Anyone factor gas/time when driving around looking for scrap?

Not trying to cause drama.....serious question. Do you guys that drive around looking for stuff ever keep track of miles driven/gas used? It just doesn't seem like it pays to drive around looking for stuff once you figure the gas/time spent and some trips you find nothing. I just scrap on the side to make some money for a Camaro project I am working on. I check CL free section and have friends/family give me stuff all the time and keep an eye out for stuff as I am out and about for other things. I wont drive very far for something on CL, but will for family or friends as a service and to keep my name out there and get return calls. I only make a trip to the yard if I have a full trailer(4x8) full just to minimize my time and gas.

Because I run an LLC, I do not figure for time (yearly profits just get thrown in with my personal statement). I am able to write off $0.565 per mile on the company van (gas comes out to less than that but with maintenance, etc.) so that's how much I record as a business loss. On average, I can expect to spend 1.5 hours per trip to the yard (30 minutes each way, 30 minutes at the yard itself) and about $9 on fuel (12 mpg, $4.09 per gallon currently, 24.5 mile drive). That being said, I haven't gone curb shopping for quite sometime. I figure all of my expenses for the day before I even unlock the van to make sure the trip is worth it (especially when traveling far). If I can't economically make the trip (I'm not going to travel 45 minutes for a dryer) I'll either turn down the job or try to arrange another pick-up in the area.

I llok at it this way... If I am going somewhere for something then I go thru some alleys to get there, and then some more on the way back. So not that big of deal.

Originally Posted by TheRecycler

If you are serious about scrapping, one of thing you will need to understand is that you are an entrepreneur. As such, you are your own accountant, risk manager, and so on. To get scrap, you have to go find it, how you go about that is the million dollar question. First, not all scrap is created equal, so amount of time spent on tear down and so on has to be determined. The golden rule to making money is quantity, so if you have a problem going to get it, your financial reward will be limited.

Well said! I just might print this out and post it in my garage.

Couple of things...first..it takes more then your question to cause drama here. We're an easy going bunch, unless you push the right buttons. Fore the most part...we're pretty drama free here, which is why a lot of us love this here forum an it's members.

Second..You gotta realize, not everyone is teh same as your area. For example..Curb shopping for me, is easy to do if I stay on my sandbar. after all it's only 100 or so miles. My average area I drive is a 20 mile area. That's a gallon of gas for my little minivan (18 city, 24 hwy! woohoo!). In that 20 mile radius...I got 4 towns I can visit. So..for me..I do take gas in to consideration, but I don't do much curbco shopping anymore. I don't chase things on CL normally. I do get a few things from there now an then tho, usually at night when the rest of the people are sleeping. Google Maps, Directions, an a GPS can be your best friend when driving around. It also helps if you know your area well. I know my area real well. Tell me a street, an I can usually tell you the town it's in, which side of the hwy, an roughly how far you gotta go to get there. An of course I track mileage for tax purposes, a long with a host of other things.

On time...I got all the time in the world. I live on a sandbar, so I'm always on Island time. Till you live at the beach...you won't understand. We do things different here. If we wanted the rush rush rush...we'd all live on the mainland. Ha ha! Only things I have to do during daylight hours, is it hit a few accounts, an the yard. Otherwise...my time can be spent doing whatever. Hit the beach, come home, break some stuff down, go back out, repeat. I also get regular bouts of insomnia. So I do a lot of things later in the day or into the night. Unless it's one of my accounts who I have to visit during regular hours, or I'm heading to the yard...i don' watch the clock.

I do this full time, might be different for folks doing it part time. But when I first started it was part time/hobby, an I did curbco on a regular basis. Only time I worried over gas was when the van was full, cause my MPG would drop like cement shoes in water. I won't race the next guy for a dryer. It's part of the reason I decided to focus on ewaste an cell phones. Less racing around like a chicken with it's head cut off. For me it works...YMMV.

I'd imagine someone living in the boonies one would be more worried over things like gas, or if you lived in a city with traffic. Me..I don't. A traffic jam here is..four cars at a red light, or on Sat/Sun when the tourists all leave to go home, or are coming in. Then there might be a delay at the bridge back to the mainland.

I wouldn't know what to do if I had to deal with idiot traffic all the time. lol.

I'm sure your going to get a ton of replies on this. Ha ha.

Sirscrapalot - "If you see traffic on my road, someone died." - My Great Nana from NH on the road by her house, an the town in general.

Another thing: When figuring before hand, do not assume how much copper or aluminium you'll pull from an item. When I'm figuring my profit beforehand, I assume everything is going into shred. If it isn't worth it for me to scrap at $0.06 per pound, I won't pick it up (unless it is very clearly worth it...like in the case of an aluminium engine core).

