Pricing job by 50% stack volume

[basil]

Help i have been asked to price a job for a new client which involves cutting just under a hectare of coppice and delivering the product into a stack site 5 miles away.he has asked for a cubic meter rate based on 50%of the stack measure i.e if the stack measures 200 cubic meters he will pay for 100 cube. have any of you worked under this system ? i have in mind what the job is worth and i also have in mind a price i would be charging per tonne however there is no local wieghbridge. if i am honest i dont like this method but maybee some of you have used it before ?

 

thanks

 

will

[robbo 110]

im intrigued to hear what others think...... i dont like the sound of that one little bit!! i may be wrong thou???

[basil]

If I am honest me neither

[Big Bolt]

I normally do a coppice on job rate , if you cut 200 cube you get payed for it is he under assumtion that when it dryes there will be half 'ish the weight, so only pay you half the amount so he does not lose out , i normally price the job by the area to be done and not the cube cut , that's his job to caculate the cube in the area ,and to say if your price is ok or not , i would of thought. sound's a bit sus and trying it on

[Quickthorn]

I'm not sure if there's that much of a problem - broadleaf stacks are round about 50% air, and broadleaf timber's roughly 1 tonne / cube solid density, so if you charged him per cube what you'd charge per tonne, I'd say you'd be roughly right, without the bother and cost of having to go via a weighbridge for every turn. Also, it's not going to lose value to you if it sits there for a long time drying out.

 

You might have to adjust depending on the form - if it's very straight, you'd get less than 50% air in the stack, because it will stack tighter. If it's mainly lighter species like syc and ash, he'll be getting less weight per cube, so the advantage would be with you.

[monkey boys]

i cut it by the acre for£xxxxxx thats up to you is it the fall monty fell it snoding toping and clearing the site ie bonfire or chiper

i take it that your hauling it to the yard are you useing your or his tractors

there was a firm in the wood were we were cutting they finished last week

they had the best plan .

fell it top it clear it then two tractors with trailers one had a grab on it

and a tractor with a saw bench on the frunt of it processing the lenths

they were palling loads of wood out each day

price it accordingly to how you work .

im ment to be going with a m8 to price up 3 acers next monday fell it top stack it on site for the guy to haul it as he wants it

[renewablejohn]

As quickthorn says

 

I have one client who does this because there is no weighbridge available. I was not convinced on the 1 tonne per cube calculation so before I tendered I checked a load over a weighbridge and found it to be reasonably accurate and for the price I was paying I could afford not to worry about it.

[Joy Yeomans]

yet again, it falls on the forestry contractor to make sure HE doesnt loose out - yet the boss dangles another carrot and gets what he wants

 

anyone in the FCA - a good article on contractorsand how we often have to work to the tightest margins in this months mag.

[cousin jack]

Sounds like your client is in a win, win situation there, who pays for the transport (5 miles) and the time it takes YOU to do it?

[Highland Forestry]

I'd be giving him a price per tonne, and having a lorry take it to the stack site, and getting a weight ticket from the crane on the lorry.

 

I take it he is wanting to pay per tonne and is working it out that if you have 100m3 it will weigh roughly 50t.

 

Failing that let another contractor do the job or you're about to get shafted big time!