Some may be familiar with Cedar to cry for Well the time has come for my friend to take delivery of his ceremony wood. Three full cords of skinny rounds approximately 3” to 8” in diameter and cut to 24” lengths. They don’t have access to the pickup and trailer that they used last year. But apparently have rounded up another and plan on renting a 6x12 U-Haul trailer with 24” sides. This trailer should hold one cord pretty easily I’m figuring. That will leave 2 cords that will need to go into my 14 foot dump trailer, which I don’t think will be too challenging. My dilemma is the price to haul it. I’ve got no idea (yet) what it’s gonna cost him to rent the U-Haul. ( not my problem really, but I don’t want costs to be so high that he goes elsewhere) He will be bringing a crew of 3-4 to help load. The ceremony grounds are pretty much 100 miles away from my house. I’m figuring that is basically a 5 hour round trip. I will be using my 7.3 power stroke and I’m guessing mileage will be in the 10-12 range for the loaded leg of the trip. I’m thinking $5 a loaded mile. Maybe $5.50. Probably not enough, but, I don’t think it is terribly cheap. I’m probably to cheap on the wood price to begin with ($1000 for the 3 cords, picked up at my house) but he is a friend and repeat customer that knows he is getting quality wood and fair measure. So I don’t want to run him off, I would like to do this order a couple more times/years. I’m sure a 100 mile delivery is unheard of for probably everyone here that sells and delivers wood. This ain’t Nashville and these people aren’t millionaires. And these aren’t Nashville Rick quantities either. Let me hear your opinion and thoughts about this endeavor and how much it would be worth to you.
If it's worth it to you that is what matters. If you walk away feeling shorted then you didn't charge enough. If it were me the fact that there are helpers to load and unload is a big bonus, and grabbing a $1500 payday for a chance to cruise the open road sounds like a decent way to spend a day.
10mpg at $6.00+ a gallon for 200 miles = about $250 Labor for 5 hours : $250/5 = $50/hr for your truck, trailer, and you. You obviously gotta factor in some wear and tear on the truck and trailer. Assuming you're only charging for loaded miles and not the return trip, your $5-5.50 seams very fair to me.
I’m not sure what our diesel is right now but I’m thinking somewhere between $4.95 -$5.25 And yes only the loaded miles
So something like $50 in fuel for the loaded part and maybe $35 for the return trip? $85-100 just for fuel. $500-100 for fuel leaves $400 for labor, wear, and tear. $80 an hour for you and your truck/trailer. Still fair.
Seems more than fair to me. I have a couple of "far away" customers and need to charge more than what I am based on what's been said here.
My customer called this afternoon because he forgot to ask how much cash he needed to bring. I told him $1550. $1000 for the wood and $550 freight. He didn’t seem to balk and said ok, see you Wednesday. so I guess that settles that!
I suggested for him to look into one of their smaller box truck/vans. Might not have been one available at the time in this rual part of the world
We have delivered farwood 80+ miles one way before and have several customers 60+ miles that get a cord dump trailer load. We don't charge that much delivery, maybe we need to go up. $333 a cord, picked up at your place is a good price. The 6x12 trailer and probably the dump trailer will need to be stacked, our 7x12x2 loaded with conveyor is piled high with just a cord+ load. Just my thoughts...
Nice regular customer you've acquired there. An easy cord seeing its 24" long and no splitting required, at least in my opinion.
Well it’s a done deal. The U-haul trailer that they brought with them didn’t hold the entire first cord. I’m guessing it could have been stacked a little bit better and came closer to getting it all. I wasn’t watching as I was helping load my trailer. So I figured I had about 2 1/4 cords on my rig. Had to put some in the bed of the pickup. But we did get it all loaded. I’m kicking myself for not taking pictures, I thought about it a couple different times and then didn’t do it. Total round trip was 247 miles which includes 10 extra miles for a missed turn and another 20 for running out to our truck scale at work for weights. (I was gonna play “guess the weight of the load”’ if I hadn’t forgot pictures). Burned 22.6 gallons of fuel for a total of $110 and 10.9 MPG. The MPG is a little bit skewed because my truck has a “hot start” issue and I don’t trust it. So once I started it about 11:30 to go get the trailer. I didn’t shut it off until it was refueled, unhooked and parked in the driveway at about 7:00. So it spent some idle time while we loaded, ( 1hour and 40 minutes, ) probably 20 minutes unloading, 15-20 minutes in a pawn shop, probably 20 minutes in McDonald’s, and refueling at the end. So probably about 2 1/2 hours of idling without moving. So $550 for freight was probably pretty fair, but. $600 or $650 would have been more profitable. The additional fuel burned while idling probably doesn’t amount to much. What, 2 gallons maybe? But at $4.84 a gallon that’s pretty much $10. I guess we’ll wait and see if I get the call again for next year. If so he’ll probably be getting lots of cedar. I’m sure he won’t mind and I know where there is a bunch with good access.
Thats a nice payday. Seems like he is a happy customer. Should be. You sold him some nice wood and gave him some great service. When will you know if he wants the same for next year?
Last year I sent him a text a week or two after the event asking if he had enough wood. He replied, “ just barely, we had to get more conservative towards the end, can I book again for next year” When I delivered him some wood for his house early this winter is when he upped it to 3 cords.
I'm clearly late to the party. I try to avoid deliveries whenever possible and usually just turn people down. The main reason is time. I don't have much. When I'm behind the windshield, I'm not making firewood. That brings me to the point of this rambling. I also charge by the loaded mile. HOWEVER, I factor ALL of my time into the number. The return trip (empty) is opportunity lost when it comes to making product, servicing saws, etc. You can't get the time back so you might as well be compensated.
While you are not wrong, and I don't disagree with you, at all, sometimes I find myself doing things for people a little too cheaply...so I either just make up my mind to be happy with it as is, or on a rare occasion I may explain the situation and ask for more...but that's pretty rare. People don't generally fuss about it much, or at all...some still offer a nice tip!
I personally would have wanted more for a full day of my time and fuel but if everyone is happy, that is all that matters. Maybe a better way to price this in the future is to call companies that specialize in trucking. I'm not too sure the material being transported is what is most important in this situation so you call them up and ask them how much would it be to transport an item x amount of miles. Then, you factor in your time for loading and unloading and add to the total.
You are generous, I may recall some free work you did on my trailer lights...you even shared your knowledge, teach a man to fish!!
