so I want to start a firewood business...

[muddstopper]

If, and its a big if, I wanted to sell firewood or be in the firewood business I would probably do it different than most people here do. For one thing, I aint going to spend every spare minute trying to scrounge wood to sell. I like to fish, garden and mow my grass. I have mowed 4 times this year already, and I hate that I havent even wet a hook. I Did buy a new pole and a few jigs, but thats another story. If I was going to do a firewood business, I would buy log and tree lengths, delivered to my property. I would invest in a processor, or finish the one I started building 4 or 5 years ago. I would have a conveyor to pile the splits high. I would use some sort of FEL to load a dump truck with splits for delivery, and I would have the attitude of take it or leave it. You think it is to green, or to big or to dirty, go buy your wood somewhere else., Simple, you get the wood you want and I dont have to deal with your stupidity. Of course there will be plenty to disagree with me and say thats not a good way to do business. Thats fine, their opinion is worthless to me because they dont have anything invested in my business The firewood market is pretty hot around here, plenty of scroungers with 10 or 12 cords to sale and they sale out every year. They dont make any money because they are to busy trying to scrounge up more wood to sell and trying to undercut the price so they can sell more and lose even more money. Their biggest problem is they dont know how to figure their true cost of doing business. They are buying watermellons for a dollar and selling them for a dollar and trying to make it up on volume. Time is money, labor has a real cost and so does trucks, saws, fuel. The more wood you can produce with the less cost means the more profit you can make. Setting artifically low prices and providing unnecessary free services, such as stacking, just means more cost and less profit. Sure their are people you cant sell to unless you split everything to little pieces and haul the wood behind the house and stack on the back porch. Extra splitting, extra hauling and extra stacking all cost you money. Time is money, for every one of those customers, there are just as many that are willing to come to your lot and haul their own wood. People do stupid things just to save a few bucks, dont be a fool and do it for them for free. If your out scrounging wood, just remember your not able to deliver wood and if your delivering wood, your not able to be out scrounging.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

We do our own logging, but have the equipment. There are no big outfits in these parts, we actually are one of the bigger ones and we are just 2 guys doing the logging.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I just wanted to say, location means alot as well.

I sell wood fairly easy here, but we have fairly long winters and lots of folks heat with wood. Selling wood let's say in North Cacalacky, I'd imagine would be a bit harder! Mowed the lawn 4 times?! I'm still dealing with snow here, have a good 3 months before needing to worry about a lawn mower.

That being said, there is a market for BBQ wood in some places, that doesn't really exist here. Campfire wood sells decent, though the camping "season" (we'll just say the time where it's above freezing temps) is only about 4.5 months long.

 

[Mustang71]

Where I live in western New York few people burn more than a face cord a year in their fire places or wood stoves because it looks neat. The people out here by me who do not have natural gas usually burn wood to heat but it's all farm land and woods out this way. Is there a lot of wood burned around here...yes would it be a good business to have by it self...no. most people are land scapers and sell wood. It's probably more profitable to sell logs then fire wood.

 

[cantoo]

To make any kind of money on firewood you have to either go big or have it as an off shoot of something you already do and have the same equipment for. There just isn't enough money in it to go out and buy all the equipment you "need" to do firewood without breaking your back. Skid steers, loader tractors, dump trucks, land, shop, dump trailers etc are really hard to pay for if all you do is firewood. There is just too much idle time for each piece and your payment don't care if you only put 50 hours on it a month. If you are a landscaper and already have some of these items then maybe you can justify doing firewood especially if you just have to hire one guy to do the physical work.
I already have a tractor (back hoe) because I have 10 acres, needed a bunch of tiling done, need my driveway and yard cleared of snow, needed something to load and unload the equipment I buy and sell to make extra money and my wife is a farm girl so she okayed the purchase.
I think something for you to consider is to concentrate on campfire wood sales, BBQ wood, smoker wood and wood fired pizza places and people who are willing to pay big dollars for someone to deliver small amounts of wood, stack it on the back porch. Maybe birch or something pretty like that. Don't need near the volume of wood, no where near as much equipment, one good load of suitable wood will cost you more but will also be worth a lot more. Also sell pretty cookies to the wedding crowd, it's big money too. Google "images" for ideas.

