jaime bray

I wince and a sigh of relief is emiited everytime I make a safe turn!!!

Just a heads up really. You know when you get flashed to do a right turn and your towing a chipper/trailer, how many times do you see the person that flashed you through, brake suddenly to avoid the dirty big chipper that they didnt see you were towing. I always, now, proceed with a very slow speed to enable the chipper to be seen as early as possible. Its soo easy to lose a valuable tool, as is the chipper, get written off in this way. Just a thought. Stay safe. There are some very busy people on the roads these days that are doing alsorts of things when they drive and do not concentrate on the road.

I am an employer, but mainly use sub-contractor staff. But I think that if as a company you are providing, as required by UK law, all PPE that is in a suitable order, adequate working conditions and basically being a prudent humane boss, and also paying tax and NI contributions whilst providing holiday pay of x amount of days a year, maybe even transport and equipment perks, Then I think that paying somebody; before tax, in the region of 75-95 per day based on the average working year of a UK worker and creating a salary of xyz, this is adequate for this type of employment. N.B. This would be based on experience and level of proficiency that the employee held, and also how current their experience was. This would include all the provisions of employment required under UK law and also is a contract that is written and provided appropriately as per Uk law. Just a thought. Anybody know what is required under UK law Haha... Just thought would write it again to cover myself.

Yorkshireman, Sorry for the delayed response, been a bit busy last two days. Many thanks for the info, always valuable to know of locations for this type of thing. I shall pass the info to the northern branch for their list of venues. What is the community within the industry like up your way? Is it a bit cut throat or close knit? Regards, Jaime

Up the north id say it would be wise to use the national weather map and say that would be a good starter for ten. North of England

Dear All, Since I started volunteering for the A.A. 2 years ago I have had numerous comments made about the A.A. not providing for the northern area with many aspects of arboricultural contracting etc. I suggested to the A.A. we should try arbfest up north, but after the wash out and upon subsequent assessment of the financial risk it was not ran again this year. Could any of the northern arborists please inform me of what they feel is missing from the A.A.s operation in the north of the country. The south east branch, south west branch and the midlands from conversations had with arborists and other A.A. volunteers are thrivng. There is excellent interaction and assistance from the local industry in these places and as such it is developing well. I am unaware of the figures or companies that operate up in the north so I can not comment on your participation within the industry and its development, but with some of the finest colleges for arb up there you must be out there with excellent ideas and feelings about the industry and more importantly from my point of view, the A.A. When I took on the role of AWG it was described by Paul Smith; AA techie that I was to be seen as the health and safety man at your places of work, someone with routes and contact lines to the right places but where you could go to freely voice an opinion. I would like for the A.A. to be seen by northern arborists (and anywhere else in the country to add) as a good organisation, I hope that if communication can commence between northern arbs and the A.A. this will develop as effectively as the S.E. branch is currently. If you would rather contact me privately then please email at [email protected] Also, would you like arbfest to be re-run up the north, if I push for it to be ran up north can I rely on your backing please folks, numbers will be key, so please show any support here so I can show the powers that be your desire and support for arbfest. N.B. It may be the case that northern arb is thriving and all is well, but I hear so often that courses are not ran up north as often as liked. What would you like and where abouts? Please bring me up to date on how you feel northern arb is at present? It would be of much use to assist me in fighting the corner for northern events to be held. Kind regards, Jaime Bray (AWG Chair):thumbup:

To be honest, most of my subbies become good friends. Those that dont is usually due to a clash of personality and therefore we do not tend to work together much. But if a subbie was earning me a lot of money, beyond the pale, on a regular basis, he would have been payed extra at the end period of work. So I would not feel the need for him to justifiably charge me for the one occasion a cancellation occured. If he did id return to my opinion on this matter and say i find it unjust to charge a full days pay for a one off cancelled shift. So whilst were delving deeper into scenarios that occur, would you expect a company to charge you for breakages? I had a chap drop an 020 of a carry tool clip that i didnt realise hed clipped the saw on with, smashing the bar and wrecking the chainbrake, dented a garage door with a branch he chucked, took out a phone line and then continuely started the other 020saw with his hand on the trigger and the chainbrake on causing the saw to rev for a good five seconds without the chain spinning, to which i commented that that is highly likely to cause some damage to the clutch long term. His response was how long have you been climbing for. He never worked again through mutual agreement but i still payed him his wage. Swings and roundabouts.

That is well written actually. After reading the whole thread i believe this to be the case. Although... haha. Just joking

Description of landys is amusing

Stop go board....or maybe carryout some of the AWG arborists handsignals for us.. The worlds your oyster tied to a traffic light as a stag. Everyone loves you

I have a line in my Ts and Cs that says in the event of a job not being able to be carried out through the client not carrying out their arrangements for our arrival then an abortive fee may be charged at the companies discretion. I have never used it thus far.

As long as it is considered from both parties point of view i cant see a problem. But if a subby had such terms that hed charge me for any cancellation then id cetainly be writing a set of terms of business that protected me equally from any unfortunate mishaps his end. especially on a monday morning after a christening that had been forgooten about, or the stag do that got silly. THis is not aimed at anybody personally and is purely an example of what can happen.

