Heating season is here. Hauling season never ends. Here's what's hot and what's not right now.

Winter is just around the corner. Here's what that means for fuel dealers, haulers and everyone else who runs a route-based business.

Heating oil is getting more expensive. That's according to the US Energy Information Administration's  2026-27 Winter Fuels Outlook. It's predicting oil prices averaging 34% more than last winter and households spending 21% more to heat their homes. The explanation? A tight distillate supply brought on by among other factors increased tariffs and the war in Iran.

The good news is propane prices are easing. Propane customers should spend about 3% less this winter per the US Energy Information Administration.

But more tough news. Diesel prices are squeezing even the biggest haulers. Though some companies are reporting higher third-quarter results, the continued increases in diesel prices threaten to erode profits, especially for smaller independent operators.   

A hard cold fact about customer card payments this winter.

A lot of fuel dealers and haulers rely on customer auto-payments for billing purposes.  Turns out this winter we are very likely to see the fees credit cards charge for allowing your customers to use cards for their auto-payments are going up. This was true last year. The Merchants Payments Coalition reported that swipe fees in 2025 increased 2.36%.

There is pending legislation in Washington to limit any such increases through the Credit Card Competition Act. But though this act has both White House and bipartisan support, it has yet to be enacted. Don't hold your breath that this bill will pass soon, especially after the recent midterm elections.

It doesn't take a change in the weather for processing fees to be higher.

Turns out some fuel dealers and haulers are paying more than they have to to process cards irrespective of the time of the year. Take those who miss out on utility pricing. Visa and Mastercard offer special interchange programs for qualifying utility merchants, including fuel oil and propane merchants. But one must know the correct procedures and standards to qualify. A lot of merchants simply do not.

Then there are those merchants who do not provide enough data to qualify for the lower rates that come with business cards. When this happens, the rate automatically reverts to the higher consumer rate.

Merchants who do not keep a close eye on their credit card processing are probably not aware of all the fees that are associated with credit card usage. Gateway fees, tokenization fees, card-vault fees, batch fees—they all add up. There are ways to minimize these fees, but only if you are paying attention.

Then there are payments that fail. A lot of times it is inadvertent. Like when the card a customer uses to make auto-payments has expired without the customer realizing it at the time. It's unfortunate, but it means extra time expended and costs experienced by the merchant. 

Are you leaving $25,000 on the table?

A dealer or hauler running a $5 million a year in card volume who lowers their effective rate by half a percentage point will end up saving $25,000 a year. That can buy a lot of winter holiday presents.

Make it the winter of your content with these steps to help you save on card processing.

Audit your statement. It's the way to find your true effective rate and ensure you are not paying more than necessary. 

Do what you need to qualify for utility pricing. This means correctly applying pre-authorization procedures.

Make sure your processor recognizes when corporate and purchasing cards are being used. You don't want to have to pay the higher consumer rate if you don't have to.

Keep stored cards current. An account updater service will update card data automatically.

Integrate payments with your billing software. This avoids manual entry, reconciliation time and keying errors that cause downgrades.

Another way to avoid card fees—consider not accepting cards for your largest deliveries.

Sometimes a credit card is not the best way to get paid—particularly if you are trying to avoid a large fee. Sometimes ACH is a better alternative.

ACH stands for automated clearing house. It is a computer-based electronic network used to process domestic financial transactions and bank-to-bank transfers in the US. It generally costs much less than a card transaction and its usage is priced as a flat fee rather than a percentage cost as with credit cards.

ACH is ideal in certain scenarios. Like in the case of customers who receive one large annual or semi-annual delivery of heating oil or propane. The same holds true of those who receive periodic deliveries rather than routine scheduled deliveries.

Then again some people who do receive routine monthly or quarterly fuel deliveries or trash and recycling services might simply prefer having their expenses taken directly out of their banking account.

There are some tradeoffs with ACH versus card usage.  For example, ACH settles more slowly than cards.  Special written authorization from each customer is also required.

But turning to ACH does not mean you should fully eliminate credit cards.  Credit cards are a convenience you should always be able to offer your customers, no matter the season.