Stop giving your logs away...

[Acg128]

How many nets do you get out of a tonne sack?

[Chris Gagen]

Have never used a "tonne sack", I'm guessing you mean a dumpy bag/builders bag, etc?

Was getting up to 30 nets out of the vented bags.

[billt]

The sensible way of supplying wood is to use a stacked measure like the stere or cord. That way you and the customer will get a reasonable level of consistency. I doubt that it'll happen in the UK though. They're nasty foreign measures and they remove the 'flexibility' in measurement that a lot of suppliers seem to like!

[Kev Stephenson]

Not sure why I'd be in bother with weights and measures, the example pictures are all exactly the same volume of logs....!

 

Incorrect, there is exactly the same NUMBER of logs but you can see for yourself that there is space in the bag after shaking so the logs are now taking up a smaller volume. You no longer have a cubic meter of logs hence you would not be supplying what you state you are supplying.

 

If you went to the pub for a pint and the landlord spilt some on his way from the pump to you would you be happy you had received a full pint since that is how it left the pump? Slightly different I know but a short measure is a short measure. Be careful how you market your logs.

 

On your other point I do overfill so there is no chance of a customer saying that isn't a full load but I make sure I am happy with the price I get for my '2 cube and a bit'.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Kev Stephenson

[gensetsteve]

I use 1.5 cube bags but tip them into a bund a few weeks before delivery. two reasons allows the rain water to dry out and also we bobcat them into a 1.5cu tipper. Some bags over fill it some dont. Make sure your springs are not too hard on the back of the truck and take it easy over speed bumps.

[Chris Gagen]

There is nothing not sensible about supplying by the cubic meter, we all simply need the same method.

The point of this thread is to highlight that the "cubic meter" vented bags hold substantially more than a loose cubic meter dependant on how they are used.

Imo they are not an accurate measure of volume when compared to a vessel that has rigid sides. I understand that there is a proprietary frame available to hold the bags open and will produce a uniform cubic meter volume and a stackable unit, but I've yet to investigate this.

 

One could argue that the rigid container could/should be bounced to provide the "tap density" mentioned earlier, but the fact remains that the contents of a bag will settle much more than the contents of a rigid container simply by the nature of how they are lifted.

[Chris Gagen]

Incorrect, there is exactly the same NUMBER of logs but you can see for yourself that there is space in the bag after shaking so the logs are now taking up a smaller volume. You no longer have a cubic meter of logs hence you would not be supplying what you state you are supplying.

 

If you went to the pub for a pint and the landlord spilt some on his way from the pump to you would you be happy you had received a full pint since that is how it left the pump? Slightly different I know but a short measure is a short measure. Be careful how you market your logs.

 

On your other point I do overfill so there is no chance of a customer saying that isn't a full load but I make sure I am happy with the price I get for my '2 cube and a bit'.

 

I beg to differ, the loose volume (which if asked is how I sell my cubic meters of logs) is the same, agreed after a bounce the volume is decreased, but this is covered in saying that contents are subject to settling.

 

I don't think the reference to the pint is relevant in that you claimed that the landlord spilt some, hence the volume has changed because of loss of product, not settling.

[Ashes_Firewood]

Sounds like a good reason not to use bags. Or if you do then tip them in to a trailer of a known volume to deliver and sell by the trailers volume instead.

[Woodworks]

Just done a delivery this morning for 2m3 and the guy opens the garage and says we are going to put them there pointing to a small space made on the floor between the bikes and furniture, I managed to keep a straight face and politely point out he would be needing a fair bit more space than that. Point is we can do our best to be fair and honest about what we supply but I think many customers will never grasp how much they are getting. I would say 75% of our first time customers are surprised how much wood a honest m3 of wood is.

 

On the case of storing logs in crates there is a fair bit of settlement during drying but I don't think they would shake down much after that.

[renewablejohn]

I do the supermarket trick with IBC containers. ie Sell at a price per cubic mtr but they get 20% free. Standard IBC is actually 1.2 cubic mtrs so by the time it settles in transport you can guarantee you still have in excess of 1 cubic mtr and you have already built the settlement into the price.