Tom D
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Everything posted by Tom D
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Its certainly interesting seeing how other people make the numbers stack up. I seriously considered buying in timber and having a proper go at the firewood thing, but to be honest I couldn't make the numbers stack up compared with cutting trees. We do ok selling the 150 ton or so that we seem to bring back to the yard each year. Any jobs we get with a lot of firewood I will try and sell it wholesale in arctic loads. We have sold maybe 300 ton over that last few years that way.
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I admire you for selling at a good price, nothing wrong with that. But I still can't see why you can't advertise a different per cube price for each packaging method. People understand that buying in bulk will be cheaper so whats the problem? BTW how do you manage selling in nets? it must be way less profitable than the bulk bags no?
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Ha! you said in the other thread that they were cube bags... were they? or were they 0.73? This is my point, some other guy could go to your customer and offer them a bag for less, but that bag might only be 05 cube.. so he's not actually cheaper than you. If everybody gives a per cube price the customer knows where he stands. Looking at your prices 1 cube bag = £120 per cube .73cube bag =£129per cube 80l net = £109per cube (bargain IMO) especially as they are stacked, Can't say for the mini bag as I don't know the volume, but i wouldn't be much effort to add these figures to your site, and perhaps you could put up the price of your nets, they seem hellish cheap compared to the bulk bags which must be so much easier to fill.
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You mentioned earlier that you sold wood in Edinburgh for 120 a cube, so you must have worked it out, or was it 120 a bag, in which case its £164 per cube.. Its no effort to add this minor detail on to your advertising. Sell in what ever bag sizes you like, just put the per cube equivalent price on there as well.
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Thats true Dave, but most load tend to be mixed anyway. Thing is, I'm not talking about babysitting the log buyer through the process, there has to be a level of individual responsibility, if you buy a load of rotten willow, then tough luck, you won't buy from that guy next time. All I am suggesting is that the consumer should know how much per cube he is paying, thats it. Maybe it would be nice to have a maximum moisture content, but that could be problematic. But at the very least you need to know how much you are getting, we simply wouldn't stand for this with any other commodity.
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I agree on the space thing, I have gone big in the past only to watch as groundies struggle to manage with some huge lump, sometimes locking it off, then cutting the tips off, lowering it, locking it off again..... painfully slow, especially if its a cold day, the climber ends up freezing waiting for the guys to clear their feet. These days we often take up multiple slings and lower the same amount at once but pre cut by the climber. So instead of one unwieldy lump you get four manageable bits. Its a lot quicker and sometimes more work for the climber is no bad thing in a scottish winter. Some nice rigging there all the same.
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Stunning shots Mario, one day I'm going to come over and get you to show me round.
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Are you all ready for the bad winter thats coming??
Tom D replied to Joy Yeomans's topic in Firewood forum
Now that would be good for log sales! Thing is I'd like to be be retired by then, although I bet I'm not. -
Cheers Steve, its only because I've spent the last 5 weeks convalescing that I have been sat in front of the computer all day. I'll try and do a few more, although we're going to Italy for 2 weeks on tuesday so hopefully trees and logs will be at the back of my mind..
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You're right goaty. I notice a huge difference in weight between a trailer load of loose rings and cord and one full of logs
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Thats a bit different Bob, a stacked load will always be neater and denser, however although a loose load of small logs will have smaller air gaps they are more numerous. Trust me, I weighed bulk bags years ago and big logs weigh more. By your logic a cube of loose kindling will weigh more than a cube of loose logs....
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No. I said 2' not 2"
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Spot on!
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Read it again. Look at the timber lorries on the road the ones carrying small sticks are stacked way higher than the ones carrying big logs. Please can some one weigh some logs to settle this argument!
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A lot of things are deceptive, take a standard transit tipper with 1' dropsides, the level load volume is 1.9 cube, 2 cube if its heaped a little. That actually looks like a good load and round here that will go for £150... our ifor trailer holds 5.8 cube, 6 if its heaped, but to look at there's no way you'd believe it was 3 transit loads, so even though we are selling it at £360 which is £15 per cube less than the transit load at £150 we struggle to compete with the transit "load"...
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You'd think that, but trust me big logs are denser when loose than small ones. Its the same for roundwood, an 25 ton arctic load of 2'diameter roundwood will be well short of the top of the bolsters, but the same weight of 6" diameter stuff will go right to the top, the air gaps may be smaller, but there's a lot more of them.
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The facts don't lie! Take a solid cube of wood and split it in 2, it takes up a bit more room, split it again, yet more room.. Fill a cube box with big logs and weigh it, then do the same with small ones. You'll see! The big ones take a lot less time to make of course..
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Where are the increased costs and bureaucracy? All I'm suggesting is that we all advertise our logs with a per m3 price. So for example a 1'5 cube bag costing £90 is £60 per cube, or a 0.6 cube builders bag at £50 is £83 per cube....
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Actually its the exact opposite, the more you split wood the more space it takes up, a cube of big logs will weight a lot more than a cube of kindling.
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Interesting, Google trends has it the other way round, thats for the uk though.
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LA job titles have always confused me...
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I don't really see it as regulation, I mean giving a per cube price isn't too much to ask IMO. Imagine if one garage sold fuel in litres, another in pints, another quarts, gallons etc, it would be a nightmare deciding where to fill up. We wouldn't say it was over regulation if they were all standardised, its just common sense.
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I don't think there's any distinction made between windblown and virgin timber.
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I see your point, but as a BSL registered supplier your fears regarding sustainability and proof thereof are probably unfounded. The BSL accreditation recognises arb waste as sustainable and as such it can be sold as an accredited product, as far as taxes go I can't see them raising the vat rate above 5% anytime soon, but you never know... other taxes are the same as for any other business. I don't get on my high horse very often but to be honest, the situation re firewood is poor, ask any barman how seriously the weights and measures act is treated, a pub or club can be hammered for under pouring spirits or beer, same thing at the petrol pumps, bags of coal etc. but with logs its a complete free for all..
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Impressive! I can see why they cost so much!
