beechwood

Many thanks and Happy Christmas to everyone who contributed. Given me a new perspective on things. Will try and advertise again over Christmas and see what comes of it. Does amaze me that you only get 30+ responses from over 2500 views! I guess there's lots of people on arbtalk just looking.

He only charges me £310 and we are right next door to you Alistair! Must be that posh accent of yours figures he needs an extra fiver for the translation time😄😄 Simon Combes is the man your after. He is doing my climbing kits on the 7th Jan maybe you could drop yours in and he could do them at the same time. Regards Neil

Have to say didn't have that problem but sounds like a top tip.

Thanks not something I'd thought about to be honest. We are based midway between Henley, Reading and Maidenhead so not far from Abingdon (45mins tops) Feel free to come over Regards Neil

Bit late to party on this thread but we used 3 of these on a recent large job big tree MEWPs Crane and big chipper loaded by 360. I have to say they were pretty simple to install to our helmets and once we had worked out how to link them together, they were brilliant. Made the job run smoothly, efficiently and more safely than without them. The banter ability is also great, you can chat away with everyone around you pretty much unaware. We did find a downside, when your colleague forgets he is wearing the mic and belches deeply! Honeys Bros imported them in for us and just said try them and see how you get on, so big thanks to Martin and Leon. I'm defiantly going to buy them and I would recommend them to anyone. Sure Honeys will be stocking them soon. How they are going hold up to the rough and tumble of regular treework, only time will tell.

Sounds like I may have derailed my own thread! My apologies if I caused offence to you or anyone else. In answer to your question yes pm me your number and maybe we can arrange to meet.

I've heard the saying not sure I'd agree that £100-140 a day is peanuts The thread is 'How much should a foreman earn?' So come on what do you think. How much?

I agree with you we have lots of little 1-2 man bands appearing all the time, most of them disappear within a year or two but they do depress the prices and I guess after a while realise they aren't making any money and go do something else. Can be bloody annoying but I have to remind myself I was in there shoes once. I think the colleges are turning out loads of climbers but as has been discussed you don't have to very good to pass 38,39 and recently nowhere near commercial ability and speed. So when these guys get into the industry many leave within a year or two. I've had a one recently who only wanted climb certain trees! (Very little ones) And another who was very honest and just said he didn't enjoy the climbing as much as he thought he would. We keep battling on. Where did you find the best place to advertise for staff was? Regards Neil

As long as I've been quoting for work (15 years) you always get someone who is appalled by the the price quoted. I do wonder as someone else has mentioned if some people see it as tactic to get you to lower your price. I think everyone has a figure in my mind when they phone a tradesman for a quote and sometimes they are way off the mark. I get plenty of people happily surprised who say 'I thought it would be more' and some who say 'that's about what I expected' as well as ***** like the one you encountered. Guess the questions for you now are How did your price compare to what you have been told on here? and therefore do you think yours was a reasonable quote? Do you want/need the work? If yes, then what sort of discount are you prepared to give to get it? Either way email the client back set out your position as politely possible, your already spent valuable time on this might as well give it 10mins more and maybe earn some money out of them, even if they do sound like the sort of person I wouldn't want to work for! Good luck and don't let the buggers grind you down Regards Neil

Where I am I would go with £1750+vat. Ringing up I never really make money on your normal day rate due to extra fuel, wear and tear on saws and it always seems to take longer than I allowed.

No offence was taken and I wasn't trying to cause any. I was looking for comments from within the industry to get things clearer in my mind and you others have offer some great advice. I do find it very interesting how within the Arb industry very few people want to talk directly about money, wether it's what we pay our staff or what we charge them out at. I thinking the lack of discussion drives prices down and wages up but maybe I'm just being cynical. Regards Neil

You make a good point The supply and demand I can't do much about but where do tree surgeons look for jobs? Arbtalk Arbjobs EArborist Am I missing somewhere good?

Thanks for your comments which I will defiant innately take on board. Been running my tree company for 15years now and I'm pretty well versed in the financial side of things. Pitched the wages at the top end of what I can afford. Just beginning to feel wage expectation in my location is pretty high compared to charge out rates we as industry can achieve, add this to the high level of running costs and there's only 2 places to find the extra for wages. My take at the end of year, which generally isn't as much as some are suggesting a Foreman's worth or the reinvestment money for replacement kit. Neither are appealing to be honest. The wide salary range reflects the previous staff I've had over the years, who have arrived with massively different experience/ability and levels of qualifications. I find there are many jobs you can send a relatively inexperienced foreman to and job will get done on time and well, there are other jobs that require that extra talent and organisationally skills of a god. I have room for both but maybe should make that clearer.

Thanks for your input Your right I do see a foreman as someone who takes charge of a job and is generally the lead climber The climbing kit thing is probably a debate for another thread but we looked at it a couple of years back as every LOLER inspection we seemed to be missing kit, every climber wanted a different harness/set up (sometimes only a couple of months after having been brought a new one). After much discussion we came to the conclusion that yes it's PPE hence we now pay an allowance and everyone can buy what they want, as long as they have a basic kit. Each crew truck has an AR kit in it for grounds staff to use incase of emergency.

I said Subbie climbers are charging between £150-190 and in some cases £250. And your probably right I do need to compete with this.

Thanks is that self employed or on the books. Regards Neil

Wow that's £44,200-46,800 a year. That's a hell of of a salary for a foreman. Did you mean self employed or on the books? Thanks for your input Regards Neil

Hodge where are you based? Subbie climbers around here are charging £150-190 and some cases £250!! I prefer to have regular guys on the books so I can plan my schedule and my customers get used to familiar faces. Come on what's your opinion on the going rate in your area?

That's what I thought. Would do foreman earn in your part of the country ?

I run a AAAC in Berkshire/Oxfordshire and I have been trying to employ 3 new Foreman over the last couple of months but have had a very few responses. Only 1 good one who is coming for trial in new year. Despite offering what I thought was a good package PAYEE £100-140per day (8hr day (7on site 1in yard)) (dependent on ability and qualifications) 20 days holiday plus Bank holidays Paid driving hours to and from site Mobile phone allowance and Climbing kit allowance All PPE and company clothing provided Bonus scheme for extra works completed Before I re advertised I wanted to gauge the opinion of Arbtalk about what wages are expected So for an average foreman on the books with min 3+years of experience running a crew and min 30/31/38/39/chipper hopefully with 32/41/MEWP/CSCS/1stAid/Streetworks/formal ARB qualification What would you pay/expect to be paid? And where in the country are you?

We are working at Reading University and they like to keep as much chip as possible to use around the grounds. They were the odd size bits that won't fit easily on lorry tomorrow. Get what you mean though cedar does make decent firewood.

He has a flat bed 7.5tonner he moves it with. The grab is just over 4ft, only reason I know is today he was picking up plywood boards from under the hopper and tipping the little bits in.

Here's the one we use. Not mine owned and operated by my good friend Mark. One day, if it stays still long enough I'm going to paint it green!

Guy I use is £310+vat per day. So roughly £40+vat per hour

'Yeah a risk assessment was done but it was an overall assessment of the woodland in general, not individial trees. Last i saw the boss was gearing up to do it himself. Any other day im sure i would have done it , but something was telling me not to. Its hard to explain. Having been in mountain and river rescue im very safety orientated in general and have seen what can happen when people ignore their instincts.' Sounds to me like the boss did 'haul his sorry ass up there' and fair play to him! My advice give him call and have a chat, now a bit of time has passed I'm sure you both will have calmed down.