benedmonds
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Everything posted by benedmonds
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I would work out what you want to do. The Foundation degree is not going to much value at this stage of your tree career if you want to be a climber or do proper tree work with a chainsaw. Far better to do a 12 week tree surgery qualification, get the tickets and get experience.. If you want to be a Tree Officer or consultant then the degree might be the route to go. .
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If you are working as a groundie or even a climber you are probably classed by the HMRC as an employee, even if you call yourself a sub contractor.. You would therefore not need Public Liability insurance as you would be covered by your employers. The HMRC used to have a handy web site where you could put in your details and it told you if you could be classed as a sub contractor. If you do your own work you should have PL insurance. There are a few specialist brokers who insure tree work, most advertise here.. If you want personal injury or income protection then there are many firms who will cover you at a cost..
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It could have been a snow plough.. Seen some of those with de-mountable bodies..
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I am guessing: https://www.gov.uk/being-a-goods-vehicle-operator/exemptions "Is a passenger carrying vehicle..." Not convinced that a crew cab is going to classed as a passenger carrying vehicle... but hey they have got away with it for 10 years....
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I would not do it without contacting Network Rail. We all know it could be done, but if something goes wrong the downsides are potentially huge, a big fine or even prison.. Is a half days job worth that..? We cleared a big poplar tree next to the railway, with an official night closure, a couple of days later we were chogging down the stem well away from the track and we still had a helicopter called out to check on us and a Network rail inspector come out to check.. I hate to imagine what the fines would have been if they had decided we were a danger..
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I am not sure if the email is regional, but fill in the form send it to Network rail and make sure your client is sitting down before they see the cost.. In the past Network rail waved fees for private clients who were unable to pay the silly figures required.. from my recent encounters this is no longer the case. Hence the unintended consequence that the work does not get done or cowboys do the works as contractors doing it by the book either can't be bothered with the hassle for a small job or cost at least 10 times as much. [email protected] Development Questionnaire (blank).doc
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To be fair to network rail you would be upset if some numpty dropped a tree on the tracks. But they make it so difficult and expensive to work near the railway stuff gets left or done by folk who don't know better and shouldn't be doing it.. We recently had a job stopped as there was a theoretical possibility that if the crane failed it could reach the tracks. Just.. They needed a ground survey for the crane parked 20m from the tracks on a car park and the works at night.. a little further down the same line a client had a small syc right next to the tracks they wanted taken down.. Simple job but the required paperwork and potential additional costs meant that my price was not going to be close to the dodgy firm who didn't think to tell network rail...
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No Idea if things have changed..
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This is what the crane companies say but i don't know if it would hold up.. I might be wrong but it doesn't sound right to me. I don't see how any climber is ever going to be qualified to draw up lift plans, understand about ground conditions required, capability of the crane etc. etc... If that is the case the crane company who is still is operating the machine is surely liable if that bit goes pear shaped and should not offer a service to someone who cannot have the knowledge to do it safely. We don't use cranes often but the guy we normally use is an old feller who has been using cranes for 20+ years and does not differentiate, but when you ring round for prices it just feels like a scare tactic to me... As I say I might be wrong...
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I am not sure about the contract lift bit. I know the crane companies sell the contract lift and some firms use fear to ensure you pay the additional fees.. but is a competent crane operator going to lift something they think is dodgy...? And could they really blame the tree cutter as they signed a bit of paper? Has it ever happened.?
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Check out the Japanese imports, the pop tops are great for headroom. We had a Mazda bongo that served well as a family car and occasional camper. We have a hyundai i800 now, (not a camper or import) but it would make a good base vehicle for a conversion and half the price of a VW..
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Having only ever worked in domestic/amenity arb I was mortified when my guys told me one of the experienced (5+ years climbing) qualified freelancers put on his spikes to undertake a DW and lift on a lime.. My team stopped him and he didn't use them..
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I don't think the grab is attached to the crane in the pic..
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No.. general feeling seemed to be it was to complicated..
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Rules for CS30 etc. refreshers/retakes?
benedmonds replied to onetruth's topic in Training & education
So are the people discussing and"deciding" the industry best practice in refresher courses are Lantra and BALI, both companies/training providers who have an interest in making refresher training regular compulsory and expensive.. Shouldn't the industry decide what is best and then the training providers develop refreshers courses to meet the industries needs, rather then the training providers deciding what meets their needs and excepting industry to pay for it... -
This is on a similar theme.. I was surveying these neglected willows (with an apprentice..) for a hydro scheme.. Individually nothing special so C1.. but as a landscape feature they pretty valuble.. so B2. Or do the veteran features make it an A3..? If you pollard them does it still need an 11m, 385 m2 RPA?
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New position available, full time..
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I would agree with Mark and it should be categorised in its highest sub-category.. Another issue I have, is when categorising individuals in groups; individually the trees may be rubbish and the loss of one in the group not significant, but as part of a group or feature they are important, so they might be a A2/C1..?
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I would envisage a fee paid by the coop member each time they use it which goes to cover insurance and maintenance.
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The point is that yes, if I owned it all I would not share it around, but if 10 people owned a share as a co-op, that's only around 2K invested and all those with a share would still look after it as if it were their own.. I know I would. We are supposed to be entering a new sharing economy. We won't own cars in 10 years surely we could share a picus..?
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I have nothing to do with the sale on here, but wondered if there might be a way a group could purchase a picus? £21,500 + is a lot of money for a machine that you do not use often but I assume has little moving parts, is unlikely to wear out.. I could not justify the purchase and have only specified it a couple of times over the years.. But if I had access to one I might sell the service... If a group were to own the machine they could all use it or hire it out to each other?
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We just re did our insurance and got some wildly varying rates.. Trust were cheapest on PI around £3K but wanted around £3K for tools and plant NFU wanted over 9K for PI but only £600 for the tools.. Both were supplied the same info, including details of a £15K claim and both were new for old on small plant, climbing kits etc..(£35k worth) but replacement on the chippers, grinders etc (£65K worth). NFU also initially stated they would not just insure the tools but later changed their minds.. I also found it interesting that Trust told me that after a claim they load the premium by 40% in the next year with additional premiums for the next 5 years .. So if you are paying £1,500 a year for insurance I estimate it really is not worth making a claim for less then £2,500-£3,000
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Island, as has been said before, the standards don't appear to have any real scientific basis (except "it seems to work") even in the UK, I imagine the Australian leans heavily on the BS5837 findings, (I think saw a draft copy years ago). When you start applying them to totally different conditions and trees not even contemplated by the UK based writers they are going to be even more vague... Would anyone consider using 5837 for the RPA of a baobab? I would be interested in seeing how other countries do things? Surely the Germans and Americans have something similar?
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There can be huge variation in hardiness even within euc species. If you remember that really cold winter we had a few years back, we took down a number of dead 15m plus eucs. While identical looking individuals in the same garden were fine. The theory I liked was that their natural range in the blue mountains ranges from very hot in the lowlands to very cold in the mountains. Lazy seed collectors who collected seed from low levels collected less hardy plants then those who trekked into the mountains..
