Rupe

and I thought that a hi viz vest was all that was needed to make someone proffesh and all!

Totally agree with all that! Thats why I stick to the cheapo LDV chip truck. My chipper was new but I have no other finance. Getting myself a quad in the next few week too, its the one I've used and borrowed many times but they are finally lettign it go for a days tree work. Quad project comign up soon!!

When I tender for LA work they tell me who tendered, who won it and what the rices were. But not who put in which price. There are usually 4 tenders, sometimes 5. If I know what my price was and the the winner had the lowest price then I can guess which price goes to which other contractor. Without that information I would not be able to keep tendering. I have a letting agent who has asked me to quote twice for soem biggish jobs and I never got them. They asked again cos they always need 2 quotes but I refused, I don't want to be used as a "second quote" to help get the cheap bloke the quote each time, so unless they tell me who it is and at waht price I don't want to be involved. So, going back to the LA, they really should tell you, and if not then as mentioned above any memebr of the public (including you) can request the information and they must give it.

No, your mark up is actually contained withign those figures, i.e. the chipper doesn't actually cost you 100 a day and neither does the truck, you charge them out at that much cos of the valuable work they do, they probably cost more like 30 a day each to own and run so thats a good "mark up". The guys are probably closer to 100 each a day so you have less mark up on them. The gross proffit is almost like the average mark up, and can only be calculated after the job is doen and the cost are taken inot account. Mostly you would only get you gross proffit amount at the end of the year from your accountant. Buzz was sayign he "only" ever achieved 22% gross profit which on its own is a meaningless statement. If I had half a million turnover I would be happy with 22% gross proffit. The actual amoun tof your profit is the only thing that matters, not what percentage it is from your gross income. 10% of 1 million is the same as 20% of 500K and the same as 40% of 250K etc etc. We all need to work towards getting our highest possible turnover for the employees and kit we have availabel and then either expand or reduce costs in order to increas that bottom line figure. Attaching ourselves to % is not really ideal. In Davids original example its possibel that the pipe laying company marks up its employee costs far less than we do as they may be less skilled, and then they rely on the mark up of the pipe but that doesn't mean they make more than us percentage wise over all.

Rookery?? Mistletoe clumps maybe?

He would in normal cicumstance. But there is always a risk of not gettign paid so any initila pay out needs to be rewarded.

No, you can't invoice it so that you end up with the percentage you want. You have to decide what your mark up is and use that. If you mark up your cost by 20% then that fine. (400x20%)+(400x20%)=960. Or you could use a higher mark up to give you a higher gross profit, but you can't just decide what you want the final figure to be and then add the 200 to achieve it.

As far as I know its all contracted out to tree companies, nothing is done "in house" by mod employed personell. Occasionaly they carry out some dimsantling work on salisbury plane using tanks and therefore combining tree work and target practice at the same time!!

Have you seen my Beech take down pics on here? I'll get persecuted if I add a link to them as most have seen it twice already!! Actually not much winching went on so any good bollard would have done the job.

I've got pictures of it set up but not much of it doing anything as its usually all hands workign at that point and no one taking pictures.

Been away for a week, anything important happened here or in the world in general?

I'm off to greece now. See you all in a week or so!!

Thanks. I'm too scared to weigh it!! I know for a fact that it weighs less than the old one, even with the tool box on it. But I don't know for sure what it weighs yet. I will weigh it one day, promise. It was 2020kgs with the tipper on and no chip box. I know the steel for the chip box was about 150kgs worth (4 sheets at 35kgs each, plus a bit) but I lost count after that with the roof and side panels but they can't be much.

We didn't have trouble in the old truck with drivign off with the side down but now with the tool box added it might be a good idea to do as you suggest. I'll look into it.

I'll get over it eventually!!

LOL. Like that one!! Not much money went in to it but far too much time! I guess a bit of my OCD tendancies made me see it through to the end.

The vice is in a seperate compartment to the woodchips/logs etc so it can't get ripped off. I put it right at the end so we still had use of the compartment for storage, you can just get saw in there with engine at the rear but it has to sit on the chains. Works ok, we had it like that on the old truck and it was fine.

Lets not get bogged down by insurance here too! Can we just stick to takign the p*** out of my "polished Turd" (c. SWB 2009) or telling me how nice it is, either way I don't mind!

As long as you've not modded the performance or anythign MOT able, or added bullbars then it should be ok. I don't know, but I've been driving chip truck with homemade chip boxes on for years and never worried about it. If they ask me if its modded, I'll say no other than that it tips. Th eoriginal vehicle may have been registered as a drop side but that wasn't specific enough to say if it had the tool box on there or not, so I'll not mention that I added that bit. It didn't tip, now it does. End of. I hope!

Good question, and I don't know! The vehicle is registered as a dropside so that needs changign for a start. I was just planning on changing it to a tipper and leaving it at that!

Thank you. Some more pics form todays finishing off! I had some Aluminium spare from the roof so I've used to fill in the gaps on the sides. ALL pretty much done now, just needs sign writign and some more storage under the tip bed.

Sure, I'm all for it for tree work companies. I would still like to hear what Eastwater's work plans are, then mayeb we can help advise more specifically to her needs. If theres a chance that the plan is to work part time for other companies whilst gainign experience then you all know what I'm going to say about insurance?!

I'm trying really hard to restrain myself! Masterh, you are correct though, if you are contracted through (genuine) sub contract or direct contract then you do need insurance. But if your are workign with someone else a sself employed then of course you don't. Even so,if the work you are doign through direct contract is cuttign down small trees in a back garden then you need to think of the likelyhood of claiming on insurance for public liability. Most excess' are 700-1000 pounds ish. You have to do a bit of damage to claim more than that. In 17 yrs I've broken roofs,guttering, gate posts, green houses and set fire to cars (minor damage) and some hedgerows. Oh and patios, fences, walls and kids climbing frames. Not to mention phone lines and caused soem power cuts!! Never have I or any company I'm working for had to claim from insurance becasue the damage casued was never more than the excess. Now that I work over roads I think the insurance is worth it, but I still intend to never claim. I have insurance to get me contracts and help me compete with others, as it is important to have these days. In someones back garden, where the public is excluded, it is not necessary to have PL insurance. This is, as ever, my opinion only!!

Eastwater, what stage are you at with your career? Am I right in thinking you just have a couple of NPTC's at the moment. What sort of work are you doing? What is it your hoping to insure yourself against?

When I've used "stabablisers" or guy ropes, I've been luck enough to have other trees to tie them to which is more favorable than ground anchors. In this case I would have thought there were other trees available to use.