Why Would Bulk Coal Not Be Allot Cheaper Than Bagged?

 
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Yanche
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Post by Yanche » Mon. Sep. 08, 2008 5:48 pm

When I first heard how much more expensive bagged coal was I thought of a business opportunity. I found a web site that sold bagging machinery and bags. Unless you buy the full automated machinery it takes two people to operate a bagging machine. No way can you beat the current prices for bagged coal when you have two pay the salaries of two employees. The through put of the smaller machines is too low and the much bigger fully automatic machines are too expensive. Perhaps a local dealer who buys bulk can make bagging work by using existing employees with idle time. I sure wouldn't put money in a bagging machine.

 
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Post by LsFarm » Tue. Sep. 09, 2008 3:08 am

Another part of the puzzle is the truck needed to haul bagged coal is a flatbed truck, hauling pallets of coal.. Bulk must be hauled in a dump trailer..

My coal hauler delivers grain and feed products to eastern Pa. and has empty trucks coming back,, so they pickup coal and bring it back.. I pay freight for only one way..

There are a lot more products that are hauled on flat bed trucks than in dump trailers.. I'd bet that Freddy's bulk delivery brought Maine potatoes or other similar product,, maybe Maine crushed granite aggregate ?? or ??? But I'll guarantee that truck didn't go back empty...

It's a lot easier to find a 'back-haul' for a flatbed than for a dump trailer..

Greg L.


 
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Post by Rob R. » Tue. Sep. 09, 2008 6:06 am

The trucker that delivered my bagged coal had a walking bottom dump trailer. He could haul either pallets or bulk material in the same trailer. He dropped off my 18 pallets of bagged coal then went 10 miles up the road to pick up a load of seed corn to haul back to PA.

 
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Post by CapeCoaler » Tue. Sep. 09, 2008 7:20 am

It is the workers compensation insurance that is very expensive per ton in MA...
So a commercial bagging operation would be cost prohibitive here....
Commercial trucking rates are relatively low...
Land costs, money costs and equipment costs...
It all adds up....
Every time you touch the coal it gets more expensive...
A single 25 ton dump is less expensive than five 5 ton dumps...

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