richy_B

You can have a basic listing on Yell.com with 10 key word searches for under £200 a year. I have that and get reasonable traffic for the outlay. Advertising is a tricky one. I used adwords for a bit but you can burn through money very quickly without getting any results. My approach is a mix - sign written vehicles, local adverts, some flyers in key locations, a search-engine friendly website.

What will it cost you plus the profit you want. Unless it is a huge contract I can't see how a price per linear or square measurement will be necessary. Simple and transparent is best in my opinion.

is it double red lines or single? If it is double then you're buggered as you generally are never allowed to stop on them and for domestic work I doubt you'd be given permission. Single red it times restricted, there will be a sign near the lines (probably visible on google streetview).

I agree with Bob. If anyone else drives your vehicle then keep your name off it. I had a guy roll my ford ranger and the policy was in my name so now I have a fault accident on my record for 5 years. This affects my business vehicle insurance, my personal cars and motorbike so overall it has f*cked me for ages! I had originally put the insurance and V5 in my own name to save money (a company register vehicle is generally going to be more expensive for insurance - around 50% more in my experience). Probably saved £400 by doing so, although not in retrospect! When you 'apply' for insurance as well they will ask who are you the registered keeper so its best to keep everything in one name (yours or the company) and just tell the truth. I'm all for saving money but sometimes it just isn't worth chancing it. If you are in a crash you certainly do not want to have invalid insurance.

It is very dependent on each company and person. I currently own outright but I am going to lease my next vehicle. What appeals to me is: -A known monthly cost. Generally no surprises. This makes is easier for costing and cashflow. It is also a standard expense rather than a current asset with the capital allowance limitations so may help on your books. I believe the arrangement is the same for BIC. -A brand new, warrantied vehicle. Looks professional, reliable, hopefully wont let you day losing days work/wasted staff time. -Wear and tear vs cost. This is where it is very dependant on the individual circumstance but for me as an operator in London I generally only do 30-40 miles a day equating to about 9000 miles a year. This means I can lease something like a single cab ranger or rodeo for cheap (c.£160+VAT). Those 9000 miles will be stop start daily traffic, with 500kg+ in the bed and towing 2000kg+ of trailer. After three years although looking good externally I am sure mechanically it will be feeling it. At this point you just hand back the keys and get a new one. For anyone doing 20k plus mileage they will sting you. A lot of people thinks leasing is dead money and with personal cars I'd probably agree but for commericals it makes sense to me. Horse for courses I guess.

I had heard they have turned up at a few places. I think the 'issues' are often BSL products being mixed with non-BSL products (as in biomass grade chip in a pile right up against non grade, etc).Quality control exercise more than anything. I am not bowled over by BSL so far. There is a more than reasonable amount of form filling and the time required for audits/phone calls and I've not experience any increase in sales from being part of it. I've not had a single enquiry from a customer asking if we are BSL accredited or if our products can be used under the RHI.

Quite a bit along the M4 but Kersten do quite a few. I have hired several over the last few years. RoughCutter professional flail mowers from Kersten: Professional Sweepers and Grounds Maintenance Equipment

Not quite enough!

I'm envious of all you guys. In London I'd be lucky to find a yard for less than £1k a month.

I'd be pretty sure if you are talking arb only then G&T are the biggest (there are at least 200 strong and have contracts all over the South with huge presence in London). The likes of Amey, Veolia, Fontains are enormous companies (Amey have 50k+ employees in Europe) with tree divisions within them as part of their GM or Rail operations.

Maybe best to have the conversation when you also happen to be doing some pest control. People tend to pay more attention when you have a 12g on your back.

Hello all, someone has asked if I could help out with an art project for a nursery. Basically a kind of woodland wall. As part of that I need to acquire some lengths of silver birch. 2 metre -ish lengths and around 100mm-150mm diameter. About 15 lengths in total. Processor sized stuff so I am hoping someone might have some I could buy not far from me - West London. Bucks, Berks, Ox, Surrey would be ideal. Anyone got anything they could part with?

That looks like a pretty good bit of kit. I was 'dancing' with some tree stakes the other day trying to get the feckers out and thought that something like this would be useful. £2k is quite a bit but its what it is worth you that matters. If this saves you a couple of hours work a week compared to hand digging it will pay itself off in no time. Plus anything that saves you back has got to be a good thing.

Is it UK grown?

You have to laugh when you see these kind of adds. Crazy.

I have the smaller scd600 and think it is well worth it. Easy to use for long periods, a lot less saw dust compared to a saw, a lot less sharpening and easy maintenance.

I had a total loss claim with Aviva and they were really good. Paid out quickly and didn't screw me on the amount.

There is an American guy on youtube that has some good videos - The dirt ninja no less! https://www.youtube.com/user/BobcatNinja2124/videos A lot of the videos are just him/colleagues working but there are some good pointers on there. My favourites is [ame] [/ame] . Its straight forward and you could do it anyway with a bit of common sense but have a step by step like this is golden.

One of my plant trailers has a worn coupling which I am going to replace but the option of having a 40mm eye instead of the standard ball hitch. In honesty I do not know what the advantages over each other are? Any thoughts?

Hello, we are looking for someone to join our tree planting team. 2 month contract initially with potential to extend beyond for the right person. Punctual, reliable and a good attitude are the essentials but advantages would be experience of planting standards & driving license. Good rates of pay. Operating out of Ealing. Please PM me for more information.

I've not tried chipping into the back of a vehicle from a tracked unit so can't comment but have hired a few tracked chippers/shredders (Timberwolf S426 and 190tftr) and used my GX84 with ramp to transport them. My experience was there is not enough length to get a well balanced load. (width wise it was ok for both machines) Either far too heavy on the nose or on the tail. I would want to do a lot of driving at 60mph with it or get pulled. If I was planning on doing it often I'd want something in the ifor '125' realm (either GX or GD).

Fair enough if you've heard it straight from them but if you are going by the documentation it strongly suggests otherwise. Its a minefield and this is why I detest these organisations. Bloody B+E, Tacho's, O license, driver CPC. I only want to sell a few logs!

On what basis? I've gone by the information from the below and cannot find anything to the contrary. Forestry activity, within defined distances. Seems clear cut. Why is split logs different to any other agricultural or forestry product? https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/208091/rules-on-drivers-hours-and-tachographs-goods-vehicles-in-gb-and-europe.pdf

It was my understanding there was a tacho exemption for agricultural and forestry businesses delivery own goods within 100km of their base. So if your business harvests the trees, processes them to firewood then delivers locally you should be exempt from having a tacho. Could be wrong...

We had to switch to Advocate as apparently fleas are becoming immune to frontline.