Whether you have a massive garden that allows you to skip the produce section, or you just have some perennials in the front yard, ordering fresh topsoil is always on the gardener’s to-do list. In the past, people would calculate how much they needed and a dump-truck would simply drop the materials on the front of your property.
While getting topsoil, mulch, or compost delivered this way is the most economical, today’s home owners are asking for more. Not all gardeners have the ability to utilize 5 cubic yards of topsoil on a weekend. The weather could turn, plans can change, and suddenly you’re stuck with an unappealing, muddy pile of dirt taking up space in your driveway. On top of all that, the material you paid for is now running down the street and into the storm drain... It’s really the “all or nothing” option.
An alternative to simply dumping materials on-site has emerged in the past few years, and that option is landscaping material delivered in bulk bags. Growing in popularity every spring, bagged soils mixes, mulches and composts have some considerable advances over dump trucks. Let’s have a look at why your potential customers are asking for this new delivery method, and how you can take advantage of this trend.
1. Accuracy of Delivery
As previously mentioned, literally getting tons of material dumped on your front yard is basically an all or nothing scenario. Either you get it all done as fast as you can, or the pile sits, the bugs move in and it gets washed away. Seeing as dump trucks are massive, heavy vehicles, the placement of materials is limited to what can be accessed by the street. Nobody wants a 30,000 lb truck driving on their front lawns, especially if they are the type of people ordering beautifying landscape products!
Cubic yard polypropylene bulk bags filled with material can be offloaded almost anywhere around your home, space permitting. In fact, most of the companies using bulk bags now ask their clients to mark their driveways or yards with a big X so they can place the bag exactly where you need it.
Need a cubic yard of bark mulch for the shrubs on the west side? Done! Need a cubic yard of topsoil for your plant bed on the east side? Done! Typically delivery is accomplished with a Moffett trailer or by crane on a picker truck. Either way, you can have your materials placed right next to the job site, and you can skip the wheelbarrow races that we all love so much.
2. Composition of Delivery
Today’s homeowners are getting very creative with their landscaping. People are asking for compost, mulch, topsoil, decorative rock and more. The greatest advance in dump truck technology is simply placing a board in the middle of the dump bed and offering TWO kinds of materials at once.
What if your client wants three, four, or five different materials for a project? What about landscaping companies doing large scale jobs? Is the cost of fuel and time worth the multiple trips from your yard to the job site?
With bulk bags, you can customize an order that contains all the required materials in one shot. No back and forth fighting traffic, no more waiting to load and unload multiple products. Again, with a crane or Moffett, you can put the mulch over there, the two bags of topsoil over there, the garden compost at the back, and the river stone at the front.
A little planning ahead of time will save you time, fuel, and earn you some very happy green thumbs up!
3. Storage of Materials
Once again, we need to think about all your clients and their unique needs. An elderly couple who wants spruce up the flower beds out front is not going to wheelbarrow a couple yards of material in a few hours. Using bulk bags allows them to pick away at the material at their own pace and take their time in the garden.
Done for the day? Simply use the duffle top to seal up the bulk bag and get back to work in the morning.
The duffle top will keep the rain, pests, and the neighbor’s cat from entering the screened topsoil when it is not in use. A massive pile in the front yard has no such fallback plan. Not just for people who have the time to do things a little slower. Plans can change, things can come up unexpectedly, and if you can predict the weather with 100% accuracy, you are really wasting your time in the topsoil business.
4. Branding and Advertising
The main benefit for any business using bulk bags for material delivery is simply the free advertising that comes along with branded bags. If you are in an urban center, chances are you have seen the big, bright bags on people’s driveway.
What better way to ask the neighbors “Hey! Could your yard use a little TLC?” If they answer yes, and they are tired of how great Jim and Jenny’s yard looks, chances are you are going to get a call. The only advertising you did was drop off a bag with your contact information on it. Very simple, very affordable, and very effective for getting your name out there in front of potential customers.
There are a few options for printing bulk bags, the simplest being an offset print that allows three colours printed directly on the polypropylene fabric. This is a simple way to ensure any neighbors peeking over the fence are going to know exactly where Debbie gets the organic compost that keep her peony’s the envy of the neighborhood.
If you are looking to really make a splash, you can have your company brand printed and laminated to the polypropylene bag fabric. This style of printing allows you to have photo quality images on all of your cubic yard landscaping bags – up to 10 colors! These bags really grab the attention of passersby, and they allow you to stand out from the crowd. Quality packaging represents a quality product, and that’s exactly how you want people to view your business.
If you want to learn more about how you can improve your bottom line with bulk bags, feel free to say hello and we can help you get the bag rolling!
