How busy are you at the moment

[Excels1or]

Work was steady Jan and into Feb then the phone enquiries seemed to have dropped off....anyone else notice?

[Scott Walker]

Usually drops off this time of year with nesting season and trees starting to bud.

I have noticed clients are alot more careful with their money these days and wanting the quotes broken down! so they can pick which trees to do rather than the whole lot at once.

And they seem to be getting more quotes. Definitely not winning as much work as we were before Christmas.

[Mick Dempsey]

Bizarrely, very busy at the moment, often there’s no rhyme or reason to it.

Edited March 8, 2023 by Mick Dempsey

[Con]

Not very! 

Closest I've been to the truck today

[DJM Tree]

Slow atm. hoping it will pick up again once the sun comes out again. 

but i think we are going to see less people spending money. ive done a fair few quotes in the last few months and only had 1 or 2 new jobs come out of it.

[doobin]

Work is about to drop off a cliff. You only have to look at the huge uptick in companies advertising on FB to see that.

 

I had a guy call me and come round to my yard yesterday looking for work. Seems multi skilled and fed up of working for a bricklayer who apparently couldn't run a bath. Gave him a try on the loader, digger and welder and he passed with flying colours, as well as seeming to be the right type- quiet lad, early thirties, baby on the way. I first met him on a job where I was with the loader, and he sought me out by asking the client for my details six months later.

 

So I'm not sure what happened but I said he could start Monday 😗  He sort of talked me in to it. I hope he's going to be as good at talking customers in to extras!

 

Seriously, work is looking very precarious. I'm not worried personally as I'm exceptionally diverse and multi skilled. This new guy had better be the same. At the end of the day, he's got more chance of staying busy working with me in the coming recession than a brickie I guess.

 

So if anyone needs machinery or trailer servicing or welding/fabrication in the Sussex/Surrey/Hants area, get in touch! There we are, I've joined the ranks of the desperate companies advertising everywhere. Now to get the missus to spam every local FB group sign up to Bark and I'll truely be scraping the barrel 🤣

[Jackalope]

Completely booked for the foreseeable and with more offers of work than I know what to do with. Everyone trying to get wood down with a particular emphasis on Chestnut before the end of the season. 

Hand cutters are in short supply. 

[doobin]

12 minutes ago, Jackalope said:

Completely booked for the foreseeable and with more offers of work than I know what to do with. Everyone trying to get wood down with a particular emphasis on Chestnut before the end of the season. 

Hand cutters are in short supply. 

Decent hand cutters are always in short supply!

[Stere]

Is chesnut coppice still  mostly  handcut  or is much  mechanical harvested now?

[doobin]

1 minute ago, Stere said:

Is chesnut coppice still  mostly  handcut  or is much  mechanical harvested now?

For fencing products it’s all hand cut. You can’t get acceptable quality with a harvester, despite what people unable to find cutters might tell you until they realise people don’t buy from them twice!
 

to be fair, a lot just goes for biomass now which is a shame.