mast delivery cost

[Fox Morgan]

I'm just looking for any previous experience or opinion on the cost of mast delivery.

I had to have a new mast/boom last year and when it came to the delivery cost I was astounded.
the mast and boom fit a 36' yacht.

it had to be delivered from Plymouth to Essex.
it was also 7weeks late which meant I had to postpone an expensive project, costing me personally several thousand in lost sponsorship.

I was then invoiced almost £800
on inspection of the breakdown I was charged £250 for delivery of the mast to the rigging company from Solent to plymouth and then the remainder plus vat for the rest. (its 300 miles one way)

it was delivered using a car and long mast trailer, and they had at least one other mast on the trailer to double up the trip. it was also the rigging company that carried out the delivery, not a 3rd party. I was never given a quote in advance of the delivery.

in the opinion of readers here, is this delivery cost reasonable given the circumstances?

 

[bert49uk]

Bit late now, I would have asked for a quote before delivery

 

[charles_reed]

I'm just looking for any previous experience or opinion on the cost of mast delivery.

I had to have a new mast/boom last year and when it came to the delivery cost I was astounded.
the mast and boom fit a 36' yacht.

it had to be delivered from Plymouth to Essex.
it was also 7weeks late which meant I had to postpone an expensive project, costing me personally several thousand in lost sponsorship.

I was then invoiced almost £800
on inspection of the breakdown I was charged £250 for delivery of the mast to the rigging company from Solent to plymouth and then the remainder plus vat for the rest. (its 300 miles one way)

it was delivered using a car and long mast trailer, and they had at least one other mast on the trailer to double up the trip. it was also the rigging company that carried out the delivery, not a 3rd party. I was never given a quote in advance of the delivery.

in the opinion of readers here, is this delivery cost reasonable given the circumstances?

Very reasonable, if it's being done as a one-off. The secret is to have it delivered as part of a boat-delivery load.
From Perigny to Argeles as a one-off €3200, as part of a boat delivery €127.

 

[Tranona]

I'm just looking for any previous experience or opinion on the cost of mast delivery.

I had to have a new mast/boom last year and when it came to the delivery cost I was astounded.
the mast and boom fit a 36' yacht.

it had to be delivered from Plymouth to Essex.
it was also 7weeks late which meant I had to postpone an expensive project, costing me personally several thousand in lost sponsorship.

I was then invoiced almost £800
on inspection of the breakdown I was charged £250 for delivery of the mast to the rigging company from Solent to plymouth and then the remainder plus vat for the rest. (its 300 miles one way)

it was delivered using a car and long mast trailer, and they had at least one other mast on the trailer to double up the trip. it was also the rigging company that carried out the delivery, not a 3rd party. I was never given a quote in advance of the delivery.

in the opinion of readers here, is this delivery cost reasonable given the circumstances?

Do the sums. 600 miles at 30p a mile is £180 (£120 in fuel alone at 30 mpg). Driver is unlikely to be able to do a return trip in a day, so 2 days work and an overnight stop. Soon adds up and doubt they made any money on the delivery alone.

 

[Fox Morgan]

remember they delivered at least two masts, one to me and one elsewhere. they were also late by several weeks.
I know the driver went straight back the same day. if I recall correctly there was two extra items on the trailer, so I was one of three.

to sum up:
3 deliveries. one of which is nearly 2 months late.
charge of 800 each seems a little excessive to me.
even 500 each seems excessive. especially given the several thousands already paid out for the items.
if they charged each person 500 each, that works out at £2.50 a mile.
for a car and trailer.
I could have collected it myself for £150. and that's being generous, giving 50quid to borrow a mast trailer.

 

[dylanwinter]

tell us more

tell us more about the project

Dylan

 

[Tranona]

remember they delivered at least two masts, one to me and one elsewhere. they were also late by several weeks.
I know the driver went straight back the same day. if I recall correctly there was two extra items on the trailer, so I was one of three.

to sum up:
3 deliveries. one of which is nearly 2 months late.
charge of 800 each seems a little excessive to me.
even 500 each seems excessive. especially given the several thousands already paid out for the items.
if they charged each person 500 each, that works out at £2.50 a mile.
for a car and trailer.
I could have collected it myself for £150. and that's being generous, giving 50quid to borrow a mast trailer.

Not sure of the value of bringing your problem here for advice. As a delivery charge it is not unreasonable. If you object to the supplier taking advantage of sharing loads then you need to take it up with him. The biggest problem you have is the fact that you did not get a quote so the other options such as collecting it yourself were not open to you.

Your best chance of getting redress is to try and get a reduction to reflect the late delivery, but in the absence of a prior agreement on price or an agreed contract you are reliant on goodwill.

 

[coopec]

In Australia I paid $A1000 to have my two masts delivered 200km (one way) and I thought that was OK. They would have had help to load the masts and the running cost (Depreciation/insurance/registration/fuel/service etc) would be around $A1.00 per kilometer.

 

[[70521]]

in the opinion of readers here, is this delivery cost reasonable given the circumstances?

Collecting on the agreed delivery date focuses minds and ensures that the mast is delivered (built) on time

 

[Fox Morgan]

tell us more about the project

Dylan

the first project, turning a med daysailer in to an offshore beast. [completed]
the second major project, the funny way round, is one woman with a sense of humour, sailing solo and nonstop around Britain. with comedian donated comedy at 12 way points, the project supports several charities along the way and is being turned into a documentary. lots of sponsors and support offered. this was delayed by at least a year due to late delivery of the mast.
the third project is to set up the disabled adventurers academy to enable competitive minded people to compete and take part in offshore adventures.
the fourth project is solo Atlantic crossing for both my boat and others as part of the academy.

