Friends with the owners

I deal with several Yards in my area some of the Bigger places (scales on site strictly business) but others are BIG little guys and by that i mean they deal with everything at there home yard and do it all by themselves. Now the advantage to these guys is that i have a few of them spaced out so no matter where i am hauling from i have a home for the stuff near by (sometimes pays less but when you can get multiple loads in per day it pays off better).

One location is a gentleman that i have been talkign to for about 10 years and used to buy vintage car parts off of to sell on the net.
When I started hauling to him this summer he would check the loads himself and one day we found a 100pound mistake (used weighed empty and full on different scales) and i actually owed him some money ($7). after that we found the perfect scale close to him to weight full and empty and got a good repor going with him. As far as i know i am the only one that gets the perks i do (everyone that comes in is welcome to look around and buy from him).

But I have the luxury of being able to Haul in while he is working on cleanups off site and just call him up with the weights and also i am able to drop off any day of the week i choose (he takes sundays and holiday weekends off) As long as i call him up tell him I'm gonna be hauling we are good i even have a somewhat personal drop off section in his yard. So if he is busy at a work-site all week i can drop loads for turn and burns like a mad man and then call him at the end of the week with my totals and collect the cash.

Another yard i used to deal with back when i first started used to do me huge favors i.e business after hours and would even let me bring in and get paid for loads on sundays if i was in a bind (last time i was there i blew a tire and they changed it for me) so i always try to become friends with the yard owners it does pay off and the payoffs are good as i am also aloud to trade weight for weight that's how i got my old trailer traded 2 rider mowers for the trailer because the weight was the same.


So who all here has good connections that do them favors, which yards make you feel like one of there favorites?

I do not get the personalized service you do because of the larger yard I go to. It has 20 employees. At the same time I get preferred treatment. Our yard has a loop with only enough room for one vehicle at time. When they are loading or unloading semi's, there is a waiting line waiting to get in. I was allowed to bypass the line one time with my big trailer and go in to get unloaded. I have to back up through the yard and back onto the scale when done. I have done this several times, buy only once did I by pass the waiting line.

I posted earlier about the yard hands helping unchain loads, being careful of my equipment, and even coming out to the parking lot with loaders when the yard is muddy. The excuse for the last one to those in the mud is that it is the type of load that makes it easier. The real benefit has been sitting down with the manager several times to pick his brain about my latest project. The manager is plenty busy, but always takes the time to provide advice. He knows his company cannot handle the metal, but he is still willing to provide insight. It might help that we talk hunting all of the time.

My dad has been friends with two owners of scrap yard , one of them was like the second . He used to let us scrap and take apart things from other scrappers and would not really care what we did , sometimes we even sold what we took apart like electric motors and aluminum to the same yard and they would pay us there. I even remember on summertime we used to bring alot of motherboards from the yard , since they did not take em apart for ewaste which was a big plus , I filled up 20x20x20 usps box with roughly 65lbs each week until they closed , did that for about 3 months. That scrap yard sadly closed down :( because the guy who ran things decided to go live to California with most of his family was to work at a ranch . Now the other guy I take my scrap to my dad is close to him too , but he actually has workers who strip things down , they also gather the computers to take apart and sell , they collect the ewaste , although the owner lets my dad take things too , but if his workers get to it first then its theirs . There is not much freedom as before , but you got to work with what you have , he penalties guys -$15 for the tvs they take or Christmas trees , but he does not tell us anything we've taken 200+lbs tvs before with all the metal we take and he pays us for it as scrap . So we actually get $20 for a tv he would charge $15 for . Also lately when it snows we let the load sit down outside and mix with the snow we get a couple 100-200lbs of that in there , we take a broom and unload it with all the metal on top so it does not seem obvious , and since there is mud and water in the yard at this time of the month ;) we get paid for the snow too so . Always great to make friends with the yard workers and owner as well brings so much perks