Does anyone use headsets ?

[Dean Lofthouse]

 

What kind of barriers are you using that are "liftable"? No one gets through my site unless I let them, which we often do as we prefer to keep footways open if possible. We dont run a chipper when theres a climber cutting/moving in the tree though so communication is not too difficult.

 

I'm talking big long run jobs Rupe, traffic management in place with very few stops in cutting, time limits, with eight ground staff to keep busy. A whole 200ft section at a time coned off, footpath closed signs, every possible "reasonable" precaution in place. The only thing required in insurance is that you took all " reasonable" precaution to protect the public which we did and more, beyond that, you have got to accept that the public can be neglegent, it can't always be our fault.

What would you suggest mate, cordon the whole area off 360 degrees with heras fencing, would that be reasonable?

Helmet comms are an excellent tool and should be use when possible, knocking the top out in a dense canopy with loads of traffic noise and a 30 second double red time is the perfect senario, but then your 30 second double red cutting time is knocked down to 10 seconds because of people running reds.

We can only do so much Rupe

Edited February 27, 2013 by Dean Lofthouse

[Rupe]

Yeah, it sounds like you have it all covered, and the comms are probably the icing on the cake, but on there own without everything else obviously no good.

 

Yes, well aware of how stupid the public are, and you cant account for stupid.

[Rupe]

We use solid clip together barriers at either end of a site if the footpath is to be closed, but you cant barrier the whole area, I agree thats not practical.

 

Only problem then though is folk walking in the road, so unless there is space to make a walkway in the road you kind of have to let them through.

 

Footpath closed signs and barriers are ok if they work, but, unfortuantly you cant make people cross the road. Its amazing to me when you see people with kids pushchairs etc. walking down the middle of a main road with traffic coming rather than use the pavement on the other side.

[Dean Lofthouse]

They do have their place definitely, but I'm sure you will agree, there are an increasingly large number of the public that seem to have had their brains removed.

It is the most frustrating and stressful part of the job. Last week on the said roadside job, a cyclist ignored the red, ignored the groundy waving him to stop and rode on the inside of our cones and was one second away from being under the huge top I had sent down. It would have killed him, all he said was " whoops- my bad" .

All this was with comms double red lights and posted groundies, but between the ok being given to me and the top starting to move and hit the deck, this muppet tried to run the gauntlet

 

It's getting worse I think year on year, everyone seems to be in such a rush they are willing to risk their lives to save a few seconds. The lack of common sense nowadays is also on the up.

[Dan Earp]

How would headsets help in this situation?

 

Surely a properly barriered work area and/or a groundie with eyes/brain would be better?

 

You can put out all the cones and barriers in the world including signs and it wont stop everyone, i found that a few twigs on the ground deters them for some reason over here

 

 

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[Al Cormack]

I bought some arborcom headsets a year and half ago. They were around £650, so not cheap, but made a world of difference to the working day - no more shouting and coomunicating was easy.

 

BUT, just after one year a microphone wire broke inside the insulation and to but a new microphone and lead was £50 - no thanks I bared the wires and jammed them in the holes which worked fine. A couple of months later the other microphone did the same, and then on one headset the on/off/volume switch started playing up so badly that we couldn't use them.

 

Sent them off to the manufacturer, who fixed them and refurbed them for £100, had them back two weeks and one earpiece does not work, and the on/off/volume button started messing around again today:thumbdown:

 

Waiting to see what the manufacturer will do, but from my experience I wouldn't buy them again. The other draw back is you can only have two talking to each other.

 

Al.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Just a quickie ,

We are debating at work at the moment whether to invest in a pair of microphone headsets for better communication during work ,

I used a pair at the APF and thought they wer great ,

Does anyone use them and would like to share there opinion.

Thanks .

 

 

Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

 

once used there is no going back, expensive but so so so worth it.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The other draw back is you can only have two talking to each other.

 

Al.

 

three and more ways is possible at extra costs it gets pricey due to the more complicated circuits

[T14EES T14UNK]

I bought my arborcoms about 3 yrs ago. After a couple of months had endless problems similar to yours. They must have been sent back to uk supplier about 5 times. Each time they came back they conked out within the first days use and sent back again.

In the end they were sent back to Norway I think to be rebuilt with new circuit boards which took about 3-6 months, can't remember. They still didn't fix them.

I was then told by supplier that they would give me a new pair. But instead I wanted to maybe offset them against a set of the three way expensive ones. Problem is, they do not mount onto a helmet..... Yet. They recon they are working on it so I keep waiting.

So far, in three years or so I have used my coms for about a few months. Not good value so far!!

[Pete Mctree]

Our arbor-comms failed today. Really needed them too