hand cutters rates tonnage/day rate

[spuddog0507]

hi all, is there any one out there who can help and point me in the right direction,as in a previous post i stated that i had just the job of thining some hardwood and felling some softwood stands on a local estate,i have got a small team together 3 of us and none of us know what to charge ?, is there any one who could help me on this subject ? and wether it be on a tonnage or day rate any help would be greatly appriecated.thanks for reading,

[mendiplogs]

hi all, is there any one out there who can help and point me in the right direction,as in a previous post i stated that i had just the job of thining some hardwood and felling some softwood stands on a local estate,i have got a small team together 3 of us and none of us know what to charge ?, is there any one who could help me on this subject ? and wether it be on a tonnage or day rate any help would be greatly appriecated.thanks for reading,

 

HI MATE you have a team of 3 chaps together and you do not no what to charge your pulling my LEG mate theres post on here re rates thanks jon

[AlexB]

Varies a lot on tonnage. Ground conditions, timber size/type.

 

For something to work off of the ewgs standard costs are £150 per day for a saw operator. Don't expect that unless you can cut like a god and at least 15t a day on say second thinnings. Or you're on big wind blow and good enough to cover the costs with output. If you're hand cutting and walking out with around a £100 a day before costs your doing well. Ask logrover!

[muldonach]

hi all, is there any one out there who can help and point me in the right direction,as in a previous post i stated that i had just the job of thining some hardwood and felling some softwood stands on a local estate,i have got a small team together 3 of us and none of us know what to charge ?, is there any one who could help me on this subject ? and wether it be on a tonnage or day rate any help would be greatly appriecated.thanks for reading,

 

It sounds as if you are rushing in where angels fear to tread lightly, what sort of average tree size are you talking about?

 

I would be very surprised if the owner / manager would agree a dayrate for unknown cutters - I certainly would not.

 

Target your rate at about GBP100/day gross, look at the tree size and figure what you can cut in a day and that will give you a tonnage rate, try to get the tonnage rate up as much as the landowner / manager will stand. Remember you can bring your rate down but once you state a rate it cannot go up.

 

Cheers

mac

[spuddog0507]

hi thanks to you all who replied with info on rates,i have a good solid foundation to work on now,the hardwood thining is approx 30 yr old and average 10-15" all striat with very little canopy as they where originally planted a 3-31/2 ft apart and the softwood is clearfell approx 10 yr old 6-10" bothe on fairly flat ground, i was thinking in the region of 12 - 15 tonne per day per man. thanks again for the replys.

[AlexB]

It'll be more like 6t per man per day for the first week at least if they're new to it. Make sure the stumps are nice and low so those pesky harvester drivers see how it's done when they come round!

[NI Tree]

It'll be more like 6t per man per day for the first week at least if they're new to it. Make sure the stumps are nice and low so those pesky harvester drivers see how it's done when they come round!

 

ditto about harvester drivers

[Logrover]

Think you might struggle to cut 6 t in stuff that small, a ton is more than you think. This sounds like the kind of wood you look at and think its day rate or not done! You rarely make money on second thinnings. final thinnings and nice decent sized clearfells are what you want.

I would rather cut 16 t a day in medium big pine for £6-8 a ton than £15 for 4-6 t (if you get it) in first thinnings.

You can do better in bigger stuff as a ton is faster to get so to cover costs you might have to do an extra hr. In small rubbish costs might take half the day!

The money is in machine operating, im learning on an old forwarder but im employed now as cutting just does not pay!

Good luck we dont have enough cutters

I have worked with lots of people learning to cut, expect them to earn £20 a day to start with!

Most cutters in scotland are on 120-150 day rate doing edge trees harvesters cant handle, machines in the middle whacking out the tonnage.

[N1ck]

Maybe the reason why there are no good cutters anymore is that agents and estates still expect guys to work for £100 a day less costs. With the price of petrol and diesel, insurance & PPE going up it is getting harder and harder to make a living no matter how good a cutter you are.

 

I appreciate that new hand cutters have to learn their trade and should expect to get less while they are new, but the other problem we have down south is estates that have not kept up their maintenance programmes and still expect commercial piece rates for cutting when there has been no thinning, cleaning, ride swipping, brashing, cutting fire breaks etc. Commercial piece rates are for commercial production felling, not for maintaining neglected pheasant cover. For that they can pay day rate.

 

If enough good contractors insisted on a minimum rate for hand cutting and at the same time invested time and money training a new generation of cutters we might be in a situation where there was a pool of good forestry workers making a decent living.

 

Maybe if land owners didn't pay so much to agents . . . but don't get me started on that!

[muldonach]

hi thanks to you all who replied with info on rates,i have a good solid foundation to work on now,the hardwood thining is approx 30 yr old and average 10-15" all striat with very little canopy as they where originally planted a 3-31/2 ft apart and the softwood is clearfell approx 10 yr old 6-10" bothe on fairly flat ground, i was thinking in the region of 12 - 15 tonne per day per man. thanks again for the replys.

 

sounds a bit strange - hardwoods at 10-15" dbh at Yr 30? with planting that tight you will struggle a bit to get them on the ground I would think. Surely not planted at 3-3.5 tree spacing and row spacing.

 

at 6-10" dbh on the softwoods you will want your guys in shorts and running shoes to get 12 tonne a day - the trees will be running at 10 to the tonne! So you will need to average 15 per hour i.e 4 minutes to fell, snedd, x cut and stack - tall order

 

Looks a little optimistic to me

 

Cheers

mac