 

[muddstopper]

There is a difference between starting a firewood business and adding firewood to an existing business. Arborist's in business removing trees will always have wood they need to dispose of. They have the equipment to take down a tree and haul off the wood. Some see the wood as a expensive byproduct they have to pay to dump somewhere. They gladly will dump in your lot just to get rid of the wood. Sooner or later they see you processing and selling firewood and they start chargeing you for the wood. Then they get the ideal they can haul the waste wood to their own shop and process it when tree work is slow and make even more money off the wood. Which leaves you, as a buyer, out of a cheap source of firewood for your firewood business. Then they run out of storage space to stack the trees and realize they make more money removing trees then they make processing firewood, but by then, they have gotten greedy and dont want competition, so they price the logs so high a small time operator cant make any money buying the wood and selling it as firewood.

Then you have the timber cutters that make their living selling to pulp mills and saw mills. As long as your wood lot isnt to much out of the way and easy to get into and out of, and you have equipment to unload their trucks, and you pay in cash, they are more than willing to sell you a log truck load. It has to be hush hush about the money, they dont want Uncle Sam to find out what they are doing.

Then as a firewood business, you have all the other small time producers selling the 5 to 10 cord of scrounged wood per season. Never overlook that market as a potential source of product for your firewood business. Its just a local observation, and may or may not apply everywhere, but what I have seen is folks selling pickup loads of split wood for $75 load, delivered and stacked, sometimes even cheaper. Now think about that for a minute, a pickup truck, if loaded properly will haul about a 1/2 cord of wood. Two loads is one cord for $150. That is delivered and stacked. Now how does that effect your business, $150 for a delivered cord and stacked on your lot and you havent even touched it. Now I have also seen plenty of wood stacked and sold for $75-$100 a rick or rack, face cord, you choose the term, well 3 face cord equals a full cord, thats $225-$300 a cord. Cant buy from a guy and sell and make a profit, yes you can. That small time producer cant produce enough wood to sell all winter long. He has 5 cord to sell, buy all he has. He's happy and can go hunting. You have a supply of wood you dont have any effort in to sell when everybody else is out of wood. Buy two or three other part timers out and you have cornered the market. You might not make as much money as the part timer, but you dont have the expenses either and he probably didnt make near as much as he thinks he did. Now as an example how well that works, I have a guy that has offered to load my dump trailer with wood already bucked, for $40 per load. Throwing a load on my trailer and rounding it up, I can haul a cord. Stacked carefully, a little more. He says he has about 10 loads worth thats been cut and bucked most of the winter. Thats $400 for 10 cords of wood and all I have to do is split it. If I was a firewood seller, I would jump all over the offer. Might buy it anyways, but I have a bunch of scrounge wood given to me for free I just have to load it myself and haul it.

 

[sb47]

There is a difference between starting a firewood business and adding firewood to an existing business. Arborist's in business removing trees will always have wood they need to dispose of. They have the equipment to take down a tree and haul off the wood. Some see the wood as a expensive byproduct they have to pay to dump somewhere. They gladly will dump in your lot just to get rid of the wood. Sooner or later they see you processing and selling firewood and they start chargeing you for the wood. Then they get the ideal they can haul the waste wood to their own shop and process it when tree work is slow and make even more money off the wood. Which leaves you, as a buyer, out of a cheap source of firewood for your firewood business. Then they run out of storage space to stack the trees and realize they make more money removing trees then they make processing firewood, but by then, they have gotten greedy and dont want competition, so they price the logs so high a small time operator cant make any money buying the wood and selling it as firewood.

