Bulk coal delivery protocol?

stockingfull wrote: But some kind of sliding scale to account for the different "packing factor" between grades would make sense to me, with the bigger sizes being less dense than the smaller, i.e., containing more air. But that's a guess.

This was mentioned in my first post in this thread complete with a picture to give you a visual. Smaller sizes require more space, now if you had a vibrator that may not be the case. Coal will lose volume over long distances in truck due to the vibration from the road. Roughly speaking I'd guesstimate rice would require about 3 more cubic feet per ton than nut. The density of the coal (e.g a piece of coal by itself) itself is also another factor but if you're getting your coal from the same place and they are processing the same type of coal all the time it won't change. ! ton of nut coal purchased at one breaker will not have the exact same volume of that purchased from another but it should be fairly close most places. The 40 cubic feet per ton is just a rough estimate.

Edit: just to add a typical breaker in my area is going to be producing coal that is about 10 to 11% ash, however there are places as low as 6% when you get down around Hazeleton. This type of coal is glass like and seamless its so hard and dense you can shatter a piece off and practically shave with it. You will see a significant change in volume between the 10% and 6%.

Has to be bituminous coal.

snuffy wrote:The weight protocol brings up an interesting issue - why are each and every ticket rounded to the nearest 100th lb

To save time and bookwork for everyone where I was getting my coal they would allow you X amount over. With the delivery truck just from experience you could easily get it close to the mark you wanted but you'd try and err on the side of more. Every time I left the breaker I was over by at least 100 pounds on a 5 ton load. The only time I'd have to mess around getting reweighed was if I was light. If I was over 2 or 3 hundred it was still marked at 5 ton. As long as you're dealing with reputable and honest people I wouldn't be concerned about the rounding as its going to be in your favor.

FYI if you're picking it up yourself they are required to have the scale weight visible to you. You can check it yourself which way they are rounding.

Scales are certified in PA, but what is the allowance?

I believe its a percentage, in any event first person that will know the scale is off is the delivery guys. They know exactly what X amount of coal looks like on their truck.

blau barrick wrote:When I get 6 ton of 2B stone at quarry weight slip reads 11980 or 12140 or 11860... you get the idea.

Well for one thing when they load a truck with stone it might be many hundreds of pounds one way or the other, again a coal delivery guy is going to be very close. Since you have such a low cost for the stone rounding isn't going to give you any benefit anyway since you still have to deal with cents in the final cost.

As far as giving away product there's so many factors there like water weight etc. suppose I go in the breaker with a nice clean truck get weighed and then ahve to drive through a big mud puddle.....