So, one of my very best customers that tips me very well hasn't paid me from this morning's early delivery over snow, ice, and 8 degree temperatures. He has always used Venmo to pay me. My wife thinks I should provide a day before contacting him and saying WTF. Believe he was home when I delivered, but think he works on a few time zones different because of his stay at home job. Thinking from now on cash or a check needs to be at the deliver site when nobody is home. Have experienced many delays in being paid by Venmo, but never not paid.
Heard a notification on my phone last night. My delayed paying customer came through with $330 with his tip. I need to relax with receiving payments. Nice deliveries today; everybody paid me $300 a face cord with tips. My last customer of the day is a managing partner at the Fox Bar & Cocktail Club. My son who lives in Atlanta is a bartender at one of the cities best restaurants. When he visited last year, he wanted to met at the Fox Bar for a drink because of its reputation for being one of the best places in Nashville. And I had the best mixed drink of my life. My son and his girlfriend are visiting next week; guess where we are going for a cocktail? This dude had an Ideal Steel Hybrid wood stove that had his home extremely cosy warm. Bone dry Ash and Oak is what I delivered.
This thread, "Sales still above last year" is still applicable. About five times last January sales with a week to go and plenty of scheduled deliveries. Why, the top firewoods (hickory&white oak), perfectly seasoned and delivered with great customer service. And I delivered through snow and ice twice a day into my Nashville area of delivery. At times I thought I was being stupid when driving on long stretches of snow and ice. Then wheelbarrowing over snow and ice. This is why the tips were over the top. My last delivery of the day was a $60 tipper. Wheelbarrowed, and then carried a generous face cord by the arm full up many steps to stack on his front porch. He contacted me ten minutes before I was heading out for deliveries. So loaded another face cord onto the trailer and headed out.
Half cord delivery He paid me about midnight with a $40 tip. Yep, I will relax about payments from now on.
1/2 a cord of white oak and hickory delivered to this repeat customer today. Yep, very nice tip on top of the Benjamins. Again, my bad ash 4X4 pushed my tailer up his steep drive over snow and ice. And then wheelbarrowing over snow and ice to stack on his back patio. One of my best 1/2 cord deliveries. This dude has an amazing home with an awesome hilltop view over middle TN. One of my most jealous places I would want to live. This is all the very best stuff.
Delivered the same 50/50 Rick of hickory & white oak on my last delivery today to an older dude in a modest neighborhood. $60 tip. Why, because I answered his call right away, delivered the same day, carried his awesome 50 CUFT of firewood in arm loads up his snow covered steps and had a great conversation with him the whole time. His last delivery was pure garbage and he appreciated the good stuff.
Orders are slowing down with the increased temperatures. Two deliveries today, none tomorrow, and two Thursday. Was dreading my deliveries today after going hard for the last two weeks. My back road short cuts to Nashville finally melted today so don't have to drive an extra 30 miles for deliveries. My first delivery had about a dozen dog piles in my wheelbarrowing route. Found the customer's shovel and cleared a path. Hate dealing with crap on deliveries. Two rows deep of perfectly seasoned hickory for burning in his patio fireplace. Hickory is rapidly becoming my best selling firewood next to white oak.
We delivered 3 loads to town at one time. Had some older oak logs we cut to 16" splits on the truck, 2 totes of 18" splits on the trailer. Ol'Faithful '01F150 with the 4.6L gas burner had no problems pulling it to town, up some hills too. Didn't see any wrecks, even though the pavement was cold and wet...... 1st stop was the truck load of 16" oak. We dropped the trailer, backed up to her porch, she came out with her gloves on and helped unload/stack it. She also brought us 2 jars of Vidalia onion pickles she made...... So good on a burger or sandwich... The best part...she said said cutting wood was hard work and she was going to pay us $50 more a load from now on, than our normal charge. She wants another load in a few weeks...
Way to go Jeff! Its nice when a customer shows their appreciation for a quality product and good service.
We delivered another tote of fairly fresh oak today, after I worked 7PM-7AM shift. Logs have been cut a couple months. Our customer was happy to get it...he's heating his shop with it. Since it was so heavy, we used Godzilla with the 7.3 gas, 4x4, locking differential and 3.88 gears to deliver on the wet roads. Sure glad we made it back home safe. Got 2 more deliveries tomorrow morning, after work again...
Awesome new truck! Firewood pays for the nicer things in life. When deliveries calm down, I plan on adding another delivery truck to my inventory. This January has been amazing in firewood sales, and guessing about 12K total. Maybe feeling a bit sorry for myself , but very tired of my 10 hour delivery days since Christmas.
Rain was pouring down on me all day long on my deliveries. I have it all covered in my truck when on route and then uncover as I stack. So this delivery was performed during a down pour and managed to get most of it stacked dry.
Absolutely no way I will be able to increase sells this year over last. I went hard this past year cutting , splitting, stacking and buying. I am getting tired of the constant go go and the lack of time I have maintaining my house, property, and body. Will be installing a Lopi Endeavor stove in my house this summer, so personal firewood will take priority along with my parents demands.
Maybe time to find some help. You can still do the order taking and delivery and stack for the customer. Your hired hand can split and stack in the wood yard and load up the other truck for the next delivery.
After working 12 hrs night shift, I went by the place where we get the totes and picked up 2 more in Ol'Faithful, our '01 F150. Got home, ate breakfast, dropped off the totes, loaded 2 more totes on the trailer for Godzilla to pull. 1st delivery was Premium 18" oak, we stacked in their racks on the porch over the rail. 2nd delivery was Premium 14" oak, they asked us to pile it next to the stack under the barn. A friend had said he had a small oak tree for us, so we took the saw with us. He had it trimmed up and ready to cut. Got almost a half tote of rounds Got in bed after 2PM, up @ 5PM for another 12 hrs of night shift... Our side jobs does help do things, but that didn't buy the truck and camper...
The 2012 F550 chip truck at work has the V10. You can’t brag about mpg but it’s had 0 mechanical issues. The fleet manager would prefer to unload our diesel trucks.