Then you have the timber cutters that make their living selling to pulp mills and saw mills. As long as your wood lot isnt to much out of the way and easy to get into and out of, and you have equipment to unload their trucks, and you pay in cash, they are more than willing to sell you a log truck load. It has to be hush hush about the money, they dont want Uncle Sam to find out what they are doing.

Then as a firewood business, you have all the other small time producers selling the 5 to 10 cord of scrounged wood per season. Never overlook that market as a potential source of product for your firewood business. Its just a local observation, and may or may not apply everywhere, but what I have seen is folks selling pickup loads of split wood for $75 load, delivered and stacked, sometimes even cheaper. Now think about that for a minute, a pickup truck, if loaded properly will haul about a 1/2 cord of wood. Two loads is one cord for $150. That is delivered and stacked. Now how does that effect your business, $150 for a delivered cord and stacked on your lot and you havent even touched it. Now I have also seen plenty of wood stacked and sold for $75-$100 a rick or rack, face cord, you choose the term, well 3 face cord equals a full cord, thats $225-$300 a cord. Cant buy from a guy and sell and make a profit, yes you can. That small time producer cant produce enough wood to sell all winter long. He has 5 cord to sell, buy all he has. He's happy and can go hunting. You have a supply of wood you dont have any effort in to sell when everybody else is out of wood. Buy two or three other part timers out and you have cornered the market. You might not make as much money as the part timer, but you dont have the expenses either and he probably didnt make near as much as he thinks he did. Now as an example how well that works, I have a guy that has offered to load my dump trailer with wood already bucked, for $40 per load. Throwing a load on my trailer and rounding it up, I can haul a cord. Stacked carefully, a little more. He says he has about 10 loads worth thats been cut and bucked most of the winter. Thats $400 for 10 cords of wood and all I have to do is split it. If I was a firewood seller, I would jump all over the offer. Might buy it anyways, but I have a bunch of scrounge wood given to me for free I just have to load it myself and haul it.

There are always pitfalls in any business adventure. I find the casual roadside seller doesn't last very long and are not necessary a bad thing. Sure you may loose a few sales at first. But I find that many people will pay for quality once they have bought crappy wood from road side sellers. I've not had any issues with a tree company getting greedy and start charging for wood. I have one fellow that is glad to bring me 2/3 cord loads for a case of beer. I don't pay for wood but I do give little gifts like a bucket of fresh yard eggs or a gift certificate for a stake dinner. One guy took a few fryers for his BBQ pit. A little bargaining goes a long way. Sales for me come and go in spurts. Be prepared to sit and wait for sales. Treat it like a hobby at first, and build costumers slowly.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

There is a difference between starting a firewood business and adding firewood to an existing business. Arborist's in business removing trees will always have wood they need to dispose of. They have the equipment to take down a tree and haul off the wood. Some see the wood as a expensive byproduct they have to pay to dump somewhere. They gladly will dump in your lot just to get rid of the wood. Sooner or later they see you processing and selling firewood and they start chargeing you for the wood. Then they get the ideal they can haul the waste wood to their own shop and process it when tree work is slow and make even more money off the wood. Which leaves you, as a buyer, out of a cheap source of firewood for your firewood business. Then they run out of storage space to stack the trees and realize they make more money removing trees then they make processing firewood, but by then, they have gotten greedy and dont want competition, so they price the logs so high a small time operator cant make any money buying the wood and selling it as firewood.

Then you have the timber cutters that make their living selling to pulp mills and saw mills. As long as your wood lot isnt to much out of the way and easy to get into and out of, and you have equipment to unload their trucks, and you pay in cash, they are more than willing to sell you a log truck load. It has to be hush hush about the money, they dont want Uncle Sam to find out what they are doing.

