Rupe

Good work. Makes me feel a lot better about my polished turd of a truck!! My top tip would be to remove the rear lights and stick them on under the tipper so they don't get damaged when tippign logs off. Again! (looks like its had a new rear light board fitted probably for this very reason.

Thats the total opposite of what I was saying. If the customer thinks its easy and a dumb lumberjack could do it then let them get a dumb lumberjack. If you want to try and convince them its really hard, just to make yourself feel better then good for you. What I was trying to say is that that is a waste of time. Just agree with them thats its easy and get on with it. There is nothing more to it than scrambling up a tree and slicing some branches. If you use fancy words to confuse someone then that is poor communication, and will make you look dumb if you are unable to explain things in a straightforward manner. The real skill (when necessary) is to not use ANY fancy words, but explain things that make sense in one easy go. You have about 1minute to explain each job. What I was saying above is that I DON'T try and educate or embelish our work in any way. Please read my post again if you think you missed something. One of the things I said was So as far as our industry is concerned, yes I think we have a way over inflated sense of our own importance, they are only trees and we are only service providers. I think getting all the kit out to try and prove how important we are illustrates my point quite well!!

Old skool is even better.

You don't need to outline the precise way, all you have to say is that you will stick to best practice, thats it, thats all they need to hear. So if you change the plan during the day you stick stick to best practice. The office bods that ask for this stuff don't know what it is, just tell them its all to best practice. I'm only sayign this cos I learned to do safety paperwork from my clients, and clients of the company I used to work for. We had no idea waht a method statement was, but ended up with opportunites to work for Carrillion, Costains, Mcalpine etc. All I did was ASK, and the advice I got back was great, I then gave them what they asked for and we got the contracts. Simples. And I do the same now. As I said in an earlier thread we are just commissioning a server based SSRA that each operative fills in seperately and the software cross checks the individual hazard analysis and highlights any discrepancies. This ensures each operative knows all the hazards and importantly the controls. Thats great, but thats Risk assessment. Different thing to method statement. Its just a statement that you will tstick to the methods you have been trained in, for whatever activtiy you might be doing. if a client wants excessive paperwork they can pay for it -I don't mind And they wont mind using someone else who offers the paperwork inclusive. Just set all the paperwork up on a PDF and e mial them it, it costs nothing.

Hostel was hilarious!

Fair enough, I think I do that too but give that information on the daily risk assessment, where i tick felling, climbing, burning etc etc. Ultimalty we all do whats asked of us. MY generic MS if for tree pruning and felling, so takes into account most eventualities for those methods. There would be another for Stump grinding, and for mewps etc if required. I guess my MS is very basic, but its the whole package that needs to be complete, so as long as the required information is containe dwith the RA, the MS and the H&S policy, along with certs, and everythign else then it should be ok. Personally my MS would just be Get spikes out of bag, start work finish work. go home.

Site specific RA's for sure, but the method is always the same. Industry best practice!

The generic should be the same for every job, cos its, well, "generic". Yes once they have it on file that shoudl do. My complete package is 70 pages, I email that so they can save it or print it and they only get it once! The only thing you do for every job is a RA, and even then you can tick all the generic bits that apply and just fill in any site specific stuff, which is often nothing.

Yep, and thats exactly what you can do for your client. doing a rubbish repair (or bad/unsafe tree work) is still your perogative, depending on how you want your business to progress. We all know you do good work, and thats why you get asked to quote for stuff, they just want soem specifics about the job to shove in the filing sytem with all the other crap. It won't change what you actually do for them, but your future work will change if you do badly, and the tv repairman will only do a bad repair for you once. I have a nice generic method statement you can have if you want.

Yes, but you would want to know that the tv repair man follows the best up do date methods and practices, even if you don't know what they are.

You could say that you will remove the tree in accordance with industry best practice as out lined in AFAG 1,2,3,4, (whichever are relevant) and then send them copies or links to these leaflets and leave it at that. Thats all thay want, is to know its to best standards, they won't have a clue what a good or bad method would be....

Thats correct. 2x2x2 is 8, and the .4 makes another 1.6 to be added on....to make 9.6 Chhance are you wont be able to fill it to the top of to the very front so it might not actually take that much wood.

There is a system that we call Rads. Its a 3:1 advantage sytem with fail safe. We usually use a 2:1 system for climbing. The rads system would need a rope, one pulley, a gri gri (or other failsafe descendign device) and a couple of karabiners. So not too expensive, and much cheaper than block and tackles, and safer, and easier to set up. Rope is tied round the tree a few feet above your highest point required. Down to ground and through gri gri, then back upto pulley at roughly the same place as the top anchor, through the pulley and back down to the ground. You clip the gri gri to your harness and pull the tail of the rope and you go up. Let go and you stay put. Pull the handle on the gri gri and you go down. The gri gri is not fully failsafe actually. If you panic and keep pulling the handle you will continue to go down, there are other devices that eliminate this. The rope will need to be three times longer than the the distance from ground to top anchor position. Hope that helps.

Brillo pads for shining it up mate!!

Intruding into is not the same as too high.

If there were a law then every tree on a boundary would have to be topped! Just get it thinned out, a let the light through, or fell it. Don't go and create future works just for a short term extra bit of light. What species? If its decidous then you'll get plenty light in the winter when you really need it and in the summer just go out side.

Nope.

Are you saying the old ones are better than the four mix? Interesting, time will tell. We still use the old one now and then and its definatly reliable, I like the power and torque you get with the four mix one though. I'm hedge trimming all this week on my annual Yew trim job, and all machines will be working at once. I use the four mix for the tops, its awesome.

Its a good tool. I've got the same but the KM85R engine unit is only used occasionally now, I got the fourmix one last year.

The KM85R is a 2007 model, 395 plus vat in the 2007 catalogue. The rest is 450 ish without vat at 2007 prices, so quite a bit more now. If he was vat registered and got a trade discount of 20% when he bought it then he's doing well to sell it at 500 now, but you would be getting a bargain too though I think.

Ok, I see what you mean. In a way then your SS RA is a generic one, if it covers all usual points.

How can yhou do a site specific RA everyday without having a generic? The site specific one should only highlight specific requirements for that site that are not in the generic, one, or at least it shoudl refer to a generic in order ot cover the principal risk elemetns of the work. Otherwise you would have to RA tree climbing/chainsaw use etc etc. every day?

Exactly what I was going to say. If you've been asked for them then you need them. "Law" has nothing to do with it.

Ha ha!! Thats exactly what we were thinking!! "Better be careful or else it will look like the Gohstbusters car!!"

Yes, I'll try the old one for a while. Its quite knackered (got damaged when my other subaru got ram raided in to the porn shop!) I've got my mind set on two underbody storage boxes off ebay next, the guy can make them to order so thats the next thing, then just the wheel spinners and I'm done!