Sanitized sample | TNDS-SAMPLE-SOP-201
Fuel Delivery Dispatch SOP
This dispatch SOP covers the move from a customer order to a closed, invoiced delivery. It is written for petroleum distribution: bulk delivery, tank wagon, keep-full and will-call accounts, and transport movements between plants and terminals, from every order source including phone, email, portal, standing schedule, and tank monitor signal. Twelve steps run from recording the order to releasing it to invoicing, with credit, ullage, and driver hours checked before a truck is committed. It is what a dispatch system of record looks like before any software is chosen.
- Document type
- Standard operating procedure
- Released
- September 13, 2026
- Length
- 6 pages, PDF
What is in it
- A twelve-step procedure from recording the order to closing it for invoicing, each step with an owner and the evidence that it happened.
- Five roles, from Order Desk to Credit Owner, with what each owns and what it does not, so the handoffs stay visible even when one person holds several roles.
- Definitions for the terms that cause disputes: order, ullage, load plan, delivery window, keep-full account, run-out, split load, and shipping papers.
- Four stop points that halt work: an account on credit hold, a quantity that exceeds ullage, a driver who cannot legally complete the run, and a load leaving without shipping papers and emergency response information.
- Exceptions for run-out deliveries, refusals on arrival, partial deliveries, a tank reading that is unavailable at order time, and an order changed after the load is built.
- A records and retention table and a process flow diagram, with shipping paper retention tied to 49 CFR Part 172.
Why it is built this way
The order is the record, not the ticket
In most operations without a dispatch system, the printed ticket is the only artifact and it disappears into a delivery folder. Step 1 makes the order the record and the ticket a result of it. That single change is what lets anyone answer later why a load moved, who asked for it, and whether it arrived when it was promised.
Stop points before assignment, not after
Credit, ullage, and driver hours are all checked before a truck is committed. Checking them after is how a loaded truck ends up sitting in a yard, and a truck sitting in a yard creates pressure to deliver anyway. Stop points are cheap at the desk and expensive at the fill point.
Exceptions are counted, not absorbed
Run-outs, refusals, partials, and variances all get recorded even when nobody complains. An operation that absorbs exceptions quietly cannot tell whether it is getting better or worse, and it cannot make the case for another truck or another driver when it needs one. The exception log is the evidence.
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Sanitized sample. No client information, no client data, no client system. The download is direct, no email required.
Download the dispatch SOP (PDF)
TNDS-SAMPLE-SOP-201, version 1.0, released September 13, 2026.
Want one built for your operation?
This sample shows the form. In an engagement, the bracketed owners, thresholds, systems, and retention periods are filled from the operation as it actually runs, walked with the crew who do the work, and sealed only after they confirm the steps match reality. It starts with an Operations Assessment.