Pellet Delivery charges?

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macman said:
itworks said:
Hi Jim; Why do you even consider pellet heating when your so super wealthy that you can buy several Lowes and Home Depots 2-3 times a week?
Maybe since I've helped him w/ his stove, he'll give me a store. :lol:

If Jim is that wealthy, he should give you a State.
 
I bought pellets through this same vendor and can say that I would do it again.

When I made my purchase I wasnt thrilled with the $30/ton delivery fee, but you pay for everything shipped based on weight, I think that $30 for simple shipping
may be a bit high, but the driver offloads the skids and puts them where you want them.

As for me, He put them in my garage, therefore allowing me to stack them at my leisure instead of them being in the driveway and I have to move them now, I needed to move them
4 feet instead of 20 feet, and I didnt have to take an half a day to load 3 tons on my pickup and 3 tons back off.

I liked the service so much I tipped the driver another $20 cause he saved me so much effort.


I will buy again from them, and look at the $30 for the second skid as the fee that I paid to get my time back..


If It was only about the money and I had infinite energy and time, then I'd be burning cord wood, but we all make choices of money vs effort and pellets plus pelletssales.com are
a good mix for me.

Steve
 
Just checked current prices on pellesales.com and the shipping fee is a sliding scale

Delivery to 18102

7.8 tons = 16.54/ton, total 129.10 delivery

3.9 tons-25.38/ton, total 98.98

2.6 tons=38/ton, total 98.98...

Seems to me that the base is about $100, and if you go over 4 tons you pay a much smaller increment

I know that when I take deliveries requiring a lift gate that the usual upcharge is $50, then the on board pallet truck has to cost more than a lift gate.


Again the fees for delivery seem to be in line with reality to me.
 
This how i get mine, right from dry creek plant 10 miles away


Deer08005.jpg
 
Good deal Woodsman having the plant so close....can i ask what they charge you/ton?

Also, the truck looks like it has real light power steering with those pellets in the back..... :lol:
 
I own a small glass business in northern mich. I have been the installer, salesman, estimator, floor sweeper etc. etc. for 16 of the last 20 years. 4 years ago I hired a part time employee that works 3 days a week mon. wed. and fri. I did this simply because of my age (55yrs.) and my arms are getting sore, arthritis etc. I used to have to retail at least $1,000.00 dollars per day to pay for my overhead, my wages, and secretaries (full time) and insurances for vehicles, workmens comp. all the stuff it takes to run a business. We try to get our customers to bring in as much of their glass work to our shop as possible, auto, residential, anything we can do in our shop to save time and vehicle wear and tear. My labor rate is 48 bucks an hour (mobile) and I haven't raised that rate in over 10 years. I dont pay health insurance on my part time employee, and I cannot believe how much more work we have to do to break even now. I am just happy to get a guy that I can break even with on his 3 days at my shop. We pour the work on as much as possible on those 3 days, and I try to do estimates, sales calls on the other 2. It is almost not worth it cost wise to go out and do a small putty glaze window for even a minimum 1 hour labor charge. I am not complaining, I am extremely happy to be able to give this man work, I pay him what a full time installer would make wage wise. Whenever possible, I combine trip charges, and try to give someone a break when I can, but it is to the point where I have to get minimum charges everytime I drive somewhere, so I can just exist in business, much less make a profit. I understand where Eric is coming from business wise, and also understand about delivering 3 tons and giving a discount of some kind. Even if the discount was small, most people would feel better. I always try to stay on top of those types of things with customers, I apologize a lot when I have to charge a minimum service call, for those smaller jobs, most people take it better if the owner personally explains a situation like that.
 
There is NO BIG money made in Pellet sales on average $20 - $30 per ton profit.

FORK lifts COST money they dont MAKE money but you have to have it.
I just bought a 1981 Toyota USED for $10,000 NEW is over $30k
that is about same amount of profit I made selling pellets the whole year selling 400 tons.

Delivery
We dont charge that much for delivery.
we can only deliver 4 at a time on our small 4 ton truck
so we charge $50 for 1
55 for 2
75 for 3
85 for 4
100 for 5 two trips
110 for 6 two trips
and we hand stack off the truck.
my truck cost me $35k 9 years ago Time for a new one at $50k
 
Those charges and others that have been quoted are more than fair. Since your new truck is going to cost you about 35% more better up your rates 35%........ Ohh,,,, NOPE , nevermind all the profit Nazis here will have a canary!

Lobstah ,if you do a drive and buy at Lowes every week what do you care what this guy is charging for delivery?
Too many trucking and forklift experts lately!
 
I look at it as space on the trailer. If had to move 2 tons from the local store 15 miles away, I have to make a lot of trips back and forth. Even if I had a pickup truck, thats a lot of trips. For me the $40/ton was worth it. You are paying for convenience
 
Hey Woodsman23

Does the one ton load come within your vehicle's load capacity or are you depending on the Ford built tough concept?

Anyway, your cat-back dual exhaust system looks nice.
 
Paid $10.00 for 2 tons delivered to my back door including flatbed and forklift to place where I wanted, admit the lumber yard is close but I think that was cheap.
What kind of dog Woodsman? Chesapeake?
 
Wow...got quite the can of worms going here. ;)

First, let me say that I ran my own business for about 8yrs, before I merged it with another business, and then left.
So yes, I understand pricing, and I understand profit. In fact, I have absolutely no problem with EXXON making $14bil in one quarter.
I understand expenses and cost of doing business.