 

[Fox Morgan]

I didnt think to get a quote as I had already paid over 10,000 to them for the mast, boom, vang, running and standing rigging. they had been reasonable until that point.
I had to call their supplier to find out why the mast delivery was taking so long. only once I had done this did I find out the actual delivery time wasn't mid June but end of July/early august.
I had budgeted on 50ppermile. (£300) thinking that given the late delivery and the knock on costs of their late delivery they might have waived the fee all together. they knew without any doubt that late delivery wasn't an option for me at that time.
I think I'm being reasonable here by not suing them for loss of project, due to their inability to deliver to a time specified (by them).
I can get a whole boat delivered from Scotland (500 miles away)on a low loader for 900. how does that make my mast delivery look reasonable?
I'm talking about UK here, not Australia or Europe mainland. from one county to another. from one busy centre of boating to another busy centre of boating, not some remote backwater.

 

[Tranona]

I didnt think to get a quote as I had already paid over 10,000 to them for the mast, boom, vang, running and standing rigging. they had been reasonable until that point.
I had to call their supplier to find out why the mast delivery was taking so long. only once I had done this did I find out the actual delivery time wasn't mid June but end of July/early august.
I had budgeted on 50ppermile. (£300) thinking that given the late delivery and the knock on costs of their late delivery they might have waived the fee all together. they knew without any doubt that late delivery wasn't an option for me at that time.
I think I'm being reasonable here by not suing them for loss of project, due to their inability to deliver to a time specified (by them).
I can get a whole boat delivered from Scotland (500 miles away)on a low loader for 900. how does that make my mast delivery look reasonable?
I'm talking about UK here, not Australia or Europe mainland. from one county to another. from one busy centre of boating to another busy centre of boating, not some remote backwater.

Then perhaps the lesson is to tie your suppliers down with a detailed, priced contract. You can't sue them for any losses related to the project unless you had a contract that had a performance clause of some sort. Not getting a quote for delivery costs seems to be a mistake as suspect it would have been what you were charged, but then you would have had the option of arranging an alternative if you could find one or doing it yourself. Trying to argue after the event is going to be hard work.

 

[[3889]]

The biggest problem you have is the fact that you did not get a quote......but in the absence of a prior agreement on price or an agreed contract you are reliant on goodwillns such as collecting it yourself were not open to you.

.

Not an outlandish price but at the very top end of acceptable IMO.
Lack of a delivery contract is not a problem for you but a problem for the supplier. You have the goods and, assuming you have not yet paid, they have no contract for which to demand any payment from you. Not suggesting you shaft them but you are in a strong negotiating position if you feel you have a good case to argue for a reduction. First step might be to ask for a breakdown of their delivery costs.

 

[lw395]

I would have thought it obvious that delivering a mast will be costly.
So not getting a quote seems foolish, but I would have expected them to put it on their quote at the start, as it must be a familiar problem to them.

Lateness is a wholly separate issue.

 

[Kelpie]

Ouch. The only time I ever had to get a mast delivered was for my Wayfarer, Glasgow to Stornoway for £44 which I thought was pretty reasonable given there is an expensive ferry crossing involved. Not quite on the scale of a yacht's mast, of course.

 

[30boat]

I checked my emails from 2010 and for a 13m mast in two halves(it's called an engineered joint) I paid £600 for packaging and shipping to Portugal from the UK(ZSpars).

 

[greylag]

remember they delivered at least two masts, one to me and one elsewhere. they were also late by several weeks.
I know the driver went straight back the same day. if I recall correctly there was two extra items on the trailer, so I was one of three.

to sum up:
3 deliveries. one of which is nearly 2 months late.
charge of 800 each seems a little excessive to me.
even 500 each seems excessive. especially given the several thousands already paid out for the items.
if they charged each person 500 each, that works out at £2.50 a mile.
for a car and trailer.
I could have collected it myself for £150. and that's being generous, giving 50quid to borrow a mast trailer.

So why didn't you?

 

[Strathglass]

That price is totally reasonable for delivering a mast.

About 8 years ago I bought a mast extrusion for the boat I was then building. It had to come from Brightlingsea to Inverness and the section was over 50 feet long.

I was quoted about £ 850 for the delivery.

I fabricated a framework 6.990 metres long using 1" x 2" box section to fit in top of the chassis of my 4' x 3' Erde 400 kilo trailer. I towed it down empty then loaded the mast on and drove back home without any problems behind a 1.8 Ford Escort diesel van. The cost to me for material, fuel and accommodation was about £350 but if I was to cost out my time and add that on it would soon have approached that of the quote.
I may have eventually found a better quote if I could have found a return journey but also a mast is a very delicate and fragile item and very easily damaged, they also tend to be longer than many trucks can legally carry.

That was eight years ago

I don't think what the OP was charged was excessive but very much in line with some 'yachtey' pricings especially without a quote beforehand and no pre-negotiation on price.

 

[Poignard]

... but I would have expected them to put it on their quote at the start, as it must be a familiar problem to them.
.

That is very odd. Usually when you buy anything that has to be delivered the supplier automatically puts the delivery cost on the quotation unless you ask for an ex-works quotation.

Perhaps there's more to this story than we have been told.

 

[pyrojames]

I had my mast delivered Ipswich to Cambridge for £400, but that was an HGV job as the mast is about 70'. I had the boat on an HGV from Cambridge to Southampton for £900. It pays to shop around, and get a price first!