what do much smaller tree companies with small yards do for chip/log dumping?

C

cercidiphyllum

Location
Boston Suburbs
Hi all,

coming off a tough year or two because I had knee surgery but only now getting back into growing my weekend business into the full time thing. Before the injury I was making great progress but things came to a halt. Until now!

anyways. dumping is taking up the profits for me. I'm talking about smaller 1-3 person companies where its a truck+chipper + 1 or 2 guys. Renting out a small outside storage container and just enough space to park the equipment. Any chips / logs / etc that is produced during the day has to be paid to dump at a variety of places.

I live/work in Boston + suburbs so real estate is pricey. Ideally I wish had a large yard where I could dump and store my own chips logs for the obvious reasons. (turn into mulch and sell/sell woodchips to energy plants of some kind ? I think ive heard of this anyways.)

Any advice for what I can do ? I for sure cant afford my own yard I just rent space now. I dont see why other tree companies would let me use their yard for any cheaper than dumpsites I go to since this is my competition. What am I missing for options here or at least what else can I think about?
 
Chipdrop might be something to look into. Or connect with local gardeners who would take your chips. In our area we have multiple farms that will take as much chips as we can give them. Chips and wood are not an asset. They are a liability. The less times you touch them or have to think about them the better IMO. Talk to the place you pay to dump the most and see if they will give you a volume discount if you set up an account and pay with check or cash?

And lastly, just raise your prices slightly to cover the expense if it is hitting you in the wallet that hard.
 
I've always wondered what happens in bigger cities.

Every place I've ever worked the cities have had a compost facility that they allow the public to dump organic waste at for free (with the assumption that the material comes from within city limits).

Outside of those sites I've also used sawmills, organics recyclers, and farms. And they will all take anything and everything. Have never paid to dump...ever.

I've also built up a list of homeowners within my work range that will take materials. Chips are usually easiest to offload, then decent hardwood (to be used as firewood). Softwood can be difficult to get rid of, but people with those outdoor boilers burn everything or campgrounds will sell it for campfire wood.
 
Make sure your numbers are right so that you are profitable in the hauling/ disposal/ related risks department.

If you're not charging enough for haul-off, it doesn't matter what you do with it.


I'm rural, with a demand for chips and wood. I only pay for invasive plant and thorny/ pokey chip disposal if not burning that stuff on site or at my yard. Very different. Still need the numbers to work.
 
southsoundtree said:
Make sure your numbers are right so that you are profitable in the hauling/ disposal/ related risks department.

If you're not charging enough for haul-off, it doesn't matter what you do with it.


I'm rural, with a demand for chips and wood. I only pay for invasive plant and thorny/ pokey chip disposal if not burning that stuff on site or at my yard. Very different. Still need the numbers to work.
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I have explained this concept to customers when they say I seem to be charging a lot. I tell them that I agree, but it just doesn't make any sense for me to even be there for less than that.

Edit: to be clear, I am nearly always the best deal in town, and I encourage everyone to get multiple bids if they are on a tight budget, as prices vary widely for many reasons.
 
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Kind of takes some digging, but you could reach out to folks who are vendors at Boston area farmers markets and see who might be geographically convenient to you wishing for chips. And if not I'm sure they could tell you. Might take an hour or two of your time, but you'd save yourself a lot of money in the long run by doing the work to expand your network.

Might just get some clients out of it too.

Good place to start?
www.massfarmersmarkets.org

Farmers Market Resources — Mass Farmers Markets

www.massfarmersmarkets.org www.massfarmersmarkets.org

When I worked in Brooklyn we were dumping debris at a Waste Management site, I remember it as a cost of $120 per truckload? That was 10 years ago. It would have been a good setting for a Gotham villain hideout.
 
cercidiphyllum said:
I dont see why other tree companies would let me use their yard for any cheaper than dumpsites I go to since this is my competition.
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Worth asking and maybe a good relationship could develop. I’m not one to talk; been meaning to network more but too introverted and socially tired… Having mult options makes for less stress, what does Mayer or Hartney do with logs/chips?
 
Talking $ I had my main firewood guy just stop accepting wood rounds recently. And in a pinch to get rid of a load of 3.5 foot diameter pine rounds I took them into a local recycling yard, $423.

Ouch. Guess I'll call another guy that's a little out of my way and see if he wants more campfire wood rounds.
 
Merle Nelson said:
Talking $ I had my main firewood guy just stop accepting wood rounds recently. And in a pinch to get rid of a load of 3.5 foot diameter pine rounds I took them into a local recycling yard, $423.

Ouch. Guess I'll call another guy that's a little out of my way and see if he wants more campfire wood rounds.
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Call around to churches and the like. We have a few around here that have ‘wood donation banks’.
The only issue is they are getting old, I think the youngest is in his late 70’s so they have gotten pickier. Likes smaller rounds as close to where their pickup can get.
 
Here in Detroit we have tons of urban farms and gardens. People generally have more space to themselves than in other big cities so we have a long list of people wanting chips most of the year. For logs, we had a place that charged $40 for a 12' dump trailer load but that place caught fire and burned a few weeks ago. It was a huge fire, and not the first time this place had burned. It was in the city and about 15 minutes from home base so we're keen for it to open up again. Our back-up plan is twice as far away and closer to $100 per load. Lots of times if the wood isn't junk, we can find takers just posting in advance on social media. Sometimes we get burned though, like one woman who said she just wanted three or four small pieces from the trailer after my partner drove 30 minutes to drop a trailer load. Now we word our posts very clearly.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
I learned to give away wood and chips but charge a delivery fee. Clarifying that my chips were not matchbooks or poker chip quality was important. Even after learning how to deal with chislers my SOP was to not argue with billing for delivery and counting those jobs as a cheaper drop off than a rea disposal operation.
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Yup, I do the same. Also sometimes people are weird creatures. They will turn their nose up with ‘free’ stuff, but the same person is very willing to purchase the exact same thing.
 
chiselbit said:
Haha. Yeah. Like put a pile of junk out by the street with a “free” sign and nobody touches it. Put a sign on it “for sale. $50.” and someone will steal it!
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With FB marketplace when you post something for free, everyone says they want it but never show up. Charge a dollar and the results certainly improve (although FB is still full of flakes). Maybe it has to do with having some sense of skin in the game, even if they money hasn’t been paid yet…
 
Glad to hear you’re getting back at it!

Couple thoughts here, building off of what others have said.

Ask anyone and everyone you know whether they or anyone they personally know is ever looking for logs or chips. Even if they’re not actively looking right now down the road at a later date they may be in need of some. Accumulate a log of names / addresses / contact info so if you’re working in the area you can reach out beforehand and see if someone wants them. You may not always be able to get rid of them on a regular basis this way, but at least it’s an option you can consider at times.

If the majority of the time you’re going to the dump either out of necessity because you can’t find anyone who wants them or perhaps because it’s more convenient then it’s important to consider that in an estimate. Maybe take a look through your past dump receipts and figure out what the average cost is that you’re paying per load, and then factor that in to what you’re charging to make sure you’re covering the cost. So for instance if the average cost to dump one load is say $40-$50 and you’re going to price a job at $700, maybe you bump it up to $750 or $775. Or if you’ll be dumping multiple loads, then obviously you may need to go higher. And if there’s going to be significant travel time back and forth to and from the dump then fuel for your vehicle is also a factor.
 
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