Quick and Efficient Gas Business Plan — Licensing, Safety and Compliance

Trade and site licensing, SANS standards for bulk storage and filling, fire and emergency requirements, and the approvals sequence.

Licensing, Safety and Compliance

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3.1 What the standards actually require
3.2 The illegal decanting problem
3.3 Safety management

Compliance in this business is not a cost of doing business; it is the permission to do business at all. The items below are sequenced roughly in the order they must be obtained.

Requirement	What it covers	Type
Filling licence	Only licensed filling premises may legally refill LPG cylinders	Gating
SANS 10087-7	Storage and filling premises for cylinders up to 9 kg and storage up to 48 kg	Design
SANS 10087-3	Storage vessels of water capacity exceeding 500 L — applies to the bulk tank	Design
Fire department permit	Local authority fire safety approval and periodic inspection	Gating
Certificate of Conformity	Required under the Pressure Equipment Regulations, OHS Act 85 of 1993	Gating
SAQCC Gas registration	Installation and filling work by registered practitioners only	Staffing
Municipal zoning and land use	Consent use for hazardous substance storage; site-specific	Gating
Cylinder revalidation	Cylinders retested approximately every 10 years	Ongoing
Dangerous goods transport	SANS 10231 requirements for the delivery vehicle and driver	Ongoing
Occupational health and safety	Department of Employment and Labour inspection and enforcement	Ongoing

3.1 What the standards actually require

▪ SANS 10087-7 governs storage and filling premises for refillable cylinders of gas capacity up to 9 kilograms, and the storage of individual containers up to 48 kilograms. This is the core standard for a refill shop and it dictates the layout, separation distances, ventilation and signage.

▪ SANS 10087-3 applies to storage vessels of water capacity exceeding 500 litres. The bulk vessel falls under this part, which governs its siting, foundations, protection and fittings.

▪ The Pressure Equipment Regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 require a Certificate of Conformity for the installation, issued by a registered practitioner.

▪ SAQCC Gas registration is required for the people doing the filling and installation work. This is a staffing constraint, not a paperwork one: the shop must employ or retain a registered practitioner.

▪ SANS 10231 governs the transport of dangerous goods, which applies to the delivery vehicle, its driver qualifications and its equipment.

3.2 The illegal decanting problem

Your cheapest competitor is breaking the law

Decanting LPG from a large cylinder into a smaller one at an unapproved facility is unlawful and dangerous, and it is widespread. An illegal operator carries none of the capital cost of a compliant filling bay, no fire protection system, no insurance, no licence fees and no compliance overhead — the items that account for a substantial share of this plan’s R2 691 000 of capital expenditure and R112 800 a year of compliance cost. A compliant shop cannot undercut that cost base, and should not try. What it can do is compete on the things an illegal operator cannot offer: correct fill weight verified on a calibrated scale, cylinder revalidation, a Certificate of Conformity for the customer’s installation, appliance warranties and safe delivery. This plan assumes those things win the household and small-business customer. It does not assume they win the customer who buys purely on price.

3.3 Safety management

Control	Design
Filling discipline	Filling by mass on a calibrated scale, with fill ratio limits observed and recorded
Cylinder inspection	Valve, neck ring, foot ring, corrosion and test date checked before every fill; failures rejected
Leak testing	Valve and neck leak tested before the cylinder leaves the filling bay
Fire protection	Deluge system, extinguishers, hydrant and detection, inspected on the fire department’s cycle
Separation and layout	SANS 10087 separation distances from boundaries, windows, doors, drains and electrical points
Hazardous-area electrics	Compliant reticulation throughout the filling and vessel area
Training and protective equipment	Documented induction, refresher training and issued protective equipment for every filling-bay employee
Incident protocol	Stop filling, investigate, notify insurer and authority. Never trade through an unresolved incident

Insurance in this business is conditional on maintaining compliance. A policy written against a SANS-compliant installation does not respond to a loss at a facility that has drifted out of compliance, which means the R177 600 annual insurance line and the R112 800 compliance line are a single control rather than two separate costs.

Previous section2. The Business and the Regulated Price

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