OUCH THAT DART IN THE FOREHEAD HURTS!

I manage a sand and gravel facility, 2 asphalt facilities and deliver a broad variety of materials.

All of our loads are scaled. If the scale is down in Homer the yardage method is used and our loader guys are good, those loads are always in the customers favor and spot checked once or twice a day at one of our other 6 scale locations. I have 3 65+' scales at the Polkville location and 1 in the Homer location. The main office and terminal also have one each.

Customers are always calling in asking us to compute their needs and when it comes out short they expect us to truck the rest for free. I always make some assumptions that their grade or finished grade might be off. I will not give a calculation I will give an estimate using 2" + or- on the grade. I've been out to lots of jobs and grades are not even close.

Why is it if you have a truck that carries 22 ton customers are unwilling to buy the 2 extra ton and have some extra. 2 ton of any type of material is lost in the size of the area that will take 20 tons. Many contractors are cheap trying to cut corners and blame someone else when it's short.

That said: we mostly deal with larger contractors that quote very close and figure in the overages on dirt work and when you deliver the 2360 tons of item 4 they know exactly where it will be used. They also have no problem ordering a extra 30 ton load even if they think they only need 20-23 tons.

My dumps weigh over 70,000+ carring 21-23 tons loaded our trailers are 107,000 carring 31-34 tons homeowners and many contractors have NO IDEA how much weight that is. Most people have no clue that a contractor with good help can move a ton of material in 8 wheelbarrows, some less. As far as heaping up over the sides that is a invation for the DOT boys to stop you. Most trucks are designed to maximize the load below the sides. Our gravel weights just over 1.68 tons per yard lime stone suppliers are a little less. Do the math. 17'L X 52"H X 76"W Thats our smallest dump.

Trucks are expensive, good drivers to drive them are expensive. When a driver tells you the ground looks soft it probably is, they are not backing in. When they ask 6 times about leach fields and old tanks to include old fuel tanks they are serious. When you try to put a tractor trailer in a drive way designed for cars and not tear up the road out front or crush a culvert it probably won't work. The worst case is the homeowner who has no idea of what is buried in the yard. Once I have seen a concrete truck sitting in a old septic tank almost on its side. Homeowners falt? Or stupid truckdriver? Homeowner or contractor is going to pay for towing and damage to truck.

But contractors and homeowners find it easiest to blame it on the supplier and trucking rather than their lack of knowledge.

I've had a homeowner accuse a driver of delivering part of the load to someone else in route to the job, because the pile looked small.

Concrete and asphalt are batched in state certified facilities. Our asphalt plants are rechecked every 90 days. There is no short loading or the computer driven delivery ticket would reflect it. It is usually a bad quote based on a bad grade or the inability of a homeowner or contractor to hold a fine finish grade on the project.

Bottom line I can not believe someone would continue to do business with a poor supplier that keeps poor help unless he is just out to do a job as cheap as possible to increase his profit.

BTW for your yard I would never recommend 6" of screened topsoil unless it was screened with lots of small stone and sand.

Moisture in the soil has to do with light and fluffly or heavy and clumpy it all depends on the season and moisture also raw material.

Always remember a ton of dirt and a ton of chicken feathers weighs the same.

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