Know exactly what each firewood run costs you, and how far you can afford to drive. Free, no signup.
These are editable starting points, not market rates. Set your bar to what your time is actually worth.
If you offer free delivery close in, enter the radius so the tool can check it against your break-even distance.
Flat delivery fees die on long runs. Start with Your numbers: your bar rate, a profit margin percent, and a daily take-home goal, all editable starting points. In The run, pick a load preset: Half cord, Full cord, or 2-cord load. Each fills load minutes, unload minutes, and stacking minutes, which you can change freely. Enter one-way miles, average driving speed, and vehicle cost per mile. Check the stacking box only if you stack on arrival. In What you charge, enter the delivery fee you quote and any free-delivery radius. The breakdown shows round-trip miles, drive minutes versus handling minutes, vehicle cost, labor at your bar, true run cost, and the fee the run actually needs. The big number is the fee this run needs, rounded up to the nearest five dollars. Verdicts are WORTH THE RUN, THIN, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING RUN. Leak notes cover the break-even radius at your fee, a free radius past break-even, drive time beating site time, and true cost per one-way mile. The gut check prices your old fee, and the day planner counts runs to your goal with an over-10-hour reality flag. Free, no signup, runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. A full-cord run, 20 one-way miles at 40 mph, $0.67 per mile, 45 load minutes plus 30 unload minutes, no stacking, a $40 bar, and a 20 percent margin: the round trip is 40 miles with 60 minutes of driving, 135 total minutes, which is 2.25 hours. Vehicle cost is $26.80, labor is $90.00, true run cost is $116.80, and the fee the run needs is $145. At a quoted $40 fee you earn $5.87 per hour after vehicle cost, so the verdict is WORKING TOO CHEAP. The $40 fee does not even cover the $50 of load and unload labor, so there is no profitable distance at that fee. A $25 gut fee lands $91.80 below true cost and pays negative $0.80 per hour.
How is the break-even radius calculated?
The fee minus the fixed load and unload labor, divided by the per-mile cost, which is twice the vehicle cost plus twice the bar rate over average speed. At the defaults the $40 fee is below the $50 of handling labor, so no distance is profitable until the fee rises.
Should I offer free local delivery?
Only inside the break-even radius. The tool warns when the free radius goes past break-even, because every mile past that line is paid labor you gave away.
Why does stacking change the quote so much?
Forty stacking minutes at a $40 bar is $26.67 of labor before margin, with no change in the load. If customers expect stacking, it has to be in the minutes or in the fee.
What if a run sits past break-even?
A leak fires telling you exactly how many miles out beats the break-even at your current fee. Raise the fee or shrink the radius before you drive it.
Why is my effective hourly rate so low?
It is the fee minus vehicle cost, divided by total run hours. Drive time is paid labor like everything else, and long hauls with flat fees are where it hides.