Not taking the proverbial. Thats what we do when it rains and its a very very last minute cancellation. My gf always asks why i know so many nice restaurants and breakfast rooms, she thinks ive got another woman, its the weather girl..... I look forward to wet days, if youve eaten at wyleys in warwick you'd know why Admittedly i wont buy you a set of waterproofs as i would not get the benefit as we wouldnt work in the rain.

You are not unreasonable in the slightest for asking a question about this subject. But it would appear that such agreements have to 50/50. We all like to feel that we are respected and treated as we would treat others.

If you turned up at my door and it suddenly started chucking it down and we were both in agreement that to be fair neither really wanted to go to work, id go to the garage put some fuel in your car and take you out for a lovely farmers market breakfast with lovely locally sourced produce and a earl grey at Wyleys in warwick. Then wander round the shops wait for lunch and go for a pint, then drive to a suppliers and buy some water proofs for walking the dog and not working in. hehe

Sorry swinny, i dont understand what is being made into something it isnt. If you refer to the animosity aspect arising, then i personally do not run my own company to work with people i do not get along with and not enjoy being at work with. If a subbie demanded to be paid three days for the cancellation id find that slightly off putting, and wouldnt ring to see if he wanted a few shifts in the near future thats for sure. i may have got the wrong end of the stick.

Ts and Cs that are written correctly and provide a situation whereby both parties are protected and equally considered are in no way, in my opinion, a threat. As long as they stand up in a court of law and are equal then i welcome such development within my business activities. What about if as a result of operator incompetence a subbie breaks something. Does that get paid for out of the subbies wage? I wouldnt be comfy charging a subbie for breakages. Just asking not antagonising

I second that the ts and Cs are required, and if they said 'upon the non attendance of xyz sub contract climber then xyz climber will cover the cost of replacement staff to the same amount as charged to ensure that the job gets done' then id say no problem, as we are both covered equally. Swings and round abouts. But if they were a completely honest three days in a row occurances and cancellations, then as a human you can clearly see that fred bloggs is having a bit of a bad run and id say no worries. If as the man letting someone down three days in a row, id say once i get all these things fixed how do you feel about doing a few seven day weeks to catch up. if the response was i dont work saturdays then id say 'oh ok,' and sensed complete anger, then to be honest at that point id imagine that the working relationship would have been tested and it would no longer be viable for the two to work together with such animosity.

Thats a good body on that 130, im not into them as im like a can of sardines in them, but liking that truck. Looks handy. It must be the total roof cover you have that sets it apart in my opinion. Nice trolley too. What do you reckon it would carry?

If I use a climber it is usually for a job that requires more staff and maybe me on the floor managing the site. I believe that in a lot of situations it is of benefit to have the chargehand/supervisor/business owner etc on the deck managing as they can manage the site better on the floor than from a tree. Hence a quality climber is needed and i dont climb that day.. Purely my opinion. If a shift is cancelled it is usually a joint decision between myself and the climber, and usually relates to poor weather. There is only one subbie out of four that I use who doesnt care what the weather is like. Rain or shine he will climb!! If it was teeming down, and I wouldnt want to climb a particular tree in poor weather, i always ring and say to the climber 'thats the job, do you want to work today?' I was taught never expect someone to do something you wouldnt want to do. So if I OFFERED the days wage in the rain and you took it, we'd go out to work. We'd row all day because we are wet, cold and aggrieved at the conditions, then go home and forget all about it. I cancelled a day recently because my propshaft gearbox and clutch went all at once the day before, in that situ you aint going anywhere in that truck. If the climber had have said i want any kind of money donation id have said dont ring me again. To be honest if I paid a climber 120-150 a day to chop logs id want to sell them on the stock market not to the general public. I have had climbers cancel, sometimes not even ring to cancel and we are in the yard waiting and end up out working under manned and late home. But what the heck, its character building. If you are ever unfortunate enough to have to let somebody down then imagine how you would feel if they said you owe fred bloggs 150 quid as he did your shift. What would be your honest response? Can see where your coming from but i wouldnt use you from the outset if you announced such apparent biased conditions of engagement.

It is a good course, I think Kev Moore is in arbtalk, arbocop may be his name. I took about 12 pages of notes from the morning session and it was clearer by the end of the day as i asked all the niggling questions that the morning brought up in my head. It is considerably cheap too. I payed 35quid for the particlular location i attended, although that may change as it moves around different locations.

Thanks Steve, For future reference how did you get that to upload? It asked for a url so i typed in youtubeAAriggingetc. Is that not the correct url? Thanks

It hasnt uploaded, anyone know how to sort please.

I attended this course last year, was very good and covered aspects for all ranges of knowledge. The course i attended had a morning session in the classroom and afternoon in the trees. Very informative and good demonstrations. This video has beem made of the details etc. Hopefully its uploaded ok.http://AAriggingawarenessworkshop youtube AA rigging awareness workshop. If it hasnt could someone with far superior tech knowledge upload for me. Apologies for IT iliteracy

8 weeks!!!! 8 years and the little blighters seem to be getting worse. lol. Of course you wouldnt change them for the world. Someone told me that a child will cost upto 176,000 quid by the time its 16 year old. Jesus... I dont earn that to cover for one let alone two, three or four kids Hope that everything went well wit hthe birth and alls well.