Hey Buzzsaw - think of the delivery mileage as “scopin out new scores”... I’d bet a fair amount that after the delivery you’d come home with a truck full of fresh scores!
I'm pretty sure that Brad doesnt actually have to go out and find firewood. I'm pretty sure that every night after he unloads the truck, wood fairies come and replenish it for him.
I spoke with the lady and offered a half cord of nuggets/shorts. It was just wood for their firepit. She wants 16" splits as they want to be able to stack it ina log rack. I have plenty of two year dry oak i can sell them but i still may sizzle as i explained to her. She has had it with sizzling unseasoned wood if you read her text in the OP. I have to check what i can sell her but with snow i wasnt able to access the stack i want to pull it from. Sassafras, red maple, dead ash and cherry. I quoted her $200 and she seemed fine with it. 65 mile round trip. Mostly highway too. Honestly i dont want to do it but really feel her pain with trying to burn unseasoned wood. Its a good feeling when customers appreciate your work. Ive seen the "seasoned" wood the other guys sell and laugh and feel their pain. With covid they are working from home and have been using the firepit a lot. I will post a follow up when it happens.
Tell them to buy enough semi- seasoned local wood and you'll bring them a load of seasoned wood.Then tell them to burn sparingly so by the time your wood is gone the local wood is seasoned.Then they can keep the cycle going.Since you don't really want to keep making that long trip.
You know, every year I will offer to sell green wood at a discount if the regulars want it early. Rarely any takers. Oh well. People are funny. Including us wood cutters.
Ya the best time to buy green is in the fall.By the time next winter rolls around it should be ready if it's not oak.
I'm not sure I'd bother with a delivery that far but if I did I'd really take the time to see how they are going to protect the wood. Meaning will they cover it? It can be the driest wood you have but if they just let it get rained on with no covering they'll be bad mouthing your wood also.
I treat delivery like a whole other business. Id go $60 on top of the $140. Personally though i have so much biz so clise to home i might just turn it down. ♂️
The very first cord I delivered was about a 35 mile trip from my place, one way. I only had my truck with side walls and therefore had to make two trips. Charged $380 for the cord of big leaf maple and $60 for the delivery fee. I'll probably get another call from them this year but it really is not worth it when I easily sell out with deliveries at less than half the miles. I have also decided to just sell half cords, $40 for all deliveries and only have to make one trip.
As long as you're flipping a profit and not cutting yourself short then that's what counts. Scrounges along the way would be a definite added bonus but there's certainly no guarantee there. As someone mentioned, it could get you out doing other stuff, visiting other places or stopping at places along the way, restaurants etc which brings up the other issue that it could become an expensive trip rather than a profitable one. All depends on what your goal is I guess!
I find over all this question ridiculous. The question might be rephrased like " do you stack for free". All wood suppliers should be more than happy to stack wood if the customer is paying the bill. I basically charge $50 to $75 for the first hour or partial hour then $40 an hour for the remainder. I in general do not go to a house not knowing how the house is laid out. I have an enormous amount of pictures of customer houses and access real-estate pictures to understand what might be needed in a particular delivery. One time I charged a customer $800 for a Pine delivery and the customer was delighted. That particular delivery was very under charged. Then there have been customers wanting to debate $25. The last few years I have turned away at least 500 customers every season so I can get high prices and money is no object. When I carry wood up or down stairs I have to keep in mind that my knees can not carry wood all day so have to charge accordingly. Thanks