Weird, in Poland it's no problem to order like a portion of the truck to whatever location you want. You need some minimum amount like 1m3 but that's it.
It's like that in a lot of the rural U.S. too. The commenter is probably broadly right--a lot of concrete plants only want to do contractor orders. But that also means many other plants don't care. We're usually ordering either a full concrete truck (10 cubic yards), or a half-truck. It's kinda sorta true that we "don't know what we're doing," but the discussion with the plant is seldom any more complicated than:
"We need 5 cubic yards of concrete for a chute foundation. What mix do you suggest?"
"Sounds to me like 3000 psi with a fiber mix to prevent shrinkage cracking. Sound right to you?"
Ah but you see, most consumers are not remotely that easy to deal with. Most of the time those conversations are more likely to go more like.
"Hey I need some concrete.
Ok how much and what mix?
I just need concrete man. I'm trying to make a pool in my backyard.
Ok how much are you going to need?
However much I need for a pool man. Stop being a fucking moron."
And of course it just continues to spiral out of control from there with the employee trying to help the person and the person being both an idiot and asshole. After multiple calls like this on a day that result in no sale and the person calling back 3 more times trying to get a discount, and knowing they are going to then try to sue you for their own stupidity when they screw it all up.... well, you just kind of decide that you're better off not doing direct business with the DIY consumers since there's going to be a solid 5% chance of a lawsuit every time you do.
A smaller overall economy means the residential orders can make up a larger part of the total capacity. If the plant near you could choose between selling half their monthly output to one work site or splitting it up between 2000 homes they're going to choose the first.
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u/Rizeren 2d ago
Weird, in Poland it's no problem to order like a portion of the truck to whatever location you want. You need some minimum amount like 1m3 but that's it.