Ask How Many Supplier Runs Your Roof Bid Assumes

When two roofing bids come in close together, most homeowners compare the total, then the shingle line, then the start date. The number of trips a roofer plans to make to a supply yard rarely appears on either page, yet it shapes how many days the crew spends on your lot, how long a truck blocks the street, and whether bundles sit in the rain. Ask each roofer how many supplier runs the bid assumes, and write the answers next to the totals.

Why a supplier run is a line on the bid

A supplier run is any trip a crew makes to pick up material after the first load is on site. On a typical St. Louis house, a single drop of shingles, underlayment, starter, ridge cap, and nails may fit on the driveway or along the curb in one delivery. On a narrow city lot, or on a house with a steep back slope the crew cannot reach from the front, the first delivery may cover only the front half of the job. Each later trip costs crew time, fuel, and the chance that a truck blocks a neighbor's driveway for another hour.

Crew time is the expensive part. A crew of four that waits forty minutes for a truck to unload, or walks a second load around the house because the first one was staged in the wrong place, has lost a real share of a working day. Those minutes do not show up on a bid as a separate item unless the roofer chooses to list them. That is why the trip count has to be asked for directly.

Weather adds to the count. Hail season in the metro runs from spring into early summer, and a sudden storm can leave bundles uncovered on a driveway overnight. Freeze-thaw in winter can make a second trip necessary if a delivery arrives too late in the day to be staged safely before dark. A bid that assumes one drop with no contingency and a bid that assumes three drops with a stated rain plan are not pricing the same job, even if the totals match.

What to ask about the trips

• How many deliveries does the bid assume, and which materials arrive on each one?
• Will the full order arrive in one drop, or will the crew stage part of it and return for the rest?
• Where will the bundles wait between deliveries, and who covers them if rain is forecast?
• If the crew runs short partway through the day, how is the extra trip charged, and who approves it?
• Is any supplier run priced as an allowance, or is it fixed in the total?

The last question matters more than it looks. Some bids list a supplier run as its own line item. Others build it into a labor rate and say nothing about the trip count. Neither approach is wrong by itself, but a homeowner who compares a bid with a line item against one with a built-in rate cannot see the difference until the crew arrives with one truck too few.

How to compare two bids on the trip count

Start by pulling the square count from each proposal. Both roofers should be measuring the same roof, so the shingle quantity should be close. If one bid is far off, the difference is a measurement question and belongs in a separate conversation. Once the square counts agree, look for how each roofer plans to stage the material.

Suppose one bid comes in $400 lower than another. The cheaper roofer plans one delivery to the driveway and a crew that carries bundles up the south side on a ladder line. The higher roofer plans two deliveries, because the crew wants part of the order near the back slope, where the yard gate is narrow. The lower bid does not include a second trip, and the higher bid does. If the lower roofer later needs a second delivery and charges for it, the price gap closes. Nothing about the shingles changed. Only the plan for getting them to the roof did.

Leftover bundles and the return trip

The trip count has a second half. Unused bundles, an extra box of ridge cap, and rolls of underlayment ordered for a valley that turned out simpler all have to go somewhere. Some bids say the crew will leave leftovers on site for the homeowner. Others say the roofer will take them back to the yard, which is another run. A homeowner who wants a few spare bundles for future repairs should say so before the order is placed, not after the crew loads the truck. The question belongs on the list with the deliveries, because a return trip is a supplier run too.

What a clear answer looks like

A useful answer names the number of deliveries, the day each one is expected, and the storage plan for the bundles between them. It says what happens if a delivery is late or short, and whether the crew will return for a shortfall at no added charge or at a stated rate. It does not say "we will handle the material as needed," because that sentence fits any plan and commits to none of them.

Ask for the answer in writing, on the proposal itself. A verbal promise about a single drop is easy to forget when the truck arrives in two pieces. If the roofer cannot say how many trips the bid assumes, that is worth knowing before you sign, not after the first bundle is on the lawn.

Questions about the crew schedule and the materials list can go to Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333. Ask for the trip count the same way you ask for the square count, and write both down.