Man with chipper and tipper

[stewie]

I've been thinking off ideas lately to set up a business on the side to run alongside my main job and after finally getting the unladen weight of the Iveco with a hiab  (3.1 tonne lol) and writing that idea off I'm thinking of doing the relevent courses, get my self a nice truck and chipper combo and advertise that service to tree surgeon's, gardeners etc. I've got around 15k to set up with and I've already got chainsaws,ppe,lowering tackle, tirfor etc so could get a nice truck and chipper for that and I think offering just a "drag and chip" service would take off as no one does it round here and I know 5 lads that would use me regular as they are always hiring one off a farmer but he charges  £100 a day plus you have to collect it and drop it off with a full tank of red! 

 

My questions are.....

 

1...what tickets would I need to work with anyone on site

 

2...how much a day would you be charging

 

And 3...what chipper would you recommend? 

 

Id like a tw280 but realistically the tw150 on track's will be more affordable but is there any better options??

 

Any thoughts welcome,  atb

Edited August 28, 2017 by stewie

[WesD]

I would want more than £100 a day for dragging and chipping using all my own kit. 

[tree-fancier123]

the farmers chipper isnt dear at 100 , my local hire shop are 150 forst

if you have trailer licence or pre '97, then tracked chipper plus tipping trailer plus tipper that can tow 3.5 ton e.g 3 litre Iveco daily,

with that set up you can track up to the waste and leave the chip where appropriate, or if it has to go you can take say 900kg on van plus 2.5 ton in tipping trailer - almost 3.5 ton of chip each run, useful on conifer etc when it all has to go, just leave the chipper on site

if you work too cheap you will be bitter and twisted after a while, and if you try to charge too much no one will want you

[Stubby]

You are going to lose money if you say a flat rate . EG the long drag up hill from the bottom of the garden , around the house and into the drive before you get to the chipper .............

[richy_B]

Recipe for disaster in my opinion. £100 a day is very reasonable for chipper hire. If you want to provide a chipper, tipper and labour for anywhere near that you are going to end up making a pittance. Work out the actual cost of you making minimum wage is, plus the running and maintenance cost of the chipper, plus the running, maintenance, insuring and taxing the tipper, plus any business admin costs. Consider the depreciation of your assets/investment. Ask yourself then if it is worth it?

 

If you want to make money you need to offer a more unique service. Hire, with operator, something not widely available locally. Sell a skilled service not an unskilled one.

 

If my budget was £15k and I wanted to make a decent return I'd be lookin outside of arb. Get yourself a burger van, get a drain jetting unit, get a decent car and a PCO license, get a narrow access mini digger and muck truck. I can think of a dozen things that would be more profitable and likely to succeed.

 

 

 

 

[eggsarascal]

4 hours ago, richy_B said:

Recipe for disaster in my opinion. £100 a day is very reasonable for chipper hire. If you want to provide a chipper, tipper and labour for anywhere near that you are going to end up making a pittance. Work out the actual cost of you making minimum wage is, plus the running and maintenance cost of the chipper, plus the running, maintenance, insuring and taxing the tipper, plus any business admin costs. Consider the depreciation of your assets/investment. Ask yourself then if it is worth it?

 

If you want to make money you need to offer a more unique service. Hire, with operator, something not widely available locally. Sell a skilled service not an unskilled one.

 

If my budget was £15k and I wanted to make a decent return I'd be lookin outside of arb. Get yourself a burger van, get a drain jetting unit, get a decent car and a PCO license, get a narrow access mini digger and muck truck. I can think of a dozen things that would be more profitable and likely to succeed.

 

 

 

 

No Richy!, don't advise people to buy drain jetting units, this is a really bad idea.

[richy_B]

No Richy!, don't advise people to buy drain jetting units, this is a really bad idea.

Sorry. No toe treading intended! I'd be on it if I come out of arb though.

[eggsarascal]

8 minutes ago, richy_B said:

 

 

Sorry. No toe treading intended! I'd be on it if I come out of arb though.

 

 

I was joking fella. The thing is with drainage work, (like any other trade), you need a lot of gear to be competitive, digging up is not necessary on lots of jobs these days so you need lining gear, if you want to do survey work for mortgage companies you need to spend a fortune on software, not like a few years ago where a copy of a DVD was enough to please folk, and because drains are below ground you spend a lot of time guessing what the problems are, it's easy to get it wrong, costing time and money.

 

It's not something people think about either, (out of sight, out of mind). People can see when a tree is getting to big, or a branch falls off, so they get it sorted. Most people only have drainage work done when the bog won't flush or the sink won't empty.

 

If I didn't do pump work as well I wouldn't make a decent living out of it. This week I've got a three day job installing a pump/pipework in a basement flat. Emergency work is swallowed up by the big companies that run loads of vans paying peanuts.

[richy_B]

Interesting to know. I do some land drainage and water pipe work so differs from your set up.

[eggsarascal]

I also do some water pipe work. Do you thrust bore?