AA arborists working group

[jaime bray]

Just to add, im not aaac, and have no intention of attaining it, its about the improvement of our working lives as my main interest

[treemeup]

The way im looking at this, is not about obtaining a government standard, but perhaps producing stuff that will change the way we think as arborists, managers,sole traders, There are ways to do everything,Sacking people, employing people, Recording ppe issuance,"

 

So working to a government standard of sorts which is fair enough but are we then trying to put our standards above most other small businesses without any immediate or possibly long-term benefits? or are these ways of thinking (not sure what you really mean by this) prevalent in most other industries?

"At the end of the day how many of us really do know the significant points of bits of legislation that maybe we can either regurgitate to our employees or vice versa, on matters when we feel that our income is being jeapordised, or employees feel that their gaffer isnt complying with even the basic health and safety issues,

 

How much value do we really put on returning home each day, maybe seeing family,loved ones, even the dog,

 

We do dangerous work, I personally dont care what the rogue traders do, Thats their business, How beneficial would it be to go into qoutes armed with legally compliant info, to which you conform to, These issues have got to be highlighted and sold to customers,"

 

But the rogue traders are directly affecting our business that's the reason for being armed with this info:confused1: from keeping prices down, to non compliance of h&s regs due to lack of funds, to stealing kit and keeping insurance premiums up, how many company owners actually send out lads with dodgy equipment? most/all i know would take the hit out of their pocket. Also public spending is about to take a massive hit, which i think will filter down to everyone. will the public spend the extra £££ as there garden waste is being chipped and not carted away and burnt?

 

 

"I think we need to educate ourselves, to enable us to educate our staff and even employers, which in turn will enable us to educate the public of what can be achieved with good tree care, "

 

One problem is that quite a large proportion of our work could be carried out by unskilled people, there isn't much else to say to the public which will sway them really when it comes to topping a hedge with no targets, is there?...

What subjects do we need to educate ourselves with?

 

"At the end of the day, The compensation culture is here to stay, We either adopt the practices to make a change or we sit on our laptops moaning and groaning about it, until our firm is hauled into the courts, I think that the saying nowadays is that ignorance is no excuse, So if the AA are offering this service im going to try and get the mostout of it, Its f.o.c!!!

"

 

If AAC is mainly to keep insurance claim payments down I'm not in.....

 

I'm now less interested in becoming AAC, sell it to me, I want to be part of it but I think I need the benefits spelling out!

Edited March 5, 2011 by treemeup

[treemeup]

sorry havent got the hang of this quoting lark

[treemeup]

I do think there does have to be some visible benefits to the owners as well as the employees as they are the guys who are going to be spending their time putting it all in place, especially where there will be no benefits to employees with small firms where the boss is often out with the lads "suffering" the same.

[conkers]

HI.The public do not know generally about who is a pro or not. Many people have not even heard of Arboriculture.

With programs like rogue traiders the public can be educated.

I know whenever I try to convince poeple not to top and lop they start to switch off and are more inclined to use the chap who will do what they- the customer wants.

The AA and ISA are our hope of being the face of the industy when Arb does get in the general media.

Programs and the media who are often as in the dark as the public need a reference or easy target to call professional, as we saw on rogue traiders.

 

Much of the HSE stuff, like recording accidents, risk assesments is manditory anyway. Many of us choose not to do it at our own expense.

[treemeup]

ahhh, ic. making more sense now, cheers conkers

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

stream line ansd simplify the weekly loler and saw maintenence demands, I check my kit daily as matter of course, then I hvae to do the full inspection and record each piece every week, knowing full well my kit is good, my saw maintenence is done all the time on a daily rolling basis, i wouldnt use a saw with a fault, but STILL we (boss enforced) have to stripdown every saw check it all over and make a written record of the service and defects.

 

it is breeding contempt.

[treemeup]

Is there any standard for calculating daily HAVS saw usage?

[conkers]

Is there any standard for calculating daily HAVS saw usage?

 

Is this a requirement yet? I know you can get little monitoring things for users.

I end up dragging so much brash- not a problem:001_huh:

[skyhuck]

Is this a requirement yet? I know you can get little monitoring things for users.

:

 

If you have employees yes, employers are required to monitor any thing that can be harmful to their employees.