Heating Oil, Propane and Fuel Dealer Revenue Benchmark

Average Heating Oil, Propane and Fuel Dealer Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every fuel dealer with paid employees, meaning businesses delivering heating oil, propane and other fuels to homes and businesses, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of dealers gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$5,707,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $43.3 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 7,591 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $5,707,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Fuel Dealers, NAICS 457210. The category covers dealers delivering heating oil, propane and other fuels directly to homes and businesses. Gasoline stations and natural gas utilities are counted in separate categories. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Five-Year Survival in the Retail Sector Sector-level

Federal data does not track survival for heating oil, propane and fuel dealers specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.

59.8 percent of Retail Trade establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 60.7 percent and 59.8 percent.

Read this as sector base rates, not as a promise for this specific trade. This continuation curve is a broader Retail Trade benchmark, not a survival series specific to heating oil, propane and fuel dealers. The sector contains many business types with different economics, and survival for any one of them can sit above or below the curve. Fuel dealers depend on heating demand and wholesale prices they do not control, and consolidation by larger distributors changes the local picture faster than the sector curve suggests.

Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Retail Trade sector, national · Observed through March 2025

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Fuel Dealers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 9.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because the fuel itself dominates receipts and passes through at a thin markup, while drivers, technicians and office staff form the crew.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish the cost of fuel, trucks or storage, so nothing on this page shows what a dealer keeps per gallon delivered.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Fuel Dealers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 9.7 people, and the industry averaged 1.9 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be drivers for a few trucks, service technicians and office staff.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Heating Oil, Propane and Fuel Dealer: what a weather-driven, price-driven trade looks like on average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How much of the revenue is the fuel price? Receipts rise and fall with wholesale fuel prices even when gallons delivered do not change, so a year of high prices inflates revenue without improving the business. The margin per gallon is the number a dealer manages, and it is invisible here.
• How cold was the winter? Heating degree days decide how much fuel customers burn, and a mild winter can cut volume sharply. The census year reflects one winter's weather, not a normal season.
• Automatic delivery or will-call? Customers on automatic delivery are predictable and efficient to serve, while will-call customers phone in emergencies during cold snaps. The customer mix shapes route efficiency and the cost of each delivery.
• Does the dealer service equipment? Furnace and boiler service, tank installation and heating equipment sales bring labor revenue and keep customers loyal, but they need licensed technicians. A full-service dealer behaves differently from a delivery-only operation.
• What do trucks and storage cost? Delivery trucks, bulk storage tanks and the compliance that comes with storing fuel are large fixed costs that run whether volumes are high or low. Fleet and plant sit entirely outside a revenue total.
• How is heating fuel demand changing? Conversions to natural gas and heat pumps reduce the customer base in some areas while propane demand grows elsewhere. A dealer's local mix of fuels and customers matters more than any national average.