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Thursday, August 21, 2025

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100 Years of Helping Fuel Retailers Deliver!


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How does a family-owned, niche provider of specialty forms and documents last for a century? Degree Day Systems has the answer: by focusing on the needs of its family-owned customers and making sure they have the materials they require to stay in business, no matter what that takes.

“We’re gearing up for our centennial, but we are focused on the future,” says Mark Saczawa, President of Degree Day Systems. “We’re not going to be sitting on our laurels.”


Helping Fuel Businesses Grow

“We pride ourselves on our service, and do our best to accommodate our customers. Many times we’ll get a call from a customer saying ‘My driver says we’re out of these items.’ We do our best to get the product to them as quickly as possible; to make sure our customers have the supply of tickets or service forms to continue operating,” Saczawa says.

Saczawa has the long-term accounts to back up this claim. Many customers have been with Degree Day Systems for generations, including one, a neighbor from the company’s first location in Queens, NY, that has been with them for more than 75 years.

He is also proud that the company’s commitment to service often leads to new customers. “A lot of times, we’ve been servicing a larger company with a dozen trucks and reps. One day, one of their drivers looks around, and thinks that he or she should buy their own truck and start out on their own. They know their former company used Degree Day Systems forms, so they give us a call and become a new customer,” he says. “Our customer base is built around small mom-and-pop operations. We are able to take them by their hands and walk them through anything they might need as their business grows.”


Innovation From The Start

The company was founded at the beginning of the home heating oil industry, when buildings were transitioning from coal to oil heat. It was Eric Bergman, Degree Day Systems’ founder, who developed the heating degree day/K-factor calculations to determine fuel schedules. Company lore, according to Saczawa, is that Bergman would drive to a town, “rip the oil company pages from the phone book,” and go door to door, selling his “degree day system” and the forms the companies needed.

Saczawa literally grew up in the business. “My dad and his partner, Hubert Wehof, bought the company in 1964. I’ve been here since I was 5 years old, stuffing envelopes. This was my summer job while I was in high school. Even though Dad owned the company, I was in the back, learning to work the presses, learning everything about the company,” he remembers.


Innovation For The Future

The company’s basic product lines have not changed much over the decades. Degree Day Systems still provides accounting forms, delivery and meter tickets, Degree Day System cards, and more, but today, many of these items are available as customized computer tickets and documents that work with integrated backend software.

Degree Day Systems will soon offer thermal roll tickets. Mark, who became president in 2019, noted that the hand-held meters that print on cash-register-type tickets have been too expensive for the typical Degree Day Systems customer. The growing second-hand market for these meters is allowing smaller operations to take advantage of the new technology. Degree Day Systems will, as they have for the last 100 years, grow its product line to serve its customers.


Celebrating 100 years

Over the years the company has grown through acquisitions, including their 2004 purchase of Atlantic Loose Leaf in Philadelphia. Their international business has been another source of growth. “We are one of the first companies in our field to have a website where people can place orders online. Now, we not only do business in all 50 states, but also in the Caribbean, British Virgin Islands, Nigeria, and Russia. We also have several customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.”

“We’re not going to have a parade,” Saczawa jokes, when asked about their centennial celebrations. Instead, they are focusing on building the business further, marking a return to heating and propane trade shows, including the HEAT Show in August.

“It’s always been about family. I’ve been blessed to have this opportunity, especially because I’ve been able to see all my sons’ baseball games,” he says. “We treat our employees like family, too. The longest employee has been here 40 years – after that, it’s somewhere around 23 years. Unfortunately, our bookkeeper passed away recently after 21 years with us. Family is important to us. To most of our customers, family is important to them as well.”

For more information on Degree Day Systems products and services, visit www.degreeday.com or contact Mark Saczawa at msaczawa93@mac.com.

Fleets and Fuel Delivery
August 2025
Operational Efficiency
Degree Day Systems

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