Then as a firewood business, you have all the other small time producers selling the 5 to 10 cord of scrounged wood per season. Never overlook that market as a potential source of product for your firewood business. Its just a local observation, and may or may not apply everywhere, but what I have seen is folks selling pickup loads of split wood for $75 load, delivered and stacked, sometimes even cheaper. Now think about that for a minute, a pickup truck, if loaded properly will haul about a 1/2 cord of wood. Two loads is one cord for $150. That is delivered and stacked. Now how does that effect your business, $150 for a delivered cord and stacked on your lot and you havent even touched it. Now I have also seen plenty of wood stacked and sold for $75-$100 a rick or rack, face cord, you choose the term, well 3 face cord equals a full cord, thats $225-$300 a cord. Cant buy from a guy and sell and make a profit, yes you can. That small time producer cant produce enough wood to sell all winter long. He has 5 cord to sell, buy all he has. He's happy and can go hunting. You have a supply of wood you dont have any effort in to sell when everybody else is out of wood. Buy two or three other part timers out and you have cornered the market. You might not make as much money as the part timer, but you dont have the expenses either and he probably didnt make near as much as he thinks he did. Now as an example how well that works, I have a guy that has offered to load my dump trailer with wood already bucked, for $40 per load. Throwing a load on my trailer and rounding it up, I can haul a cord. Stacked carefully, a little more. He says he has about 10 loads worth thats been cut and bucked most of the winter. Thats $400 for 10 cords of wood and all I have to do is split it. If I was a firewood seller, I would jump all over the offer. Might buy it anyways, but I have a bunch of scrounge wood given to me for free I just have to load it myself and haul it.

I like the way you think. No wrong way to get firewood. Paying $90-100 a cord for 12 cords of white oak looks like a lot of money compared to scrounging or skidding my own wood with my tractor, but in reality I've got a lot of time and expense into a cord of logs that I cut myself versus a cord delivered. You smash one hydraulic filter, shred one tire, or skewer one radiator on your tractor and that repair has to be figured into each load you skid. Plus replacement cost.

I just payed a local tree service with a clam truck $250/load to move 4 loads for me. The wood was given to me by a friend of mine about 15 miles away. I could have brought my tractor over there and loaded my deckover trailer with 1.5 cords a bunch of times, but thought it was a better use of my time and equipment to pay them to do it. I did however meet them over there 3 of the 4 times with my trailer and they loaded me up too. They said they hauled 4 cords in each of their loads (I'm a little skeptical, but even at 3.5, it's pretty good), plus 4.5 on my trailer makes 20.5 cords delivered here for $1000.

Before I switched to making syrup last week I was cutting and splitting the delivered every day. Could have been skidding logs from my woods instead, but this seemed like a good use of my time.

 

[muddstopper]

I like the way you think. No wrong way to get firewood. Paying $90-100 a cord for 12 cords of white oak looks like a lot of money compared to scrounging or skidding my own wood with my tractor, but in reality I've got a lot of time and expense into a cord of logs that I cut myself versus a cord delivered. You smash one hydraulic filter, shred one tire, or skewer one radiator on your tractor and that repair has to be figured into each load you skid. Plus replacement cost.

I just payed a local tree service with a clam truck $250/load to move 4 loads for me. The wood was given to me by a friend of mine about 15 miles away. I could have brought my tractor over there and loaded my deckover trailer with 1.5 cords a bunch of times, but thought it was a better use of my time and equipment to pay them to do it. I did however meet them over there 3 of the 4 times with my trailer and they loaded me up too. They said they hauled 4 cords in each of their loads (I'm a little skeptical, but even at 3.5, it's pretty good), plus 4.5 on my trailer makes 20.5 cords delivered here for $1000.

Before I switched to making syrup last week I was cutting and splitting the delivered every day. Could have been skidding logs from my woods instead, but this seemed like a good use of my time.

