Paul Jenks

[/ATTACH][/ATTACH] My family love it. I've yet to go to the dark side and make anything.

It looks like the new transit might be able to carry a little more, though the stats on the website were a little difficult to follow

Mitsubishi chasis and cab is about the same weight

http://www.isuzutruck.co.uk/downloads/Euro_5b+_Grafter_N35-120(S).pdf put a very lightweight aluminium body on this and you'd have close to 1500kgs payload. Tow a sub 750kg trailer for the extra bag or with a lifting arm.

Anything over 3.5 has to go on the O licence. Downrating a truck just gives you a heavier truck with less payload. Our old LDV has a payload of 1.2tonnes which is about as good as it gets. We've got 2 Hilux tippers from overland. Very handy and good overall capacity as well as towing go anywhere credentials. If the crew cab tipper posted above is a3.5t I'd suggest that with a box, 2 blokes and some saws it'll be overloaded without any chip or logs. VOSA are becoming more active so I'd rather send 2 vehicles to site than risk livelihood and lives with an overloaded vehicle. Yes it costs more, but not as much as fines, court cases, stress etc. As employers and contractors we have a moral as well as legal obligation to abide by the rules even if others choose not to.

I'm fortunate in that I have a tenacious office team who take it personally if someone is late paying. https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/charging-interest-commercial-debt Never had to use this.

Don't know who makes the best. We've used only Stihl Bio wherever we operate for the last 8-10 years.

I concur. No worries.

One does have to be quite thick skinned when dealing with the commercial sector. Some of our best clients are commercial, however, so it's not all doom and gloom. If delays in payment or non-payment of any particular invoice from a given organisation has the capacity to cripple you, you need to ask yourself whether you ought to be taking the contract on. I've always found an honest and open dialogue with them usually works. Action by professional debt collectors is the last resort, (though that works too.) A fax or email to as many people in the organisation asking whether they have cashflow problems often tends to stimulate a response too.

It's a caterpillar

It's not in focus

Firstly, commercial work doesn't = security. Having different types of client offers a little better evenness of workflow. I.E. Work from the three core sectors, domestic, commercial and public, tend to peak and trough at different times. Overlay the cycles and they tend to even out. Look at your business and work systems, office and operational. Start to tighten up on all aspects without being too draconian. Introduce RAMS to the general working process. If a company wishes to start trading in any sector they should focus on building solid, cooperative, professional relationships with clients. Many commercial relationships are based solely on price and this is a very poor way to do business. I detest the attritional attitude many larger companies have towards their sub-contractors. We all have to make a bit of profit. Of course, if someone takes the Michael, their client has a right to demand a better price or go elsewhere. The best way to get commercial/public sector work is to go and ask for it. It's a long process. They will already have contractors to do tree work. Put your name out there and gradually you'll get traction. Ask if you can be invited to tender. When you get the tender packs through the door you'll have some idea of how much you have to develop to shoehorn your way in. It's commendable that you're thinking of security for the guys. Develop business systems for every aspect of your role so you have the capacity to step back and work on the business, then repeat. Develop business resilience through office, marketing and operational systems and you'll develop security.

What a load of tosh. It's difficult enough to follow as a trained professional. How a DIYer would interpret it is open to much speculation. I'd venture that if someone came a cropper following their 'advice' and using their tools a decent QC could make a case for The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 or similar.

BT don't do tree work. You may tell them that a tree is about to bring the line down and will they come and deal with the line. Impress on them the urgency and they may respond. Most of the time they'll come and put a line back up for free, where the householder calls it in. If you're a business they will charge.

Obviously wasn't that much of a girlfriend. When I was 18 trees wouldn't have curtailed my testosterone:001_tt2:

Especially as they can be quite prickly.

I feel it's inevitable that new climbers tendering for work will get this. The typical route for a business owner/operator is to become a technician prior to becoming cheesed off with the useless/ungrateful/demanding/lazy boss and venturing out into the big bad world of commercial sharks. Then they find out just how demanding running a business is without the added stress of not being a competent technician. You are on a steeper learning curve than many. The steeper the climb the better the view. (Harder landing if you fall off though.) Take the business view and not the personal one, though personality can have a bearing on some contracts. C'est la vie.

I like the ladders. Who needs sky hooks.

'87 was a lifetime Masters and PhD in broken tree management. I remember the noise. I remember the slates whistling past The trees banging against each other The warm wind The mess. The extraordinary sight of entire plantations flattened with the highest thing being the rootplates. I remember cutting our way down the lane to my nan's place and her having no idea of the carnage outside, including the 2 bloody great trees that'd just missed the house.

Hi Paul As another pointed out, a company has to be trading for 2 years prior to going for accreditation. Becoming AAAC is a journey, and as the overused PMA posters are keen to point out, 'Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination'. For some it is a very simple and easy journey, for others it is a long and hard one. Historically one could use a provisional driving licence to allow the riding of a sub 250cc motorbike for as long as you liked. Then it was 125cc. Then you had to take a test within 2 years. Now you have to take tests before being allowed to get on a motorbike. The way the industry is progressing{some might say regressing, but not me}this is the way it'll be in the future. Safety, training and professionalism are going to be imposed, IMO. The AA is positioned in the invidious position of advising the powers that be and endeavouring to drag an adolescent industry into the 21st century. A provisional aaac is something a little easier on the day to day workings of a small business, a little like a modular degree. As I said, some folk find this stuff easy and workaday so why bother with getting an institution to rubber stamp it. For myself, I found the structure, carrot and stick an easier model to follow, adhere to and thus change culture. The fundamental, (and perhaps only), issue, again IMO, with the AA is the lack of awareness of it in the wider community. This, however, is not such a bad thing as they are a solid organisation with a very sound foundation. A bit of PR should sort this out.

I like the idea. It'd suit our franchise model very well.

:lol:Only got new ones following break-in

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Footsteps Centre | Maximising the potential of disabled children This is ours. It's local and so far removed from the rufty, tufty of tree surgery.

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