eddie86
Well-Known Member
Looking at those truck pics was like spot the difference trying to figure out if they were pics of 1 or 2 trucks. :scratchhead: I got there eventually.Been a while since i updated this (as usual) however nothing much exciting has been happening....... until now
So being winter everthing goes a bit quieter but also theres been contract changes/renewals taking place for the people who we carry out the biggest amounts of work for, the first spreading biosolids & the second being moving poultry litter.
So first up spreading the bio-solids. Unfortunately the company we used to spread the biosolids for lost the contract to another firm, however we've been doing less and less each year due to picking more of our own customers up closer to home - think we only did about 10,000t last year. We could carry on with the new company however they're not doing as much in our area meaning we'd have to travel further but also the price we get paid hasnt gone up in about 5 years yet kit prices has risen massively in that time so I decided enough is enough & we'd just concentrate on spreading for local farmers. But as they say as one door shuts, another opens - and on the same day we were offered work from the poultry producer (who is our biggest customer) to help their guys with maintenance on boilers they have on each poultry site. I nearly turned it down but thought it would be handy work to fill in any gaps with it being not weather dependant but also if the poultry litter contract didnt go to the guy who we move it for we would have another income to make up for the loss of that. So far its gone really well and is worth more per year than spreading biosolids and its more profitable, so much so we have got another full time member of staff hopefully starting with us next month just carrying out this work with the potential of putting a second person on it later in the year.
Secondly moving the poultry litter, so having been through this 3 years ago (although we didnt actually tender for the contract back then as i didnt have enough experience or contacts to be confident to pull it off) I decided & got asked to tender for it. All our work with the trailers have been in the hands of somebody else since i started contracting and i decided i would like to 'paddle my own canoe' having been involved in the job for a few years now & building up good contacts. As expected there was massive interest from our local competitors but also national companys, but after a few weeks of nervousness it was announced that I had won the contract Meaning we would purchase all the litter from the farms and sell & transport to local farmers along with disposing of all the dirty water etc. So bascially in a couple of months we are going to busier than we ever have been, however having 2 tri axle trailers & 1 18t trailer isnt going to be enough and also wont reach farmers further away so after a bit of thinking i decided to go shopping...
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Not being someone who does things by half, yesterday i bought 2 Daf 410 8 wheelers :rolleyes2: They've had 1 owner from new & have been on a Daf main dealer service & maintenance plan all their life and also arent high mileage. So the plan is to take the bodies off that are currently on them and put 2 new bodies on built to our requirements (similar to the below one)
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This will mean we can keep on top of the job, but also gives us a more professional look rather than running loads more tractors & trailers, but once these are complete they will have cost less than 2 new tri axle trailers - and thats without buying addtional tractors to put on the front of them so for me it was a no brainer to go for these, especially as we're already picking up more work for them like moving compost over longer distances where tractors & trailers become less efficient. So now ive just got to wait for the bodies to be built & be put on which should be around May time - which means i can concetrate on getting all the licensing etc sorted :Thumbp2:
Well wear.