Exactly. Its not just the cost of buying wood. Its the time involved cutting and hauling before you even have a product you can sell. Your guy made 4 loads out of what would have taken you at least 8 or 10 loads. 15 miles one way is minimum 30 min, probably closer to 45min round trip with a loaded trailer. Thats right at 5 hrs right there. Then the time to load the wood, and then unload, probably put you right at 10 hrs or more of your time, not to mention your gas, and would you have had to bring in another piece of equipment to load yourself if the guy hadnt of been there. And what about equipment to unload if you dont have a dump. That is time you could have spent splitting if you let someone haul to you, or time you could have used to deliver product. Time spent scrounging cost on both ends. Yep you can make a little more money if you do all the cutting and hauling yourself. The question is, do you make the most money cutting or selling. If your cutting, you aint selling, and if you cant cut as much as you can sell, then your losing money.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Ok what part of California are we talking about? I have sold wood in Southern Cal for 40 years and I would say few know more about this business in this area. The principles are for most part constant and do not change. Mud has hit pretty much all the issues quite dead on. If you thought you could make anything this year South of the Bay area you are wrong. We did not have any winter because it was canceled. There will be some good winters coming up, but do not know when. It could be 5 years before we have a decent firewood season. Then there is Air Quality Management. So in short it is a tough business. At least for awhile hiring an employee is out of the question. To hire a helper and pay Workmans Fund and taxes will cost $300 a day. So a single person has got to be very efficient. I set up an 30,000 lb dump truck to work with tree companies which has been a huge plus. The truck and trailer can move up to 10 cords at a time or sometime time a hundred cords a week. Then there were some years that it sat with out doing anything. Insurance and licence for partial year runs $2,500. However one month of hauling will pay for two years of expenses. Just 50 miles away in the high desert the business model is quite different. I have a friend that has a few acres in the valley and all he does is buy from tree companies what ever they have. He can season wood in as little as three weeks or as long as eight weeks in the winter. Some times buying or renting some property to run your business is essential. I have had several years where as I cleared $10,000 a month during peak winter times, but it just made the loss times easier to tolerate. Then there have been years where as steady customers just kept coming with out too many problems. Thanks

 

[farmer steve]

There are always pitfalls in any business adventure. I find the casual roadside seller doesn't last very long and are not necessary a bad thing. Sure you may loose a few sales at first. But I find that many people will pay for quality once they have bought crappy wood from road side sellers. I've not had any issues with a tree company getting greedy and start charging for wood. I have one fellow that is glad to bring me 2/3 cord loads for a case of beer. I don't pay for wood but I do give little gifts like a bucket of fresh yard eggs or a gift certificate for a stake dinner. One guy took a few fryers for his BBQ pit. A little bargaining goes a long way. Sales for me come and go in spurts. Be prepared to sit and wait for sales. Treat it like a hobby at first, and build costumers slowly.

HEY!! i resemble that roadside seller remark. i pretty much gave up delivering a few years ago. i sell 99 % of my wood out of bins i sit along the road. most guys are charging $150-200 a cord delivered. i'm getting $240 a cord and the customer comes and picks it up. i do help them load. i'm lucky to have a firewood/hay auction nearby that i can buy wood at. i bought a load today that i should be able to make a $100. i have time and gas into it but not much else. pic of my bins.

 

[sb47]

HEY!! i resemble that roadside seller remark. i pretty much gave up delivering a few years ago. i sell 99 % of my wood out of bins i sit along the road. most guys are charging $150-200 a cord delivered. i'm getting $240 a cord and the customer comes and picks it up. i do help them load. i'm lucky to have a firewood/hay auction nearby that i can buy wood at. i bought a load today that i should be able to make a $100. i have time and gas into it but not much else. pic of my bins.
View attachment 639269

I don't delver anymore ether. I started out selling roadside and delivering but found that while I was sitting roadside, people would show up at the yard wanting quantity's. Made more since to stay at the yard so I can be working up more wood. Deliveries are too much a pain in the ash and don't yeald much more money.
I'm more productive staying at the yard and having them come to me. Then again, location, location,location. Most of my sales are from people stopping by on there way home from work.

