This week your CSR is still hunting tickets that never made it back from the bobtail. The chase starts after the truck leaves the driveway. Proof of delivery on the tablet closes that gap at the tank.
What the office is still chasing after the truck leaves
Paper tickets walk back to the office in a stack, and some are wet or skip a field. Some never make it out of the cab. Your CSR then calls the driver, digs through yesterday's pile, and retypes gallons into the account.
The chase is almost always the same four items. Your office needs the signature, the gallon print, the stop photo, and the customer note. Until those land in one place the office can open, billing waits and callbacks pile up.
Put the ticket fields where the driver finishes the fill and capture them once. Let the office pull the same record without calling the driver.
What a delivery ticket must show
North Carolina's Standards Division, LP-Gas Section, summarizes delivery-ticket rules under N.C. General Statutes Chapter 81A-26 and 02 NCAC 38 .0702. The ticket must be left at the time of delivery.
It must show the vendor's name and address and the purchaser's name. It must show the date delivered and the quantity delivered. It must show the common name of the product (propane), the price per gallon, and any charges associated with that delivery.
For meter deliveries into storage containers, that page requires a printer on the liquid meter. That printer must print the quantity on the delivery ticket, and a copy goes to the consumer.
That page also states that technology often outpaces regulations. Systems that send an electronic delivery ticket by email are acceptable. They must use data from the meter into the software and include the required information. The ticket must reach the customer in a timely manner, ideally the same day.
On its consumer FAQ, the same division says a customer may elect an email copy when all parties agree. That FAQ says the customer is still entitled to a paper copy at delivery.
Check your own state weights-and-measures and LP-gas rules. That list is a clear operator checklist for the fields your ticket must carry, whether the copy is paper or electronic.
How a delivery ticket ties to shipping-paper retention
Under a permanent shipping paper, a delivery ticket can serve as the record of each shipment. In Interpretation Response 03-0273, published January 7, 2004, PHMSA answered the Texas Propane Gas Association. That answer covered retention under 49 CFR 172.201(e).
The agency said a "deliver ticket" meets the record-of-each-shipment requirement under a permanent shipping paper. Each ticket must include shipping name, identification number, quantity transported, and date of shipment. Without a permanent shipping paper, the agency said the dealer must retain each shipping paper copy, or an electronic image thereof. The retention rule itself is in 49 CFR 172.201(e). Each person who provides a shipping paper must retain a copy, or an electronic image thereof. Keep it accessible at or through its principal place of business. For hazardous materials other than hazardous waste, retention is two years after the material is accepted by the initial carrier.
A motor carrier may use one shipping paper without change for multiple shipments of the same shipping name and identification number. That carrier may keep a single copy of that paper if it also keeps a record of each shipment. That record needs shipping name, identification number, quantity transported, and date of shipment.
The gallons and date on the ticket also sit in the shipment record. Your safety lead may need that file when an inspector asks.
Capture at the tank before the truck rolls
The meter print or your state's allowed data path into an electronic ticket fills the quantity field at the stop. Tech sign-off, GPS, photos, timestamps, and a digital signature turn a stop into a dated record the office can show when asked. Special instructions stay next to that stop so the next CSR does not rediscover a locked gate by phone.
TankSpotter is built for driver and office workflow on a phone or tablet, including work where the cell signal drops. Its safety module creates audit-ready digital records with photos, GPS, timestamps, and digital signatures.
Use that for field documentation. TankSpotter does not produce the meter-printed ticket or the meter-fed electronic ticket the NC Standards page requires.
What your CSR and safety lead pull this week
Have your CSR pull five recent delivery tickets this week. Check vendor, purchaser, date, quantity, product name, and the charge lines your state requires.
Have your safety lead pull the matching shipment records for those same stops. Confirm shipping name, identification number, quantity, and date sit with each ticket or electronic image. Confirm the file is reachable from the principal place of business. Stay inside the two-year window 172.201(e) sets for ordinary hazmat papers.
Before Friday, that same CSR lists every ticket that still needs a call back to the driver. Fix the capture step at the tank so next week's stack does not recreate the same hunt.
Common questions
What must a propane delivery ticket show? In North Carolina, the LP-Gas Section lists the vendor's name and address, the purchaser's name, the delivery date, the quantity, the product name, the price per gallon, and any delivery charges. Other states differ, so check your own weights-and-measures and LP-gas rules.
Is an emailed delivery ticket allowed? North Carolina says an electronic ticket sent by email is acceptable when it uses meter data fed into the software, carries the required information, and reaches the customer promptly. Its consumer FAQ says the customer can still ask for paper at delivery.
How long do I keep shipping papers for propane? 49 CFR 172.201(e) says two years after the initial carrier accepts the material, for hazmat other than hazardous waste. PHMSA Interpretation 03-0273 says a delivery ticket can be the record of each shipment under a permanent shipping paper if it shows shipping name, ID number, quantity, and date.
Sources
• NCDA&CS Standards Division, LP-Gas Section, Standards - Delivery Ticket Requirements, undated page — https://www.ncagr.gov/divisions/standards/lp-gas/lp-gas-interests-industry/standards-delivery-ticket-requirements • NCDA&CS Standards Division, LP-Gas Section, Standards - LP-Gas FAQ for Consumers (Am I supposed to get a delivery ticket?), undated page — https://www.ncagr.gov/divisions/standards/lp-gas/lp-gas-faq-and-interests-consumers/standards-lp-gas-faq-consumers • Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Interpretation Response #03-0273 (Texas Propane Gas Association), Response Publish Date: 01/07/2004 — https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/interp/03-0273 • 49 CFR § 172.201 Preparation and retention of shipping papers (e) Retention and Recordkeeping, eCFR text via LII; eCFR CAPTCHA-blocked automated fetch — wording matched Cornell LII and GovInfo CFR-2024-title49-vol2-part172-subpartC.pdf (sec172-201.xml returned 500 this run) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/172.201
This page is general information for propane operators. It is not legal advice and it does not certify compliance. Confirm the rule text your state has adopted.