Hi all, currently thinking of setting up a side project / business selling gates and railings and light architectural metalwork.. More for a bit extra cash nothing too serious to leave my steady job.. I have a range of gates and railings designed and about priced in the hope of selling them online, the thing I'm stuck with at the moment is delivery prices, as steelwork can be a varied size and weight im wondering how to go about estimating delivery costs for my adverts? Any help and advice would be great thanks.
- Thread starter Torch
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Gareth0123
You'll need 16 pigs to do the job in one sitting!
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Make one of your biggest items pack it, measure it weigh it, get a quote: it is the only real way to do it. Then extrapolate and estimate down for smaller items using the parcel service calculators.
Or calculate or estimate volumetric values.
The volumetric calculation is a combination of dimensions and weight, and here is an example of a typical parcel that I often send out:
115 cm X 19 cm X 11 cm X 4.7kg, which equals 112,964.5
which is then divided by 5000 or 6000 depending upon the courier, airline, sea vessel, or even destination to give set volumetric rates
So the shipping volumetric for the above parcel calculation is as follows is:
112,964.5 divided by 5000 equals 22.6
or
112,964.5 divided by 6000 equals 18.3
So the price of sending the parcel will then be calculated by multiplying those last numbers by a price per unit. So for this example we will use a price per unit of 75p.
Therefore; 75p X 22.6 = £16.95 to send the parcel.
or 75p X 18.3 = £13.73 to send the parcel.
Sometimes if you are really lucky the volumetric base rate can be 7000 or even 8000 and a couple of times I've had it at 9500 making the shipping even cheaper.
Get your volumetric value and then ring around for the best rate per unit............ and don't forget to add in transit insurance and VAT.
Or calculate or estimate volumetric values.
The volumetric calculation is a combination of dimensions and weight, and here is an example of a typical parcel that I often send out:
115 cm X 19 cm X 11 cm X 4.7kg, which equals 112,964.5
which is then divided by 5000 or 6000 depending upon the courier, airline, sea vessel, or even destination to give set volumetric rates
So the shipping volumetric for the above parcel calculation is as follows is:
112,964.5 divided by 5000 equals 22.6
or
112,964.5 divided by 6000 equals 18.3
So the price of sending the parcel will then be calculated by multiplying those last numbers by a price per unit. So for this example we will use a price per unit of 75p.
Therefore; 75p X 22.6 = £16.95 to send the parcel.
or 75p X 18.3 = £13.73 to send the parcel.
Sometimes if you are really lucky the volumetric base rate can be 7000 or even 8000 and a couple of times I've had it at 9500 making the shipping even cheaper.
Get your volumetric value and then ring around for the best rate per unit............ and don't forget to add in transit insurance and VAT.
cumbriasteve
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I never put anyone down willing to have a go, well done for that.
Are you doing it as a disclosed small business or under the radar, you have to be careful with the likes of our friendly tax man and even more careful with liability insurance, it becomes a scary world if one of your customers decides your product injured them.
Not trying to put you off at all, I made gates myself so know how silly some customers can be and the out of this world expectations they have at times, even though I was not at fault I know if the no win no fee ambulance chasers had existed 30 years ago I would have had a couple trying it on and that would have been super expensive even defending myself.
Good luck with the venture.
Are you doing it as a disclosed small business or under the radar, you have to be careful with the likes of our friendly tax man and even more careful with liability insurance, it becomes a scary world if one of your customers decides your product injured them.
Not trying to put you off at all, I made gates myself so know how silly some customers can be and the out of this world expectations they have at times, even though I was not at fault I know if the no win no fee ambulance chasers had existed 30 years ago I would have had a couple trying it on and that would have been super expensive even defending myself.
Good luck with the venture.
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I used to make gates and railings ages ago.
I think the only way anyone can make money out of it now is by doing it out of their garage etc/low/no overheads. Amazing what some people charge, hardly covers costs.
With such low margins I would be ringing round a few companies and getting definite costs for carriage of certain size items rather than trying to guess at it and potentially loosing any profit out of the job.
I think the only way anyone can make money out of it now is by doing it out of their garage etc/low/no overheads. Amazing what some people charge, hardly covers costs.
With such low margins I would be ringing round a few companies and getting definite costs for carriage of certain size items rather than trying to guess at it and potentially loosing any profit out of the job.
Great thanks, I can work out my sizes no problems and weight used should be quite easy to measure knowing what materials that i have used too! Will certainly have to get some quotes before I can advertise further rather than just collection only. The chances of fitting stuff on a pallet would be quite high alough panels for example would most certainly protrude each side, not sure there rules on that either.. as for my plans I have no real overheads, have a small workshop in allotment, big genny welder steel bench chopsaw etc etc.. just a venture to test the water if there's much out there as I know there is as I'm out erecting all over the country. It would be nice to stay local and fab a few bits and pieces of my own weekends for my own money and a bit of change.. I like to pay and keep everything legit, but think at this stage it's a bit early for insurances etc till I see a couple of orders coming onto the diary
cumbriasteve
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I know there is a market for cheap and cheerful gates to keep the dogs in and people do buy these through mail order because usually it's half a dozen screws and fitted, they are so cheap now the profit on each must be less than a tenner.
The heavy stuff though surely has a much smaller mail order demand, well beyond most householders ability to erect correctly, I know 99% of my sales were only achieved because I fitted them, I tried a cash and carry discount and wasted my time doing so.
The heavy stuff though surely has a much smaller mail order demand, well beyond most householders ability to erect correctly, I know 99% of my sales were only achieved because I fitted them, I tried a cash and carry discount and wasted my time doing so.
WorkshopChris
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Just a few things quickly before i forget to post>
With pallets, you will be hit with big surcharges if anything overhangs the pallet's dimensions they are all priced on a how many max per load/vehicle so it caused big problems.
If sending pallets you may need to specify a tail lift some companies charge a premium for this.
Unforchantly a lot of the public (your customers ) lack any logic. And will not tell you they live down a country lane 5 foot wide or in are never in before 10 at night this can also cause you problems with missed deliveries.
Also if your pallet is only low think a gate and a few short lengths of railing, it is very possible at some point in the prosses someone might decide to stack another pallet on top of your to just get another one on the the lorrys. It does happen.
Build all this into your price.
Believe me building / selling anything is the easy bit. Deliveries will be the pain in your side.