 

[farmer steve]

I don't delver anymore ether. I started out selling roadside and delivering but found that while I was sitting roadside, people would show up at the yard wanting quantity's. Made more since to stay at the yard so I can be working up more wood. Deliveries are too much a pain in the ash and don't yeald much more money.
I'm more productive staying at the yard and having them come to me. Then again, location, location,location. Most of my sales are from people stopping by on there way home from work.

i'm fortunate that my wood yard is 100 feet from my road where i sit my bins. i have my # posted on the bins so customers can call me. no worries with theft as it's in "range" from the house too.

 

[sb47]

i'm fortunate that my wood yard is 100 feet from my road where i sit my bins. i have my # posted on the bins so customers can call me. no worries with theft as it's in "range" from the house too.

I'm at the end of a dead end road, so I don't get drive by's.I open at the crack of 10am and stay open till dark. I don't get people wanting wood early in the morning.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I'd much rather deliver.

I don't fuss with less than a cord, so there is that.

With pickup orders I have to be stuck here waiting on them to show up, load and leave.

I get people that no show, or have to come another time.
Or order a cord of wood and show up and only actually buy a wheelbarrow or two worth or load up with much more than they ordered and not want to pay for it.

Then there's the few that have no sense of time, want to come by at 6am or 11pm, or just show up then and I guess expect I work 24/7. Then blow up my phone because no one is here.

Or show up and help themselves.

 

[sb47]

I'd much rather deliver.

I don't fuss with less than a cord, so there is that.

With pickup orders I have to be stuck here waiting on them to show up, load and leave.

I get people that no show, or have to come another time.
Or order a cord of wood and show up and only actually buy a wheelbarrow or two worth or load up with much more than they ordered and not want to pay for it.

Then there's the few that have no sense of time, want to come by at 6am or 11pm, or just show up then and I guess expect I work 24/7. Then blow up my phone because no one is here.

Or show up and help themselves.

Everyone does what works for them. Making delivery's also comes with its own set of issues. There not there when you show up. They want you to wheelbarrow the wood to the back yard past the pool and around all there crap left in the yard. Likability issues, both driving and any damage they might blame you for, so you have to have expensive insurance coverage. Many of the same issues with staying at the yard still exist making delivery's. Plus wear and tear on truck and trailer.

 

[muddstopper]

There a old guy near me that sells fish bait on the honor system. Crickets, worms's, wigglers and nite crawlers, as well as 3 sizes of minnows. I buy from him all summer. He even let me know where he keeps his hide a key just in case I want a couple thousand crickets he keeps in big boxes inside the shed. I think I have only met him a couple of times in the last several years I have been buying from him. He has a steel lock box hanging on the wall to put your money in to pay for what you get. I know he has ran his business like this for at least 40 years, maybe more. I am not sure where he gets his bait and he delivers bait to all the other bait shops around. He does have a couple ladies counting out and boxing worms, but dang if I can figure out the hours when they actually work, probably aint seen them there more than a few times either.

Anyways, the point is as long as proper precautions are taken, you dont necessarily have to stay on site when your customers need bait, or firewood. I am sure he has been beaten out of bait from time to time, but I also know that I dont always have the correct change to pay him with so I always leave the left overs out of a fiver instead of short changing him. Two boxes of worms@ $2 a box, whats a extra dollar. I'm going fishing and I got my bait, I am willing to bet others do the same. Yea I am gullible. I guess if someone beats him out of a dollar here or there, those of us that leave extra when we need too probably makes up the difference. Stacked and ricked wood, or wood in a box, most folks around here would pay for the rick they get. Wood in a pile and they are loading their own truck, I am sure there are some that think a heaped up, all you can get on the truck, is a proper load, and I doubt few would even know when they even reached the correct amount they are paying for. A dollar a dozen for minnows is $1 for twelve minnows, a box of worms is a box of worms, a tube of crickets is a tube of crickets. And $20 for a box of 1000 crickets, is $20 for the box. Unless my brother is with me, then its about $60 or $80 for 3 or 4 boxes of crickets. Did I mention we like to fish.

