HONESDALE, Pa. — When the temperatures dip down, employees at Firmstone Lakewood Fuels in Honesdale spend the day picking up the phone. Lisa Bilski is the office manager and says they try to plan ahead for the steady stream of customers calling to fill up their fuel tanks.
"Guys are loading trucks before the sun's up. But we know we're going to be here for long hours every day until we get everybody done. We don't want to push the drivers or the office staff too hard, so usually, we do take a Sunday down, but when we need to work, we come in. We're all hands on deck right now," Bilski said.
Some of the calls are from customers who may have lost track of time and how much fuel they have in their tanks and are now in a pinch to heat their homes.
"Everybody needs to be warm, but it takes us a couple of days to get to people sometimes. We can process up to over 150 orders in a day, and we only have so many trucks and so many hours in the day to get it all done."
Bad weather tends to slow things down for the delivery drivers, and there are things that customers can do to help speed up the process.
"When it's an inch or two of ice or three feet of snow, that's a hard pull for those guys too. So any little bit that the customers can help give us a little give them a little pat. Throw some cinders down, throw some salt down. It really helps them doing one of their 40 stops they're going to do today."
Another reminder? Be diligent, especially when the weather forecast is looking frigid.
"We do ask you to keep an eye on that gauge when it hits even below a half to above a quarter," Bilski added. "That gives us at least a week, which is very rare for us to go that long, but at least a week it gives us to get there."
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