Fuel Merchant

Hey i'm looking too become a fuel merchant. Is it simply going into your local depot and then selling it around the town??
Has anyone started this before.
Jay

Has anyone ever been a coal person. Is it a tough job?

It depends on what scale you are looking at. If you plan to do big volumes and can afford to invest in storage and stock you could consider directly importing from Poland.

Have a look at [broken link removed]
It makes interesting reading:

"In 2004, the largest import commodities to Ireland from
Poland were coal, coke and briquettes, accounting for 15
per cent of all imports by value to Poland"

Moved from Location, Location, Location. to Askaboutbusiness. Please familiarise yourself with the posting guidelines and post in the correct sub forum.


The solid fuel market has been in steady decline now since the late 1980's. Door to Door coal merchants (Bellmen) once a common sight in our towns and cities have now largely gone the way of the breadman or the milkman.

Most people even in the large local authority housing estates have moved to convenience switch fuels like oil and gas. Even those who are still using solid fuel may decide to buy their fuel from the local garage/shop. Some will go directly to their local wholesaler or dairy coop and bulk buy their fuel and take delivery themselves.

Bell men must understand consumer protection leglislation which includes weights marked on bags and comply with environmental legislation such as smokeless regs. They must also comply with the various road traffic leglislation in terms of tax, insurance, road worthyness and overloading etc.

Coal delivery is a hard physical work also involves very carefull cash management. Many customers will pay a weekly amount which means that it might take several months and weekly visits before you make all money. Any one starting in the business would expect to pay "cash on colletion", progress to "load on load" credit and finally after many years operation would be allowed "30 days" credit. (relaxed in the summer months and tightened in the winter months).

The coal delivery business is also highly seasonal ie very busy around December/January and no business at all in the Summer.

You will need a flat back truck, secure overnight storage (at the least) and a reliable helper (employee).

Well established Bellmen operate the best areas and do not take very lightly to newcomers coming in on what they see as their area.

Having said all that, coal delivery was a very lucrative business back in the eighties and what with rising oil prices who knows it might revert to that again!

My neighbour is a coal merchant. He's always kept going from oct-april. It is a very hard job hauling bags of coal from the road around the back of houses also you will be jet black at the end of the day. I would think that you would be lucky to have a euro a bag profit after time, transport etc. A lot of his customers only buy one bag at a time which means extra driving and cost. He also works long hours during peak months 9-5 is out.

Great post ajapale, I should have asked you the same question before I went into business

To the OP, from your post I gather you have no experiance of the business in which you want to enter, I would not let that stop me, however I would do lots of research first, Talk to suppliers and check price, get prices for start up costs like transport, insurance for transport and public liability. There are lots of other things that need to be considered.

No matter what business you go into you will have local competition and any established merchant will have seen it before.

think long and hard, do your sums and best of luck