As with any business, it's all about planning, planning, and more planning. Planning around traffic, planning your route correctly. Communicate ahead of time with clients to make sure you are not pressed for time (as time is money as well). Speaking of time, try not to over scrap. Taking half an hour to pull $2 worth of scrap from an item is not economical.

I curb shop on my bike, so no gas. Anything i can carry is like profit, minus sometime but thats not a big deal for me

I have to average things out to justify some of my actions. Lately I've been finishing up jobs that I had been on earlier in the winter and a few of my recent loads just don't add up unless I reflect on others I've taken from the same client. I don't want to leave a job undone so I feel that I'm gaining business goodwill if nothing else by taking that last small load that wouldn't fit on the trailer earlier. We all know that word travels fast and the fastest way to get OUT of business is to leave an unsatisfied (or unpaid) customer behind. This advice wouldn't fit everyone on here, but even at that, if you make a mess of a dumpster or someone's yard while scrapping, he might be out there with a few sharp words the next time you arrive on his street. I take the bad (light loads) with the good loads.

Delivery for me isn't just making money. I have to consider all the fresh air I'm getting, new contacts to be made with almost every trip and of course the friendly girls at Casey's who are free with their hugs. I figure if those sweeties look forward to seeing a bearded old man in dirty coveralls, hearing his advice, receiving his monetary tips, then it's worth the trip. Relationships / Friendships can be taken to the bank too...!!! Building treasures in heaven, people.......and with that attitude, your business should prosper and gas won't seem so expensive.

Well put, Yunkman. I've had countless loads where I've actually lost money (it wasn't worth what I thought or wasn't as big as the client originally said, what have you) but once I've committed to a job I have always finished no matter the cost. I know that the day I tell a customer, "I'm sorry but I can't take the last half load because it isn't worth it" is the day I lose a potentially valuable network of clients and scrap material.

In fact, it costs me money to drive out and grab CRTs from clients. But I know that if the clients have to send the CRTs elsewhere, they are going to send away the good stuff as well.

Thanks for all the advise so far. Keep in mind this is very part time for me. As a matter of fact I was getting ready to make some cards and my wife threw a fit!!

She'll come around the first time you hand her a stack of money an say.."here babe, go shopping." For the ladies..with husbands like this..use the.."Here honey, go buy that tool/beer/man thing/etc." Ha ha!

Mine loves what I do now for sure. One I'm happy, to she can go shopping with MY money. LOL

Sirscrapalot - They say money can't grow on trees. I think CO begs to differ right about now.

I have to say I haven't factored in gas money to any great degree yet, but that's changing. I'm more like hobo finds- the gas "doesn't count" if I'm already out running errands and just happen to take a long-cut on the way home (for some reason I seem to always have an excuse to run out to the grocery store on our neighborhood's trash night). I also make semi-regular trips to the scrap yard to do the family recycling anyway, so I don't count those trips either (rarely do I make a trip to the yard that doesn't count as a household errand).

In looking at CL ads, it's more the time than the gas. I see "curb alerts" with a few goodies or a broken freezer or something, but unless I'm planning on getting in the truck anyway, taking 30 minutes to drive across town pick up a couple bucks worth of something that may or may not already be gone (folks are pretty quick around here- I'm not the only one scanning CL) is just not worth it.

That said, as I'm paying more and more attention to auctions in the area I very much do consider gas. There might very well be a pallet of cheap computers out in Scott City, but it could easily take me three pallets worth of computers to pay for the gas to get there.

If I ever get more serious about this (or my firewood "business") and actually incorporate for tax purposes, you bet your sweet bippy I'll be logging every mile. Kind of a nothing-or-all situation...

cheers,
tbg

if you hit the right wealthy neighbourhoods on the right summer days in my experience i usually come back with full truck loads and if i havent left my own town gas money is not a factor. when it becomes a factor is when people contact me on kijiji and expect me to drive half way across the county to get 1 or 2 appliances. i would li,ke to help these people but most of the time its a loosing proposition and if i were to try to charge them for gas/millage they would be better off finding some one closer to them who would be willing to come get it for free. you have to be careful of this imo because you can really blow your brains out

Originally Posted by TheRecycler

This is why networking is the next chapter of study in obtaining a B.S. In Scrappiology. This way you can throw another fella a bone and in return he may do the same for you. See if there is any Scrappers near where the far pickup is. Let me know how it turns out.

ive considered it but never really gave it a shot.... could be beneficial in allot of ways. i have never really done much networking at all with the other haulers nearby. allot of price shopping yards for this or that but thats about it. a couple cat buyers price shopping if that counts but other then that....

Like some of you, I only do the drive-arounds if I'm out and about anyway. It's no extra effort, and it's fun. But I won't waste gas on speculation, not unless it's large trash night.