Forestry chainsaw operator

[lurch_917]

On 10/10/2022 at 18:46, Retired Climber said:

How dare you. I'll have you know I have 2 friends, and only one of them is imaginary. 

and the others in the mirror . 😁

[Retired Climber]

8 minutes ago, lurch_917 said:

and the others in the mirror . 😁

Oh come on, if you want to have a dig at me at least check your English. The ambiguity caused by your inability to articulate your point is just embarrassing. 

 

Have another go. 

 

[lurch_917]

36 minutes ago, Retired Climber said:

Oh come on, if you want to have a dig at me at least check your English. The ambiguity caused by your inability to articulate your point is just embarrassing. 

 

Have another go. 

 

im only jealous as you still have more friends than me . 😪

[Retired Climber]

16 minutes ago, lurch_917 said:

im only jealous as you still have more friends than me . 😪

Thank you for taking my post in the spirit it was written. For a forum of hairy arse arbs and foresters there are a lot of delicate flowers, ready to take offence at a moment's notice. 

 

[lurch_917]

11 hours ago, Retired Climber said:

Thank you for taking my post in the spirit it was written. For a forum of hairy arse arbs and foresters there are a lot of delicate flowers, ready to take offence at a moment's notice. 

 

thats ok my posts are all based on 99.9%  just having a laugh and 0.1 % bite back at those who cant have a laugh .

[slack ma girdle]

22 hours ago, Jig said:

Thank you for reply. Like you said, not much help so far. I have a solid 6 years of full time forestry chainsaw work, yet the last 2 years my Forestry work has been more relaxed with less chainsaw work, and on the books for a well known forestry organisation. I'm wanting to get back into full time felling work as my current job isn't giving me enough excitement or paying enough. Qualifications, 30&31 plus medium and larger tree. I can use hand winches and have worked alongs side harvesters and forwarders. I can comfortably cut to spec, done everything from small thinnings all the way up to clear fell and worked on hourly, day rate, piece work and tonnage. If the timber allows, I can easily fell, dress out, cross cut and stack 15 - 25 ton a day. And if it's huge mature trees then God knows how many times that would be!  Unfortunately, who I have worked for in the past has never wanted to pay more than £100 a day! And when on tonnage, it's very easy for forwarder loads to go walkies, if you know what I mean!? So I have never, ever made the money I should have, even though working my bollocks off! This is why I will only work for a day rate! Also, the day rate has to help cover all my out goings, PPE, new chainsaws, fuel, holidays, public liability etc.... It seems I am asking for a reasonable price, it's nice to get confirmation from other like minded people. Just putting the feelers out so I can be confident to charge this amount when asking around for work.

 

Cheers 👍🏼

It sounds like you are ready to start looking for your own work.  You will never make decent money working for other people. If you can build up a  good reputation, then people  will come to you.

Just be mindful of blowing your own trumpet ,  and not able to deliver your promises. I regularly get people with vastly over inflated abilities,  and deliver a big mess.

 

[Svts]

On 21/10/2022 at 10:31, Jig said:

Thank you for reply. Like you said, not much help so far. I have a solid 6 years of full time forestry chainsaw work, yet the last 2 years my Forestry work has been more relaxed with less chainsaw work, and on the books for a well known forestry organisation. I'm wanting to get back into full time felling work as my current job isn't giving me enough excitement or paying enough. Qualifications, 30&31 plus medium and larger tree. I can use hand winches and have worked alongs side harvesters and forwarders. I can comfortably cut to spec, done everything from small thinnings all the way up to clear fell and worked on hourly, day rate, piece work and tonnage. If the timber allows, I can easily fell, dress out, cross cut and stack 15 - 25 ton a day. And if it's huge mature trees then God knows how many times that would be!  Unfortunately, who I have worked for in the past has never wanted to pay more than £100 a day! And when on tonnage, it's very easy for forwarder loads to go walkies, if you know what I mean!? So I have never, ever made the money I should have, even though working my bollocks off! This is why I will only work for a day rate! Also, the day rate has to help cover all my out goings, PPE, new chainsaws, fuel, holidays, public liability etc.... It seems I am asking for a reasonable price, it's nice to get confirmation from other like minded people. Just putting the feelers out so I can be confident to charge this amount when asking around for work.

