Do you give a discount if you take the wood?

Why do you thing they call it, "Logistics?" I heat with wood October-April as does FIL, BIL and neighbors. It's kinda like how I love to cook but would like it very much if the dishes washing fairy would step up and do the rest.

Silver Maple can't give the dang stuff away usually the same thing with the highly valuable Black Walnut....
 
I'm amazed how often I've had people say "If you take that tree down for me, I'll let you keep the wood. Even Steven." Oh, OK! Let me jump on that offer! This is Connecticut (trees everywhere) not Kansas where you might have to search for a tree, much less firewood!
 
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I heard someone say to me once the easiest way to make 100,000.o0 selling firewood is to start with 200,000.00. That being said I think the only way it is profitable is if you own a big landclearing operation and get straight processor wood all the time that you are paid to take off the site and you have a processor that's doing 8-10 cord a day. Then you charge people 250.00 a cord for green wood that they pick or 350.00 delivery. Any other way I can not see it being profitable. I am from Massachusetts so numbers could be less or more depending where you are. My .02 cents
 
Comes down to time anyway you slice it. Leaving logs takes less time, as long as they're not in your way to finish the job. Hauling them takes time, to load and unload, possibly dump fees, and time to process the wood, regardless of how you handle it. Somebody has to pay for that.

If we spend more time cutting the logs to firewood lengths, stacking it for the client, and cleaning up the sawdust, someone has to pay. We're paying employees to do it. Client pays more, for hiring us to orchestrate the whole thing, and supply the manpower and equipment. That's the way business works.

I just love when they want the smaller firewood (4-6"), and want us to cut all of the butts off the limbs before we put them in the chipper. IMO, a limb is the right size to drag to the chipper when it's slightly smaller than, "too big to handle"

We do try however, to promote more business in close proximity to home-base when possible, and sometimes give price breaks, due to less travel time and fuel evening things out.
 
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Just like how difficult it is to explain to people that I can fine, detail prune it for $800, or remove it entirely for $1000. 4 hours climbing, chasing deadwood, or flop, winch and chip the whole thing.
 
Or that it's cheaper to remove a tree than prune it. Sometimes one way, sometime the other. I explain that they are talking about a demo job versus a remodel.

I hardly look at a lot of removal cuts, but it may take a re-cut or two for an exacting pruning cut. A removal might be 15 cuts, while pruning a tree might be 100, as with fruit trees.
 
It's not about cost, it's about value. What is it worth to the client? We done the discount for leaving the logs only to get a call to remove them. At that point you name your price, much higher now that you have additional travel time and related expenses, and they begrudgingly pay it. Trees seem to look much small when they're standing….
 
treehumper said:
Trees seem to look much smaller when they're standing….
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Just like the classic "I burn wood, so all I want you to do is put it on the ground. No chipping, no clean up. I'll take care of all that" Are you sure about that? Are you really sure? It's going to be A LOT bigger mess than you realize!

We had several of those this summer. We did everything we could to convince them that we should chip the brush as it comes down, and that the price will be higher if you call us back in a few weeks. Nope, they were all very certain. And they all called us back, very sheepishly, several days later because they were overwhelmed by the mess. Knew it was coming, each and every time, but still couldn't seem to prevent it.
 
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