benedmonds

Depends on lots are these PAYE employees with holidays, pensions etc.. (if not it sounds like they should be..) Where in the country are you.. Are they working 5 days a week? Are they working 40 hrs a week? Pay rates on here are always confused as folk rarely compare like with like.. If they are PAYE doing 40hrs a week out of London, then what you are paying seems reasonable to me. If they are "self employed" working 6 till 8 6 days a week in central London it would be low IMO.

I could not face sending our guys out in a brand new truck as within days it would look like the old ones..

I can't believe people think financing a new truck can be similar financially... There maybe other benefits, like image and reliability.. Thee88man spent around £10K in 7 years. so approx £1,500 a year *FINANCE LEASE EXAMPLE from ebay: Initial of £4,121.28 + VAT, followed by 59 monthly rentals of £343.44 + VAT, commencing month 2, with final monthly payment of £6,343.44 + VAT Works out without servicing at over £6,000 a year, servicing will be less but still £400 or £500 a year. Admittedly after 5 years you will have an asset worth £6K or £7k but that still works out at costs of over £5000 a year..

That Uber driver won the case at employment tribunal.. and I am sure they had plenty of legal people looking at it... We do sometimes provide PPE for the occasional guys(helmets anyway) they don't take it home. The sick pay is another issue am not sure of the answer.. Which is why I want contracts that are legal... But even my full time employees often work weekends for another local firm, using the PPE we provide them and yes if they hurt themselves we would be liable to pay sick leave.. The concern is that even after ticking the self employed boxes as you have done (although you tick allot more then we do)... I worry (maybe incorrectly) that a subbie could still be classed as an employee. If they were to have an injury outside of work they might well have nothing to lose and find a no win no fee lawyer to chase you for sick pay.. Using the HMRC am I self employed app the groundies come out as employees..

That is one reason why I don't want to send the remote to the US as it could be something simple.. that is not even in the remote...

Cheers Dean I will ask Steve to give you a ring

You could be an employee only working 1 day a month. EL Insurance is not a issue to me if you pay someone to work for you who is not a true subcontractor you need it. It's the hmrc or an employment tribunal deciding that your subbies were actually employees that is the potential expensive issue..

We had a PTO powered one, safety change was to get rid of it. I would never let an employee use one.

I am pretty sure that you can't do this with an employee. It is what we were doing with our freelancers/subbies, they got a better day rate then a comparable employee to cover the holiday etc. If you go to the HMRC web site there is a test to determine if you can be classified as self employed and the casual ground workers come out as employees.. This means that someone who have taken on as and payed as a self employed freelancer could retrospectively claim they were an employee, take the employer to an employment tribunal and be awarded holiday pay etc..

As I see it many "subbies/freelancers" in this industry would be seen as employees by the HMRC. I want to ensure we are compliant and above board, for my protection and theirs.. If you supply your own saw you might just be able to claim you are not an employee, but I regularly use people as extra groundies day to-day often while they are studying at college. In the past I have always taken treated them as freelancers and paid them a daily rate. We are now starting to put them on the payroll, so we pay NI tax etc... italso means they will be entitled to holiday and sick pay etc.. They need contracts, I can not guarantee them work so as I see it a zero hours contract.. I have no experience with a zero hours contract only the negative press. Anyone use them? Please don't turn this into a big employer keeping down the working man thread.

thanks

Yes please.

Our Bandit 2450xp grinder has an intermittent issue with the remote. Global, (unusual for them), have not been able to help and have suggested we have to send it to the states for repair.. Surely there is someone more local who can deal with electrics? I am loath to ship it over to the US, my experience with intermittent electrical faults is that they tend not to be fixed first or second time... Any one know of an electrical whiz in the UK who can sort the problem?

I disagree, if more folk looked at the realities of what it cost to run a business they might find that actually they are better off as employees. If you worked the hourly rate for many business owners you might find they are not doing great. If however you still decide that you do want to be self employed (there are more then just financial benefits), working out the costs will enable you to price jobs in a realistic manner.

