Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 85 Opportunity
"Didi."

As everyone was chatting, Brother Liu's pager went off. He quickly picked it up, fiddled with it for a moment, and looked at Yan Hui: "The goods for tonight have arrived. I'll go to the door to pick up the truck."

"I'll go with you." Yan Hui followed, thinking to himself how convenient this thing was.

"Brother Liu is really amazing," Lao Guo wasn't good at flattery, but he kept praising him along the way, and the smile on Brother Liu's face never faded.

The truck that Brother Liu received was the last one, with a total of 12 cubic meters of cargo. Once this truckload is unloaded, it can be loaded onto the next truck.

To speed things up, Brother Liu temporarily hired a ten-person moving team, including Uncle Cheng Gui and others. However, because there were so many people and Yan Hui was standing on the side, he didn't go over to say hello.

Brother Liu first discussed the price with Uncle Chenggui and another foreman. They reached an agreement in just a few words, and the group quickly got to work.

They were all specially trained to load train materials, and they worked very efficiently. No one dawdled, and the cargo that came in was emptied at a speed visible to the naked eye. Then everyone started moving the timber piled up next to the railway track.

For a regular freight truck, 15 cubic meters is already a lot, but when piled on a train, it barely covers the bottom of one section of the carriage.

"How much cargo can this railcar hold? It looks like at least 50 cubic meters," Lao Guo said.

"60 cubic meters of logs and 80 cubic meters of planks." Yan Hui was quite clear about this.

Brother Liu had already gone off to do his work; he had a lot to look at. So Yan Hui and Lao Guo stood there chatting. Finally, they didn't have to carry things themselves. Seeing this, Yan Hui felt much more deeply than Lao Guo.

"80 cubic meters, how much is this whole train car? I mean, the freight."

"This truck is being transported to Jianghan; the freight cost will probably be around seven or eight thousand yuan," Yan Hui estimated.

"You seem to know quite a bit. So, the average freight cost for one cubic meter of timber is only 100 yuan. If you calculate it that way, it's cheaper to transport it by train." Old Guo did a rough calculation.

“Yes, how could a car be priced like that? For 2000 kilometers, the freight for 15 cubic meters would be several thousand yuan, let alone 80 cubic meters. This is a big deal. This shipment alone would cost 100,000 yuan. If I had 100,000 yuan, I would become a distributor in cities like Hanjiang and Yuzhang, and then get the goods from my uncle.” Yan Hui told Lao Guo about his grand plan.

“I think the hardest part isn’t the 100,000 yuan, but finding a big buyer. Customers always come first, that’s what my dad says,” Lao Guo said. “Believe it or not, as long as you can find customers, your uncle will definitely allow you to take a cut. You can take 3,000 yuan from each of these freight cars, no problem.”

"The client you're talking about is a big customer who can buy an entire freight car. I don't have that kind of ability. My skill level is only good enough for selling individual cars," Yan Hui sighed.

"That's true, big clients are so hard to find," Old Guo sighed. "Sigh, finding a way to make money is so difficult."

As the two were chatting, they saw a man in a shirt rush over to Brother Liu, ask a few questions, and then run away.

Yan Hui wanted to get closer to hear the news, but before he could get there, he saw the person run away.

"Brother Liu, what's this guy doing? What's the rush?" Yan Hui asked as he approached.

"He also wants to send a wagon on this line, but it looks like there aren't any available wagons today." Brother Liu shook his head, not paying much attention.

"Huh?" Yan Hui pointed to the several wagons next to him. "Aren't they all empty?" "The poles are up, which means someone has taken them," Brother Liu explained.

"Oh, oh, oh, so this guy was definitely feeling unwell just now."

"Yes, I encountered that once before. There were no more wagons available, so I spent 500 yuan to buy a spot from someone else. Just now, he asked me how many wagons I had and if I could give him one. I told him I only had one, and it was already almost half-loaded, so he left."

"So if someone gives it to you, you have to wait until the next day to ship it?" Yan Hui was very curious about this.

"Not necessarily, it mainly depends on the frequency of departures on the same route. For example, this route goes to Jianghan. If you miss it today, the next one won't be until the day after tomorrow. That's why he's in such a hurry." After saying that, Brother Liu seemed unwilling to explain any further and took two steps to the side.

"So, you have to come early to reserve your spot for this kind of thing; laziness won't work." Yan Hui wasn't about to let Brother Liu leave, so he gave him a slightly provocative remark.

"It's not laziness, it's just that orders can be very sudden. Your uncle's orders are all scheduled in advance, but occasionally there are urgent orders. When that happens, there's nothing anyone can do. That person just now must have suddenly received an urgent order. With so many routes here, if they didn't know where the order was going, how could they possibly come and reserve it in advance?" Because he had previously spent 500 yuan, Brother Liu was bound to refute Yan Hui's assessment of him as "lazy," and he rattled off a whole bunch of things in one breath.

"Oh, oh, oh, there's such a trick to it, I understand, I understand." Yan Hui listened attentively, then stopped bothering Brother Liu and pulled Lao Guo aside.

"What's wrong? Why are you being so mysterious?" Lao Guo asked.

"Come with me." Yan Hui pointed to the empty wagon next to him.

"Okay, okay." Old Guo nodded.

The train cars used to haul timber were flatbeds. To stack timber on top of them, wooden poles had to be inserted at the four corners. Each of the four corners of the car had a metal hole where a thick wooden pole could be held in place, allowing the timber to be lifted onto the train.

Yan Hui glanced at the occupied railcars and quickly learned how to install the wooden poles.

“If we come here every night to reserve a few train cars, and then sell the seats to someone who comes, we’ll only charge them 200 yuan. What do you think?” Yan Hui said to Lao Guo.

"Huh? Can this be sold?"

“I’m not worried about that. We came early to reserve a spot and to help them put the wooden poles in place. This requires a lot of people, so we’ll call Lao Song and Lao Wu over later. It’ll be hard to do the job if there aren’t enough people.” Yan Hui immediately gave a complete plan.

The first step is to study and record the train departure times of the entire freight station; the second step is to understand the popular routes; the third step is to come and reserve space to sell.

"Doesn't the train station care?" Lao Guo asked.

"Whether they regulate it in the future or not is not important; at least no one is regulating it today. I doubt the train station will regulate it at all, because this thing is inherently free; anyone can occupy it."

"Okay! Let's do it!" Old Guo thought for a moment, "You're here, so you'll get the information first. I'll talk to Old Song and Old Wu later. The three of us will each take 20%, and you'll take 40%. You'll also have to take some risks. What do you think?"

"It's settled then, no problem." Yan Hui isn't afraid of being poor, why would he be afraid of risks? What a joke!
As for whether doing so might be inappropriate, Yan Hui considered it carefully and concluded that it was legal and compliant.

(I'm so sorry for the late update. Monday wasn't busy, but I had to rush to three meetings last night. My driver told me today that he didn't get home until after 2 a.m. I only started writing this after I got up this morning, so the next chapter should be around 5 a.m.)
(End of this chapter)