I would like to canvass interest for a Rutherford 'run'.
To see if it is worthwhile, I need to know who wants to buy one or more drums for himself. Once I know the number of drums people are wanting to buy, I can work out the way of transporting it, paying for it, and delivering it.

Please answer the following:
Name, Sydney Suburb and...
a) How many drums are you wanting to buy?
b) do you have your own drums? They can be purchased on site for $30.
c) How do you intend to pay for the fuel? Propose a practical way to collect the money since you don't know me from a bar of soap. A third party could be the banker, and you could pay him via direct debit e-bay style, or any other way you fancy.
d)How do you expect the fuel to be delivered? I don't mind a few strategic delivery points but a long run at one barrel at the time may prove discouraging and I would need serious help to do that.

Open for suggestions and remember that if you are unsure, say so. The cost can be determined once I know how much fuel we are able to buy in one go, the bigger the order the smaller the price.

Hey Marc,

Familiar territory here for some of us, but I suppose good to revive/revisit this again for those who are new here. Perhaps better ways of doing this can be found.
We've done this before using different methods which I will share here:

1. Waterways Rozelle run: About 10 of us bough about 2000L in drums. The drums were forklifted and/or manhandled onto the backs of trailers and them taken to a car park in Glebe. We then moved the drums off the trailers and distributed them amongst ourselves. This proved time consuming and problematic, having to pump between drums as they were too heavy to move.
2. Rutherford run: Much easier due to Gunner's car trailer which could fit 10 drums. Gunner took care of the collection with some people stopping at my place on the way to drop off/collect the drums. The drums were rolled while still full off the trailer, though this does take some care and some skill.

We set up a private area in the forum to swap details and talk about planning. I've not added any new people to this "purchasing group" to see this secret area since, or it would not be secret anymore .
But seriously, it is just more practical to swap details via private message and leave the rest of it public.

Personally, I got a bit sick of the 200L drums and I still have my almost new rotary hand drum pump, though I gave away the drums. I've moved to 25L containers, which is 8 times more changing while filling, but infinitely easier to carry and handle.

Now, as for Marc's idea to hire a truck and do a run - brilliant. We would not have got this done before without Gunner and his car trailer. The community needs more people like this to take the initiative and do this sort of thing.

I'd be happy to help with proving a place along the way for a drop-off point. I might opt out of this first run as I will be getting a bulk amount myself soon, but I'd be interested in a month or two again.

Hopefully you will get a bunch of takers making this worthwhile.

__________________
Robert Fyvie
Site Admin
Sydney Biodiesel Users' Group and Australian Biofuel Users


......................................................
2007 Mazda 6 Diesel ..................................2000 Peugeot 306..........................2001 Landrover (retired)
2L Turbo charged (Common Rail) ...................XTdt 1.9L Turbo ............................Freelander TD4 (Common Rail)
on B100.................................................. ...on B100.......................................on B100

Hi there I'm looking to get 2 drums (400 lts) .
I live in SMITHFIELD, count me in.
Miguel

Well it seems we are at the same stage than the stickers, parlamenting.

Miguel, the economics of driving to Rutterford for a few drums on a trailer are rather dumb, however, since the vineyards are nearby, I may organise a trip with a dual purpose.
I can carry 4 drums on my box trailer, do you have your own 2 drums?

Some hopefully helpful thoughts, suggestions, assumptions....

I would assume that The rutherford plant has their own tankers to deliver to customers and there may likely be a mini tanker in that fleet for smaller buyers. Why not ring up and find out what the min qty is they will deliver to Sydney and of course the price?

If a smaller tanker is available and is equipped with a regular filling nozzle, everyone could just turn up at a designated place in sydney and fill their drums and containers and take them home themselves. If the tanker makes multiple deliverys to different customers on a single trip to Sydney then it would seem only an amount of fuel would have to be ordered to be delivered as part of the load.
This would solve the problem of going all the way up there to cart the stuff back, distributing it and would likely be cheaper as well all things considered.

As long as people committed to a qty of fuel in the first place and stuck to it, a lot of logistical ( and economic) problems should be solved.
Perhaps if a regular amount was able to be purchased this way, a better price could be negotiated as well.

I have no idea of the viability of this, just trying to put some suggestions forward that others may like to follow up.

David, they do have tankers, that is contractors who do their deliveries and yes they can turn up some place in Sydney and pump a bulk order, but not into drums. Their pumps push some 1000L a minute so the only way is to have a bulk tank on a trailer ( in order to avoid problems with the council) that can take say 5 or 10 m3 from a larger opening on the top and equipped with a hose and nozzle to fill in drums afterwards.
A simple operation and I am sure I can find a tank on a trailer for cheap but all the above is a useless intellectual exercise since no one is interested for real. The few that are, are making their own and that is good. The rest...well the rest walk I suppose.

Marc - if you build it, they will come

If you could tell people that you have 1,000L in your garage/trailer/wherever and every week/fortnight/month/whenever you would pump it out into drums, then you'd only need a promise of 5 people at 200L each.

I'd like to see that there are that many people, but we'll have to see. I'd like to hear that this idea gets interest.

__________________
Robert Fyvie
Site Admin
Sydney Biodiesel Users' Group and Australian Biofuel Users


......................................................
2007 Mazda 6 Diesel ..................................2000 Peugeot 306..........................2001 Landrover (retired)
2L Turbo charged (Common Rail) ...................XTdt 1.9L Turbo ............................Freelander TD4 (Common Rail)
on B100.................................................. ...on B100.......................................on B100

Marc, it's not useless and people ARE interested. I have done two bulk trips for members of the forum now, one for 1800lts and another last week for 3000lts. In between, I have done several trips for myself with just 2x 44's and found it to be economic to do so. Even paying the regular gate price of $1.15 is a saving of .25 over dinodiesel, and at 400lt is a saving of $100, enough to offset the cost of a trip to Rutherford. But even if it did cost me a little more, I would still do the trip to access good quality BD. In the early stages of this forum, members organised a bulk buy through Waterways and paid $1.47/litre, so obviously the price is not the main driver in the demand for BD.

If you don't find any interested takers on the forum, talk to some mates and see if they're interested in trying some BD, and if that won't work, just get a load for your own use. I'm looking at doing another run in 2 or 3 months and would be happy to team up with you to purchase a larger amount. I've a car trailer that can carry 9 drums (1800lts), and topping up the tanks will take another 100 or so litres.

Rutherford have now got EFTPOS facilities and can accept most cards, including credit cards, so payment is not such an issue any more. Previously, I paid for the fuel in cash with my own money, then collected the money from people when I delivered the fuel.

I am interested if the deal is still going ahead.... I would probably start off will 2 44s for the first trip then see after that. PM me if you are still keen. I might be able to get some other guys from my 4wd group interested....

Thanks

Milhouse

Hi Marc,

I'm keen, we have 1000ltr tank and several 44 drums. Also have a vehicle and trailer that can tow a few tonne.

When are you thinking of going?

Shannon.