This pricing model is just plain wrong. It doesn't make sense to many consumers. Sliding scale? Fine...great way to do it. $40 for 1st ton, $15/ton after that?...Great. Makes perfect sense.

So this company is watching business walk away because of a bad pricing model. Is this my problem?...No. It's not.

I can go "buy" the local Lowes (LOL) and pick them up, and it's not all that much ass-ache. It's still more of a pain than if I had them delivered by someone, which is likely to happen, but not at a $40del charge per ton.

:)

and Pete...first "extra" Lowes?...is all yours, man ;)

Jim
 
"Hi Jim; Why do you even consider pellet heating when your so super wealthy that you can buy several Lowes and Home Depots 2-3 times a week?"

I like the exercise ;)

Jim
 
Back in May, I ordered 6 tons of Energex from Knight's on rt 3 in Augusta. He only changed me $20. to put all 6 tons in my garage. I gave him and his driver a healthy tip. He is a man of his word. I received what I ordered on time and where I wanted it placed. I only live a couple miles away from his place. I am not able to move but a few bags a time. That service was why I selected his shop for my order.
 
If you shop around you will get the best price for delivery. Nobody is going to deliver pellets for free and if they do they wont be in business for very long. It appears that delivery charges are an industry standard, meaning everybody charges a fee. If you dont like the fee haul your pellets yourself and put the wear and tear on your vehicle and your back. If you decide to haul your pellets yourself and something happens like you hurt your back or blow out your rear end on your truck or crash your truck because you are hauling to much. The delivery charges dont sound so high after something bad happens from hauling your own pellets. I own a business and have for ten years, I charge a dollar a mile portal to portal and I am one of the cheap ones in my industry. I do not deliver a product, I charge a dollar a mile just for me to show up and that covers vehicle expenses, insurance, gas, vehicle payment etc. On top of that I charge the hourly rate for the guy doing the work portal to portal. If you actually got a break down of what any successful business charges for instance plumbers, electricians and many others, they all have travel charges figured in one way or the other.
 
macman said:
Good deal Woodsman having the plant so close....can i ask what they charge you/ton?

Also, the truck looks like it has real light power steering with those pellets in the back..... :lol:

[QUOTE Hey Woodsman23

Does the one ton load come within your vehicle’s load capacity or are you depending on the Ford built tough concept?

Anyway, your cat-back dual exhaust system looks nice. QUOTE]

Macman: I carry the pallet up next to the cab and it is much better there when i am ready unload it i simply backup quick and hit the brakes and it slides back to the gate for easy unloading. The steering what steering???. I also use the trailer i have but that day i was going by and they had them for sale so i picked up a ton. pellets were 180.00 a ton.

NO the truck is not rated even close but the ford tough is spot on, i bought that 97 in 96 and have not had any problems with it from day one!! It's also a 5speed manual. it has 256,000 miles and counting. FORD TOUGH... The cat back is a mangaflow dual with 4" polished s/steel tips (polished in the summer anyways)

It looks much better cleaned up
gallery66.jpg
 
Lobstah said:
Someone else mentioned that the Home Despot in Bellingham had pellets at $290. Might give them a call. I have 1ton left, but could only buy 1.4 tons when I bought them, as that's all the dealer would sell on a single order. Don't really care to go back to them unless I have to, only because it just doesn't make sense to be buying pellets from British Columbia while living on the east coast.

Jim

Did the bellingham Home Depot have pellets? What brand, I heard buying from Home Depot and Lowes give you bad pellets.
 
this fall we bought 2 tons from a place 3 miles away, they charged $30/ton, $60 total. a month ago we bought a ton from a place 21 miles away, they charged $30/ton, so $30. it makes no sense! same price for a trip that's 7 times longer each way? charge double for a single trip?

and both times my wife and i helped them unload and stack them in the garage. we got no discount for that.

the local hardware store will deliver ANYTHING ANY SIZE on a big truck in town for free. they didn't charge me for carrying 20 sheets of masonite 100 feet from the road to my garage by hand.
 
Lobstah said:
I see that one of the site's ******** (Whoops. Make that ADVERTISER...my bad) has pellets available for my zipcode in central mass, priced at $289/ton.
So prices are coming down, right?...cuz prices around here were $320-$345/ton not very long ago.
They have a delivery charge. Ok. I understand that.

BUT...(here comes the butt monkey)...

They charge a $40 delivery charge on EACH TON. That's not really a delivery charge, unless they're only delivering 1 ton at a time, in which case they really shouldn't be in the pellet business.

If I order 3 tons, does anyone think they're going to make 3 trips?

Won't be buying any pellets from them.

Jim


There is a guy in Acton that delivers for 25 bucks to the surrounding towns...his price goes up as the distance increases...but it is a flat delivery charge...and he has one of those pallet fork lifts to move them around for you. He even has reasonable prices on pellets...think in the 300 a ton range.
Google Acton Wood Pellet for more info!
 
Everywhere that I called they asked me where I lived and qouted me a flat delivery charge - abdviously calculating the distance and multipling it against the cost/mile. I paid $70 for 4 towns delivered ~ 15miles
 
in-control said:
Everywhere that I called they asked me where I lived and qouted me a flat delivery charge - abdviously calculating the distance and multipling it against the cost/mile. I paid $70 for 4 towns delivered ~ 15miles

I have had HD deliver...they have a flat 60 dollar 15 mile delivery charge. Of course they have to stock them...that can be troublesome.
 
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