Arb Approved

[pleasant]

30 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Now if the council have a minimum level of accredited that's fine for them to say as they are the ones who have to explain that to the people who pay the rates.

 

The organisation such as AA can't on the other hand go, hard luck getting work unless you're with us.

 

From my experience of working for many councils, you just need to fill in a supplier application to get onto their list of council approved businesses.

 

When a job comes up they ask those on the list.

Accreditation demanded by councils simply allows suppliers to charge the tax payer more. Employees charged with procurement have little or no skill in what they are procureing, so introducing 'accreditation standards' allows them to cover their backsides as to why they chose a particular supplier if it all goes pear shaped. This is why councils can and have been charged 150 quid a time to change a 60w light bulb in an office......there's many examples of wasting money because council employees want the reassurance 'it's not my problem mate' if they only use approved suppliers or contractors......in the real world most of us would pick up a light bulb from wilko in their lunch hour and pop it in the socket...all for a couple of quid, but when its not their money they are spending its easy to set up schemes to rinse the tax payer through inflated invoices

[GarethM]

I'm aware of the utter wastefulness of council taxes by procurement etc.

 

I wasn't taking offense if the council chooses to use AA as a minimum as that's their right, I did however at assumption in general of no membership no work.

 

The other organizations might say approved, but many councils wouldn't say this one and this one only.

 

As I said that would make it a cartel, if your not on the list it's a work black list of the 70s.

[pleasant]

2 hours ago, GarethM said:

I said that would make it a cartel, if your not on the list it's a work black list of the 70s.

I said the same in one of my earlier comments. Strange that conservative governments want a competitive marketplace when it comes to us the consumer...such as phone suppliers, electric, gas, insurance etc so monopolies cannot occur and price fixing follows, but its ok for councils to operate like it.

[GarethM]

Granted you can't deregulate councils, like your electric with each house being different.

 

But they definitely need a reality check, maybe a clearing out of town hall upper management. Employ a normal salary CEO say 100k and let the chainsaw of the financial cloth begin.

[Clutchy]

Funnily enough, yesterday was the first time in 6 years where a domestic client has asked if we are arb approved. 

 

I explained my reasons for not wanting to join, briefly to which I then added, 'what do you think of the general standard of tree surgery for ' x london' borough, namely this poorly pollarded Lime tree, which looks like Peggy Mitchell has had a go, directly outside your house?'

 

'Well yeah, looks really bad'. So I just told him that company, who has completed those works are arb approved... so it doesn't mean a lot. 

 

Won the job. 

[GarethM]

From my yoof, it's the whole ISO9000 argument.

 

One of my old bosses put it like this.

 

Its not a sign of quality, it's just shows your able to produce the same sht consistently.

[benedmonds]

On 12/02/2023 at 21:28, TREES.SERVICES said:

Hi all 

can anyone who has applied to become a Arb approved contractor recently, explain their experience from submitting form to the process? Timescales etc? 
 

thanks 

You will not get a clear view on a web forum about the Arb Association. Some people are very anti it and can be VERY vocal and will become abusive and unpleasant and any discussion online normally ends in personal attacks. That seems to be the norm on web forums these days..

 

In my opinion there are very few people who care enough about the Arb Association to defend it against the sort of abuse you are likely to receive if you were to stick your head above the parapet to do so. 

 

In my opinion being an Arb Approved contractor is unlikely to do you any harm and there are a number of benefits as mentioned in my previous post. It is not perfect but I believe the benefits outweigh the cost.

 

I would recommend you do not take to much notice of the naysayers, call Paul at the AA, have a chat and see if it works for you.

 

[Clutchy]

11 minutes ago, benedmonds said:

You will not get a clear view on a web forum about the Arb Association. Some people are very anti it and can be VERY vocal and will become abusive and unpleasant and any discussion online normally ends in personal attacks. That seems to be the norm on web forums these days..

 

In my opinion there are very few people who care enough about the Arb Association to defend it against the sort of abuse you are likely to receive if you were to stick your head above the parapet to do so. 

 

In my opinion being an Arb Approved contractor is unlikely to do you any harm and there are a number of benefits as mentioned in my previous post. It is not perfect but I believe the benefits outweigh the cost.

 

I would recommend you do not take to much notice of the naysayers, call Paul at the AA, have a chat and see if it works for you.

 

 

 

Could you elaborate on the benefits you've found from being a member, does it extend to jobs you've won specifically because you are AA or does it help in a sense that it is 1 factor of many that means your company gets you work, or does it help skip certain compliance checks on new tenders/big companies? 

 

Genuinely curious. I will join when a contract forces me to, but it would be nice to hear some first hand good experiences that have come from joining. Speaking to someone from the AA is sort of like asking a car salesman why you should buy his car IMO 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Clutchy

[Mark J]

1 hour ago, Clutchy said:

 

 

Could you elaborate on the benefits you've found from being a member, does it extend to jobs you've won specifically because you are AA or does it help in a sense that it is 1 factor of many that means your company gets you work, or does it help skip certain compliance checks on new tenders/big companies? 

 

Genuinely curious. I will join when a contract forces me to, but it would be nice to hear some first hand good experiences that have come from joining. Speaking to someone from the AA is sort of like asking a car salesman why you should buy his car IMO 

 

 

I survey trees on behalf of nationwide clients, when tree works are specified as an outcome and the client wants a recommendation for a suitable firm I will point them in the direction of a firm I know (if I happen to have local knowledge) and/or to the AA website. I am a professional member of the Arb Association but that doesn't sway my decision making in terms of sourcing contractors..

If I was to get into contracting again and I wanted a slice of the commercial pie I would strongly consider AA accreditation, it's not that arduous to achieve if you already have good practices in place and shouldn't cost more than a days income to achieve. It depends what you want to do. 

 
 

[Jon Heuch]

13 hours ago, GarethM said:

You said if you're not AA you won't even get to find out, which makes it a cartel, club or however you wish to name exclusive club.

You might want to look the word up; I go to see my doctor, a member of that exclusive club that has passed his or her exams and is competent to work as a doctor. Do you have problems with that cartel (it's not a cartel but that's the way you seem to want to use the word)? Exclusive, well yes, excluding those who are not competent, not passed their exams. Yes doctors as a whole have agreed that standard. I don't see a problem with this and quite a few benefits.