Highland Forestry

My insurers wanted to know what tickets I had as well as how many guys working for me and what tickets they have, they also wanted to know if we had a H & S policy, drugs and alcohol policy, employment policy, induction training, they wanted to know if I complyed with LOLER and I will have to proove it all if I ever have a claim..

CTS - you are to be commended then mate and yeah sounds like I probably had three bad climbers, but as already mentioned in this thread, the 10wk course was originally designed for people with experience to gain more skills and so you fitted the bill perfectly. I would never expect somebody to come straight out of college and be able to work as competently as somebody with 2 or 3 years experience but the point I was trying to make is that from the guys I had, they were of the mindset that it is ok to go on a go-slow and take ages over a job because they were ''being safe'' .... learning and improving is one thing but taking the piss out of the guy paying your wages because you are ''being safe'' is another..... is stopping for a cup of tea every half an hour because ''I'm being safe'' ok? I think anybody could come up with a list of faults with anybody, and I am no exception to this.... stevie often points out my faults! BUT... I dont call myself an arborist and I never will do. I agree with you on the whole bravado issue and it annoys me that guys come straight out of college saying they can do this and do that and did this and did that and are a professional arborist when in reality they are somebody with the very very minimum tickets and normally minimum experience and they are pretending to be a professional.... So, as an employer when somebody comes to you saying all this, you want to see them perform as they say they can do. I have to admit, the next guy I take on will have to have an interview and send in a propper CV because I've had some really bad experiences with numpties over the last year and that has probably clouded my vision somewhat. Sorry x

So you are telling me that my insurance company will cover me comprehensivley if I dont have a loler inspection, dont have a ticket for climbing, dont have a record of usage, dont have a health and safety policy etc? If that is the case why have any of us bothered to do any training whatsoever?

You can't buy EL without buying PL

As I see it, and I may be wrong.... but.... It is illegal to work without adequate insurance, be it public liability or employers? correct? If you employ someone, even if they are self employed you legally have to have employers liability and when purchasing employers you must also have public so the two are hand in hand... Righto, so to be insured, you have to be qualified for what you are doing or the insurance company will void your policy... E.G.. somebody climbing a tree and cutting without CS 38, 39 etc, has an accident and a claim ensues...... insurance company say ''we're very sorry but we can not honour your policy as your employee was not qualified for the task he was performing'' So, in a round about way, having the necessary qualifications is the law.. If you dont have them then you dont have insurance and that is illegal. There are many cans of worms here, another example would be LOLER... if I have a guy in climbing and his rope snaps the insurance company would want to see the last LOLER inspection and the record of usage... if you dont have it then they will duck out of the claim and leave you shafted Felled a tree through a powerline? ... Where was his UA.1/UA.2?? Contaminated a river with propyzamide? ... Where was his PA1/PA6?? Had a nasty accident with a chipper? ... Where was his brushwood chipper ticket? The scenarios are endless but getting back to the point, if you havent got the relevent competency, be it NPTC or LANTRA etc then you're not really insured and that is against the law.

Somebody in the local village here has had something similar to that done a couple of years ago, trees still look shite.... cringe every time I drive past.... I know who did the job and they have been doing that and worse all over the place for years...

Tip it off the bridge!! I could recommended some guys at perth but that would be further to drive than the bridge...

I don't know when you did your course but I have now been through three blokes out of merrist wood and as far as I am concerned all the course did was fill their heads full of ****! The boys I had came straight out of merrist wood after the 10wk course and thought they were 'arborists' ..... and they simply werent. They had good knowledge of id, and some fungi etc but couldnt use a chainsaw to save thier life. Aside from all of that, everyone...including the merrist wood graduates seem only to get CS30, 31, 38, 39 - in industry this is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard! Ok, so you have your 30, 31, 38 and 39...... what can you legally do?? Cut trees/crosscut and fell anything less than 15' and do an aerial rescue and use a chainsaw from a rope and harness..... big deal...Where's the 32,33, 34, 35, 40, 41, chipper, mewp, PA1, PA6, FA etc? None of us like all this health and safety/qualification world we live in, but it's the hoops we have to jump though in order to get on with it.. IMHO if you go onto these college courses and pay good money for them you should come out of it with ALL the tickets you need to work legally and professionaly in the industry. Instead what we have coming out is a bunch of half-qualified guys thinking thier the bollox. The colleges give the guys the impression that it dosent matter how long it takes them to do a job as long as they do it safe, which is also a load of crap.. safety and efficiency go hand in hand. rant over....

schweeet!

Ahh that's easy .... It's a caterpillar mate!

Welcome to the corporate machine

Yep, learn from your mistakes I guess...should have taken the extra 30 seconds required to move to a slightly better position and not had my left hand under the branch i was cutting.. The silky's take no prisoners thats for sure, what alot of pain and blood for such a small cut, yowsers!

It didnt cause much of a cut, so I'm not putting pics up because you will all call me a big jessie! The point I'm getting at is just how painful it was/is

Well I managed to drag my sugoi across the top of my knuckles yesterday..... OUCH . No massive damage just a few cuts across the bone but man does it hurt and even today knuckles are totally swollen This is a first for me, never so much as nicked myself with a silky before so my heartfelt sympathy goes out to all that have!

theres nothing on...

In that case, I may just have to have a beer and put my feet up infront of the telly for a change!

£600 for two helmets???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus christ!!

Well i'm glad you guys are all busy....... tescos is starting to look attractive for me just now.

hmmm.... may be a bit of a challenge then.

Sawmills will often have bulkers running about stevie....

They dont look that cheap to me....??

busted!!

Respect! That must have been awesome for a 10 year old on an excavator

cant get my head around this cubic feet stuff... dealing with cubic metres so much I tend to think of everything in m3 these days... Do you deal in cubic feet because with hardwoods there isnt the quantity or is there another reason??

yep...done that myself a couple of times cutting trees out of rivers..... dont stand behind the saw ! You can get underwater chainsaws that work off of air lines I believe, I think divers use them.