Who pays for delays...?

[benedmonds]

Why do I always except the cost of delays, even when they are not my fault....? Is this the norm in tree work because I bet it isn't in other trades..

 

For example we find a birds nest.. we have to stop and come back at a later date. This is always going to take time and money.. But I have never charged extra..

 

Same with goes for bad weather. If I can't work because of the weather it might be an inconvenience to the client who's job gets pushed back but the cost is the same...

 

Discuss..

[Mick Dempsey]

What's to discuss? You pay, end of story.

[Mark Bolam]

The birds nest one you do the right thing and take the hit.

It helps if you have a few little homers you have ready to rock so you can salvage the day a bit.

Weather is a tricky one.

I appreciate you run a much bigger operation than me, so have to schedule things in advance much more. I tend to let people know what week we'll be there and firm it up as we go, picking jobs to suit the forecast.

Mick's right though, you always take the hit yourself, there's no other way.

 

 

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[Gray git]

The two you mention just have to be taken on the chin it's when clients want to postpone at 8pm the night before or even on the morning you have booked with them that annoys me especially when they have been chasing since the day you looked at it.

The 1 that nearly cost me a lump was when a powerline shutdown was cancelled at 3pm the day before and I had extra lads and gear booked to get job done on time, no explanation just it'll be another 3 months till we can re-book it which is annoying since I'd already had 6man days on job so got to stand it till we can finish job.

 

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[Mick Dempsey]

Conversely, sometimes a client takes a day off work to be there on some jobs, you cancel because of an absentee worker or some other reason, do you reimburse the client?

 

Just playing devil's advocate really, unless there's a contract in place for these eventualities, you're stuffed.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Mick Dempsey

[skyhuck]

Delays and cancelations are just part of normal business costs, just like breakdowns, ill health, etc, etc. It should be costed into your rates.

[Gray git]

Conversely, sometimes a client takes a day off work to be there on some jobs, you cancel because of an absentee worker or some other reason, do you reimburse the client?

 

Just playing devil's advocate really, unless there's a contract in place for these eventualities, you're stuffed.

Very true I guess, just 1 of life's little annoyance's this is about the only reason I still do logs as that always gives us something to drop onto should anything stop a team going out.

 

Actually had a client demand compensation for us not going to do his job on the scheduled day even though it was 1 of the stormiest days that year and we were run off our feet trying to clear road's and it just wouldn't have been safe to top his £150 back garden conifer in those conditions, think we ended up giving him some mulch for his garden just to shut him up in the end.

 

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[Thesnarlingbadger]

If jobs are wether depending, say like a large beech reduction that you know you will never get as spot on as you could if you do it in the pissing rain and high winds. I always tell the customer and put it in the emailed quote if wether is too bad we will have to reschedule as the work will never be up to standard. But 9 times out of 10 you can do the job in most wether conditions. I can usually find a customer or 2 from the week ahead who I can swap around.

As for birds you take the hit. At least its not a lost job just one to put back.

But I get its a pain in the backside especially when you have booked in extra staff etc. But then what about the days you smash out and make your money back. swings and round about id say.

Other trades will also have to take a hit at times its not just us.

[Spruce Pirate]

If we're doing clearance work for engineering firms I always price an hourly rate into the quote to cover downtime caused by their delays/incompetence. This covers manpower and machinery on site. There always seems to be something not done or that all of a sudden needs done, or all of a sudden can't be done or just takes three times as long to do as you'd think that affects what we want to do and our ability to do it. None of these things are normally mentioned when I price the job or discuss it with them. Result is they have to pay for the downtime, never had any issue with it, a lot of projects seem to have bucket loads of money thrown at them, and a wee bit extra to the tree guys doesn't seem to make much difference. I can imagine a domestic client being slightly different though.

[Marc]

Conversely, sometimes a client takes a day off work to be there on some jobs, you cancel because of an absentee worker or some other reason, do you reimburse the client?

 

Just playing devil's advocate really, unless there's a contract in place for these eventualities, you're stuffed.

 

Delays and cancelations are just part of normal business costs, just like breakdowns, ill health, etc, etc. It should be costed into your rates.

 

Poop happens it's when it becomes unreasonable and disruptive that it becomes a problem that needs addressing.

 

Like staff pulling a sickie, if a pattern emerges and it becomes seriously disruptive you have to deal with it.

 

If birds are halting work on a regular basis causing serious disruption that effects the business then, you have to look for the pattern and find a solution to deal with it. I have found this more frequent so now preempt it.

 

We had a crap week this week over staffed for jobs not hitting targets etc and last week had weather disruption throwing diary out of whack for a few days, it happens it was "a" bad week as long as a pattern doesn't arise the rest of your work load should cover a bad week or 3 throughout the year.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Marc