I still think you should think carefully if it is worthwhile getting a truck and chipper if you are only going to be running it 2 days a week... Rough calculations for 5 years... Assumes work 48 weeks a year and truck and chipper worth £0 at end of 5 years and you get £900 a a week from 2 days tree work.. Truck and chipper cost £20,000 Insurance, advertising, yard, kit, accountant, etc, etc... £500 per week. Pay for groundie £160 per week After 5 years you would have made £7,520 each year profit. The alternative Still working 2 days 48 weeks a year but as a freelance climber on £140 per day. £1000 start up kit and £15 per day costs After 5 years you would have made £10,360 each year profit. I might be wrong, but running the whole show is expensive and lots of the costs are going to be the same if you work 2 days or 5 days. This is why bigger firms can often have cheaper day rates, moving from 1 to 2 teams does not double the cost of many things. Yard, advertising, waste carriers licence, etc. even insurance might not change or only go up a little.

Has anyone experience of the 5 ton Mercedes Sprinter 4X4 tippers? Used Mercedes-benz Sprinter Tipper in Little Hadham, Herts | Hvs Ltd

Our 6 ton iveco is an excellent arb truck (the 3.5ton ones not so). Really we should all stop using the 3.5 tonners for most domestic arb. The o licence I don't see as a major issue (but we have a yard), the regular independent inspections add a bit to the cost but ensure the truck in good order. The biggest issue to me is the drivers licence as C1+E required. In the grand scheme £1500 + 4 or 5 days training doesn't seem much, but as an employer training staff who then might leave it adds up. Also if your driver leaves you then have a struggle to replace them. Owner operator I think its a no brainer.. But you still need 2..

You may even end up with additional debt from the mastercard that they have set up presumably in your name and therefore have all the details for. If something seems to good to be true... If it is free money let us know and we'll all have some...

I am Arb Approved. They did not stipulate how to take enquiries, they checked but as long as it met their requirements I think that is good enough. Our industry is full of rogues and it is very difficult for a client to know who to trust, being arb approved gives the client some reassurance that the company they are taking on is not some tip it a scarper firm and we have ticked all the training, insurance, etc, boxes... ..I know there are Arb Approved contractors who do shoddy work and I have seen the Bartletts promotional poplar felling, and there are excellent firms who are not approved, but I would hope that using someone who has been independently checked means they are less likely to be dodgy.

It was not like that in my experience.

To be honest when I started out I wasn't aware of the freelance market. But I know what I have to pay decent freelancers and compared to what I took home when I started and the ball ache of running the show I think I would have been better off freelance. You would also learn how other outfits work... Long term freelance seems to work for some people..

Don't bother with a truck and chipper, just go freelance as a climber.. Your truck and chipper are going to be sat doing nothing for half the week, you will (should) need to find a rescue climber who can also work part time.. I reckon a half decent freelance climber will take home more cash with loads less bother then trying to run their own show part time.

That's what I meant about passing on the risk.. Although I think it is unlikely a domestic customer in the UK would be found liable. I think there was a recent case where a hotel owner was done when their handyman hurt himself doing tree work from a ladder..

The first occasion I was alone but luckily had a mobile signal.. second 2 I had friendly mamils to help me home..

Agreed, there is a risk in everything we do, and all you can do is reduce those risks to an acceptable level. People will disagree about where to draw the line. Some folk will argue that PPE is not needed, in the 12 plus years I was climbing I always wore but never needed a helmet trousers or boots. In fact I have never experienced any PPE saving anyone... You argue that that is not required. Unfortunately when you find you can't do the job it's a bit late... I have never had a serious incident climbing but in the last 3 years I have broken my collar bone 3 times falling off my bike, I always thought I was a pretty OK cyclist and doing stuff I had done before. But compare residential tree work to plumbing or teaching.. Herein lies the rub, you are at the top of your game, there are however many more climbers out there who think they are, but are not.. Many respect and look up to you and as said before you have a status in the UK arb world and your views will influence others who may not be as able as you. ...