Coalpail.com Forum

We're looking to buy from 6,000 to 7,500lbs of anthracite nut coal from a seller we've located in Washington, PA. So far, we are unable to locate a trucking company that will deliver the coal at a reasonable rate. One quote we've received so far is over $3,000 delivery only. Anybody know of a trucking company that would deliver to a business address near Denver, CO, or are we looking at a 3,000 mile roundtrip adventure? Thanks for any comments.

bem2 wrote:We're looking to buy from 6,000 to 7,500lbs of anthracite nut coal from a seller we've located in Washington, PA. So far, we are unable to locate a trucking company that will deliver the coal at a reasonable rate. One quote we've received so far is over $3,000 delivery only. Anybody know of a trucking company that would deliver to a business address near Denver, CO, or are we looking at a 3,000 mile roundtrip adventure? Thanks for any comments.

That seems high, and more like a full T/L rate from PA to CO.

Is the coal bulk or bagged? If bulk, then you are paying for the entire truck. If bagged, you are only paying for 3 or 4 skid spaces on a truck. Even if it is bulk, the dispatch for the trucking company will most likely arrange for a back-haul, so you should not be obligated to pay for a round trip.

I doubt that you will make that long of a haul very economically no matter how you slice it, but a full T/L of bulk with a back-haul will bring you the best freight rate in my opinion.

For comparison I can bring 40' HQ overseas containers in all the way from Hungary, Egypt, or India, and then have the entire container railed and trucked into Ohio for typically about $6K to $7.5K total to the door of the company that I work for.

Now I am a PA anthracite coal nut but I don't this computes. Let's use rough numbers here. Three tons needs to be hauled three thousand miles (there and back) let's say 10 MPG that's 300 galls at $4 a gall that $1200 for three tons that's $400 a ton. That's not the trucking charge that's just fuel. I think you need to burn great KY bituminous coal and one member Berlin seems to be an expert here. However, I like crazy people and burning PA anthracite in your neck of the woods is way out there even by my standards. I might call the local jeweller and ask the cost of rough diamonds, it may be cheaper to burn that.

Time to get out the maps on the fly over states. Although for my money NYS has become a fly over state, no reason to stop here. As Colorado is the seventh largest coal producer in the US not even KY computes (I am biased by Jack Daniels, so how bad can the coal be but there is still a irritating fact of a 1000 mile drive and $5 fuel is not helping). So you need to get locally. Hmmm, do we have a Colorado moderator? I don't even know.

I think you'll find the economy you're looking for when you buy an entire truck load, about 22-24 ton. Call Double Run trucking in PA. 717-721-3996 I'm sure there are others, but they served me well.

bem2 wrote:We're looking to buy from 6,000 to 7,500lbs of anthracite nut coal from a seller we've located in Washington, PA. So far, we are unable to locate a trucking company that will deliver the coal at a reasonable rate. One quote we've received so far is over $3,000 delivery only. Anybody know of a trucking company that would deliver to a business address near Denver, CO, or are we looking at a 3,000 mile roundtrip adventure? Thanks for any comments.

you won't find anyone to deliver bulk at a rate that seems reasonable to you because of the costs involved. The only way to make a dent in the per ton cost is to buy a full truckload of bulk.

Regardless, you should be looking at using the excellent Colorado bituminous coal you have readily available and far less expensive. There are lots of stokers and stoves available second-hand in Colorado that will burn your good bituminous coal very well. check on craigslist and local classifieds.

Did you get a quote from any of the LTLs? Their rates are high compared to truckload carriers but you don’t want a truckload. Make sure they know the weight and how many skids and they should be able to get you a rate.

Another possibility; there are trucks from out in your neck of the woods going into NYC and other northeastern cities every week. They haul stuff back all the time. As a rule freight going east is more expensive than freight moving west. If you could find a small company or even an owner operator who gets backhauls that don’t quite fill his trailer he may be able to help you out. I would bet there is someone out there that could do this but finding that person or company and hooking the two of you up is the challenge.

Thanks for the replies. We're currently burning bituminous and we think it comes from Utah. We called six Colorado coal mines but they aren't setup to sell to the public, mostly train loads. Our coal supplier says his bituminous is "hard bituminous", whatever that is. Sounds like he's trying to make stuff up to keep us as a customer. 100 years ago, they mined anthracite near Crested Butte, CO, but that mine has shut down long ago. Our stoves are a Castle Crawford cook stove and a Crawford base heater. We use the cook stove for cooking, and for heat, as we live in a remote location where the power goes off all the time. The PA supplier is quoting 40 bags at 50 pounds each on a standard pallet at $310 per ton. Burning the bituminous we have puts off a lot of soot. We were told that anthracite burns as clean as propane. We thought we would try a winter with anthracite. We'll keep looking for a trucker going from PA to CO with room for a few pallets of coal.

I've had good luck using UShip to find small carriers/independents to handle odd loads over long distances.

Mike

Since a TT load is not an option, how about a smaller scale car hauling trucker...like used for moving cars bought on ebay etc.

They try to haul cars going both east and west and try not to travel empty...so costs stay reasonable.

They deliver multiple cars to multiple destinations all across the country. They may accommodate bringing a few pallets of coal to your location.

ebay car delivery services

Yes, those are the kind of carriers you find on UShip. I've moved big gravity wagons from the midwest to the Berkshires for short money on car carriers looking to fill space. To move this coal might take a little more $ due to the weight, but I'd still think of it as a good option (unless some LTL carrier comes in with a cheap rate ).

Mike

bem2 wrote:Our coal supplier says his bituminous is "hard bituminous", whatever that is. Sounds like he's trying to make stuff up to keep us as a customer.

He could be telling the truth. Colorado and Utah have harder (better quality) coal compared to other areas in the western US.

What supplier are you using now?

I would look for a stoker furnace as Berlin mentioned in an earlier post and use local coal....you could use the hand fired stove during power outages.

I'm getting promising replies from UShip. One question that came up is, can the coal be transported in an open transport truck. Does the coal have to be protected from the weather? If the coal is bagged and the pallet shrink wrapped will that make the 3 day trip safely? The Durango and the Cumbres narrow gauge steam locomotive's coal is outside and not at all protected from the weather so I always guessed that exposure to bad weather wouldn't hurt the coal. What's correct? Thanks for the replies. They're very helpful.

Barbara

As you surmised, weather will have not be detrimental to the coal.

How will the pallets be unloaded at the destination?

Some carriers might have the ability to lift off pallets. Worst case, even if you don't have equipment, it shouldn't take long to unload off an open carrier by cutting the shrinkwrap and tossing the bags. I'd suggest putting it in your listing if you're prepared to do that, or if you have access to a forklift.

Mike