 

[sb47]

There a old guy near me that sells fish bait on the honor system. Crickets, worms's, wigglers and nite crawlers, as well as 3 sizes of minnows. I buy from him all summer. He even let me know where he keeps his hide a key just in case I want a couple thousand crickets he keeps in big boxes inside the shed. I think I have only met him a couple of times in the last several years I have been buying from him. He has a steel lock box hanging on the wall to put your money in to pay for what you get. I know he has ran his business like this for at least 40 years, maybe more. I am not sure where he gets his bait and he delivers bait to all the other bait shops around. He does have a couple ladies counting out and boxing worms, but dang if I can figure out the hours when they actually work, probably aint seen them there more than a few times either.

Anyways, the point is as long as proper precautions are taken, you dont necessarily have to stay on site when your customers need bait, or firewood. I am sure he has been beaten out of bait from time to time, but I also know that I dont always have the correct change to pay him with so I always leave the left overs out of a fiver instead of short changing him. Two boxes of worms@ $2 a box, whats a extra dollar. I'm going fishing and I got my bait, I am willing to bet others do the same. Yea I am gullible. I guess if someone beats him out of a dollar here or there, those of us that leave extra when we need too probably makes up the difference. Stacked and ricked wood, or wood in a box, most folks around here would pay for the rick they get. Wood in a pile and they are loading their own truck, I am sure there are some that think a heaped up, all you can get on the truck, is a proper load, and I doubt few would even know when they even reached the correct amount they are paying for. A dollar a dozen for minnows is $1 for twelve minnows, a box of worms is a box of worms, a tube of crickets is a tube of crickets. And $20 for a box of 1000 crickets, is $20 for the box. Unless my brother is with me, then its about $60 or $80 for 3 or 4 boxes of crickets. Did I mention we like to fish.

When I was a kid we had a dairy down the road that let people come in at night and take milk and leave money in a box. But milk and worms, crickets are perishable items. You can't keep them for long till they die and are useless. I suspect he didn't care because the life span for worms and crickets are short, so if they don't sell, they die and he has to throw them out. Wood will keep a long time, so if they steel it today, they can still use it months later.

 

[Husky Man]

When I lived in Forest Grove, which was a classic Norman Rockwell small town, there was a farm, with a large self service produce stand between the house and the barn, I never saw any of the Family, but they took self service to a different level, they had a CASH BOX out, for customers to make their own change out of, did it for YEARS, unfortunately the INEVITABLE happened, some ******* took the whole cash box. I was surprised at how long that lasted, but not at the expected end result, IIRC, they went to a drop box, securely welded to a concrete set post, a ******* could still leave with free produce, but at least they had to pay out their pocket for their beer on the way home.

Doug

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I deliver fairly often when no one is home. Either already have paid, or they've left the $$ for me.
After you build a good name people aren't too worried. I've only had 1 person in 7 years measure out the truck to verify it was what I said it was.

No carting for me. I dump. Granted have managed to put a truck in places a Kia shouldn't have fit. Or lost a good pair of undies dealing with icy driveways that a frigging mtn goat would say "hell no!"

Insurance isn't too bad. I pay around $300/yr for the 1 ton dumptruck. I forget on the 25 ton.

Everyone does what works for them. Making delivery's also comes with its own set of issues. There not there when you show up. They want you to wheelbarrow the wood to the back yard past the pool and around all there crap left in the yard. Likability issues, both driving and any damage they might blame you for, so you have to have expensive insurance coverage. Many of the same issues with staying at the yard still exist making delivery's. Plus wear and tear on truck and trailer.