Niceboy

Ordinarily I do, but the contract asks for an hourly rate for jobs that may arise. The fact that it has to include disposal as well......

Echo all the way. I thought Stihl was the best but I didn't know what I was missing! I've a cow-horn handled big one and a loop handled little one, both maybe six years old and discontinued. Incredibly reliable, lowest vibration of any make (when I bought them anyway) and the smaller one has a pleasant tone compared with the screamer it replaced. Smaller one's finally dying now but it doesn't owe me a penny.

Has anyone tendered for a park contract which also included submitting one hourly rate for extra work - both hedge/shrub trimming AND tree cutting and which includes removal of arisings?Would anyone charge the same per hour for pruning a bin bag of rose cuttings as they would for climbing a 40 foot tree and removing half a tonne of branches?!!!! If you charged say £25 per hour you could have a truck load of timber on the ground within 15 minutes and I don't think your 25 quid would go very far disposing of it:crying: Any difficult tree work or climbing I'd have to sub contract so I'd appreciate any suggestions for the labour cost side of it, but seems like 'how long is a piece of string' to me:confused1: If I put forward a fairer way of pricing would my tender go straight in the bin?

I have the same problem. Nice living near the coast though! Anyone definitely know if any or all of the exemptions are being retained yet?

Yes. There's a very useful radius plotter here but don't forget to enter '31' because it's in miles.

Sadly it probably is inevitable if we all took that attitude, although judging from some of the replies I'm not sure it would cause hardship for everyone. But why stop at 3.5tonnes? Why not make it 500kgs and daily checks, that should keep my family safe. Ah, but only if the high risk under 25's were limited to 10mph and then perhaps in 2015 make it under 45's limited to 5mph. Before long we could legislate accidents out of existence! Where will it all end? When do we say enough's enough? I'd want to see the data which proves the population is being annihilated by Transits which don't operate out of an approved centre before I stopped fighting against operator's licences for 3.5 tonners.

Yes you're quite right and I'd already edited my post before I saw yours! In my opinion VOSA and the government in general did not fight hard enough against the imposition of the legislation. We just rolled over as per usual but I think that's becoming a British trait. Apparently we were the only member state to have the exemption and therefore received no support from the others. I wonder if Luigi the Builder is as concerned about his licensing issues as we are! Regarding all the technical questions in this thread, I'm pretty sure I know most of the answers but I hope someone else can come up with some good old fashioned facts. Until then my main concern is that anyone on here who was about to invest thousands in a trailer set up can hold fire and take stock.

The true villains here are not VOSA (roadside inspectors) or Thatcher. Can we keep the VOSA slanging match to the other thread. Sigh...

1) If you have a yard and if the vehicle inspectorate approve it. I'm not sure a residential driveway is allowable and even if it is, if the neighbours don't like your van then this will give them a good chance to moan about it, officially. 2) See 5) 3) Not everyone will get away with a restricted licence 4) Is a credit card ok? Useful info if so, but the application fees are not cheap and you'd have to pay that back! 5) I hope you're right. I do enough running around as it is.

Sounds viable. What about the non-refundable application fees? And the approved operating centre? And the CPC holder? (Standard Licence only) And the proof of financial standing? And spending even less time with the kids because you're dealing with mountains of extra work? Where do the clients find the money to pay for all this, especially in today's climate?

Sure spoilt my evening when I found out too. I'm still hoping it was all just part of a bad dream I had about a European Superstate.

This was touched on in the heated debate on the 'VOSA' thread, but its implications are so huge I think it deserves a thread of its own. To say it hasn't been widely publicised by the government would be an understatement. Luckily I found out about it, by accident, on November 4th - only one month before it becomes law! So much for ignorance not being an excuse.... There is so much confusion and ignorance concerning this latest EU legislation (particularly it seems among those who are introducing it and those who will be enforcing it - there's a surprise) that I hesitate to even summarise what it's about. Essentially, as I understand it, at present those whose towing combination is greater than 3.5t plated weight and who 'only' need tachograph compliance to tow their 'small' trailer (< 1020kg unladen) behind their vehicle for hire or reward, will be required to apply for an Operator's Licence, restricted or otherwise. So for example (unless someone from VOSA, or better still a lawyer specialising in transport law, or better still a magistrate, can correct me) even if you just want to tow your 750kg chipper around the corner with your 2751kg plated gross weight van you'll need an OL. I appreciate there are those of you who will say "So what, I can sort that out in a lunch hour and my customers can pay for it. If others fail they probably deserve it - more work for me and I can charge more. Result!" That's great, and good for you. But for those of you who aren't quite as efficient at dealing with red tape and have less generous customers, it's important you don't underestimate what a massive burden to a one-man band obtaining and keeping an OL is. It's vital that anyone contemplating towing a trailer of any description as part of their business finds out the relevant info before they waste time and money on something they may never get to use after December the 4th. This is the main reason for my post. Trying to get solid, reliable information about this new legislation is like trying to juggle soot. I've no idea when the authorities will announce what exactly will happen and it's less than a month away. The only hope for many traders is that some or all of the present exemptions are retained, such as the dual-purpose 4x4 vehicle exemption (a can of worms in itself) and the '50km radius from base' exemption. As for somehow bypassing the hire and/or reward aspect (more interpretation woes over and/or too), beware. Who's to say an eager and dedicated VOSA inspector won't interpret a peck on the cheek from the missus as a reward for towing her horse, thereby ultimately making you a menace on the highways. Sound ridiculous? I believe some amateur racing drivers have been warned about sponsorship stickers, and others about winnings, however small or infrequent. And check out Tommer's amazing rivet story - post #74 on the VOSA thread. For the record, I drove artics diligently for over ten years and take safety very seriously, to the point that I often have the mickey taken out of me. I don't actually disagree with tacho's for sub 7.5 tonne combos travelling long distances although the implementation of it all is, as per the link above, unsurprisingly a total mess. But for the EU to foist on UK Ford Transit owners, rules and obligations which were designed to keep 44tonne artics safe..... Good luck to those about to investigate this imminent legislation. You will probably find independent websites and forums far more useful and up to date than VOSA's. Could the last viable small business in the UK turn out the lights before going under, please?

I've a similar machine and I ordered new blades for it this afternoon but only because the old ones are now too short to be resharpened. I use a Multisharp Wetstone 3001. I made up a simple jig from 2x4 to get the exact angle and screw the blades to it for safety and accuracy. The cutting edge MUST be kept cool, hence the built-in water trough on the drill-powered gadget, but to save time I use a small angle grinder to carefully remove metal which won't form the edge. The wetstone isn't large, otherwise the drill would burn out, so this method would take a long time on a big blade or if a stone or something has put a 'v' into the leading edge. They're about 25 quid from Amazon so you can do the maths and figure out if it's worth the effort by comparing with the sharpening prices listed above, not forgetting postage and telephone costs, and waiting in for the package. I must have saved a fortune over the years plus I know that if my blades dull at the end of the day I can get them nice and sharp for the following morning .

Everything considered.

Haha I know. If I thought my van would make it to Yorkshire and back before I fitted the new engine I'd have looked at the stumpgrinder in person by now.