40,000 Peapod customers expect grocery items to be delivered at times convenient for them, which means drivers cannot take 20 to 35 minutes just to refill a stepvan’s tank at a gas station, Kruse said. Delivery times also can be waylaid if drivers are searching for gas stations that will accept fleet fueling cards.

So, four years ago, when Peapod was establishing its fleet facility in northwest suburban Lake Zurich, Kruse was keeping productivity in mind as he gave the order for installation of two 2,500-gallon Flameshield aboveground storage tanks.

“Fueling takes three minutes at our site,” Kruse said. Pumps twice as powerful as the standard for gas stations, and no convenience-store distractions, add to the speed that keeps Peapod’s trucks on the move.

Kruse was also concerned with risk management, and accepted the recommendation of a contractor that Flameshield’s double-wall design and two-hour fire rating provided essential protection on environmental and fire-safety issues.

Portability, in case a change in location was ever needed, and ease of installation also influenced Kruse’s selection. “We were up and running in a week,” he recalled. “You can’t do that with an underground tank.”

So, the two Flameshield tanks help to keep Peapod’s Chicago area drivers on schedule for 150,000 miles of deliveries per month.