 

Cheers 👍🏼

Sounds like you should be asking £180/£200 a day. Although I might add the caveat that you will need to jump around between contractors to maintain it. The trouble with this game is the timber doesn't always allow it. I have great volumns in some patches and crap volumes in others. 

Or buy some machinery and jump up a level in the food chain. Then jump up another level and buy you're own standing and cut, extract and market it yourself. If you have the capital to do the latter then that's where the reall money is. 

Cutting direct for estates should allow you to negotiate dayrate for the worst stuff. Cutting for timber buyers will be a different story, it'll be whatever roadside rate the market will allow...

 

[Svts]

On 22/10/2022 at 09:28, Big J said:

 

Isn't that a shame though? I have found it almost impossible over the years to find cutters who were both properly competent and happy to work for someone else. 

 

The issue with running your own business is that inevitably, you end up pulled away from the saws. You're then forced to rely on subcontractors of inconsistent quality and the overall work quality deteriorates. 

 

Really good cutters should be paid really good money. I've paid £240 a day down in Devon (where rates are suppressed) and made good money off the back of those guys. Equally, I have lost money on guys I've paid £80 a day because they've been so bad. 

 

Perhaps some sort of cooperative, profit sharing company would be a way to go. A collective of top notch cutters, machine operators, foresters and timber sellers, working together to do the best job possible where everyone makes a fair and decent wage. So much of the timber industry is driven down to price and price alone. It is (I feel) one of the main reasons there is such inconsistency in the market. Boom and bust.

Driven down to price and price alone. Isn't that just one of the great benifits of a free market global economy? 

If someone can turn as much profit out of something as possible then it's worthwhile, if not then it's neither needed nor necessary. 

I reckon forestry is one of the industries least likely to sustain any sort of cooperative business culture. 

I've know a few people in the industry I would trust not to take advantage. But the majority I come across just want to take as much as they can and give as little as they can. Especially if it means they can get a bigger/better/newer machine etc! Underneath the camaraderie the culture of take as much as you can for yourself is as strong as ever. It starts the very top ime. 

[spuddog0507]

On 21/10/2022 at 10:31, Jig said:

Thank you for reply. Like you said, not much help so far. I have a solid 6 years of full time forestry chainsaw work, yet the last 2 years my Forestry work has been more relaxed with less chainsaw work, and on the books for a well known forestry organisation. I'm wanting to get back into full time felling work as my current job isn't giving me enough excitement or paying enough. Qualifications, 30&31 plus medium and larger tree. I can use hand winches and have worked alongs side harvesters and forwarders. I can comfortably cut to spec, done everything from small thinnings all the way up to clear fell and worked on hourly, day rate, piece work and tonnage. If the timber allows, I can easily fell, dress out, cross cut and stack 15 - 25 ton a day. And if it's huge mature trees then God knows how many times that would be!  Unfortunately, who I have worked for in the past has never wanted to pay more than £100 a day! And when on tonnage, it's very easy for forwarder loads to go walkies, if you know what I mean!? So I have never, ever made the money I should have, even though working my bollocks off! This is why I will only work for a day rate! Also, the day rate has to help cover all my out goings, PPE, new chainsaws, fuel, holidays, public liability etc.... It seems I am asking for a reasonable price, it's nice to get confirmation from other like minded people. Just putting the feelers out so I can be confident to charge this amount when asking around for work.

 

Cheers 👍🏼

If your doing what you say, you want to be looking for £150 plus a day, But i would start a bit higher At £200 a day as its a starting point for negotiations, this would give you a bit more scope to may be get a bit more than £150, you can all ways come down a bit on your price but you can never  go up once a price has been mentioned, another bit of advise i would give you is look at doing CS34/35 singular windblown and multiple windblown tickets, and dont let any one tell you that you have to do these seperatly as you dont you only need to pay once ,,

[Spruce Pirate]

44 minutes ago, spuddog0507 said:

If your doing what you say, you want to be looking for £150 plus a day, But i would start a bit higher At £200 a day as its a starting point for negotiations, this would give you a bit more scope to may be get a bit more than £150, you can all ways come down a bit on your price but you can never  go up once a price has been mentioned, another bit of advise i would give you is look at doing CS34/35 singular windblown and multiple windblown tickets, and dont let any one tell you that you have to do these seperatly as you dont you only need to pay once ,,

 

Think they've put these back into one ticket again, back how it used to be (CS 15?), but don't know the new numbers.