Dave123

Well you can work it out at ratio. If the ratio was 36 to 1 then your fatality rate would be equal. It just depends if you think there are 36 builders to every tree surgeon. Also these figures are not including forestry workers which I'd expect would pump the up a little. Not that it matters either way, it is what it is, but from these figures it would definitely show tree surgeons to be generally more intelligent that the average construction worker, as if the job is so much more dangerous, then you do manage to keep fatalities very very low. I'd imagine more postmen have been knocked down and killed over the last 9 years than tree surgeons have been killed, at 26. Fishing Agricultural/farming Then construction Then lorry driver funnily enough are what is keep coming up with. Tree surgeons don't seem to have a place really, you're a bit inbetweeners, but safe inbetweeners so it seems, good job.

Apparently it is safer than other trades Around a building site. Statistics - Construction industry No where near the amount of injury general building workers experience. Are you a ... tree surgeon? Fatalities are quite high, you can see. 26 fatalities over 9 years doesn't make it a highly dangerous job, statistically. Statistics - Fatal injury statistics for 2011/12 To cut it short, in 12 years 948 people have been killed in the construction industry, and in 9 years 26 tree surgeon have been killed. Interesting.

If by this you mean the kind of customer who doesn't take tradesmen at face value then yes, I am probably the worst. I work very hard for my money and when I spend it I like to know exactly what I am getting and where it is going. If a tradesman can not account for his charges then I would find it unusual and suspicious. If for instance these quotes had come in and I was expected to consider that £650 or £900 was the daily rate for 2 men's labour I would be dropping my pen and heading straight for the nearest training centre, £50 an hour is a high wage, I'm in. Now I've had it broken down I can understand better where it all goes, why it's so expensive and base my decision on who to go with from that. I think people who just accept a price and that's that are looking to be ripped off, there isn't such a thing as 'it just is because it is' in my bank statements.

Oh I am not trying to argue the reality of what is taking place, just maybe a reason some may feel it is expensive. This job of mine for example, in my mind it should not be charged at the same daily rate as a job where some guy has to do the whole Tarzan thing. I stood and watched a guy one day swinging about this huge tree, chopping off branches and lowering them rather than just smashing through the branches below. Now that kind of thing is impressive, I must have stood there for 2 hours until my dog eventually dragged me off home bored. But the conifers seem pretty simple. I wouldn't tackle anything like this after seeing my next door neighbour struggle with his. He was chopping it down and it seemed to be multiplying as it lay in the garden, 6 or 7 trees and you couldn't see him anymore, the garden was just a mound of green, I think he expected to put the back seats down on the car and just do multiple trips to the tip, maybe in a year he could have accomplished this. In the end he did get them down but had to pay a guy £350 to come in a big truck and take it all away. I think he bought the chainsaw especially for the job, which was broken after this, well the blade was anyway. I borrowed it to cut the tops off my fence posts and it took about 5 minutes to get through a 4 inch post. Anyway, just to say I know you are offering a great service, but a conifer job in my mind should not cost the same daily rate as a Tarzan job. We are paying for the job not the full capabilities of the workman. But baring all that in mind, maybe you should all be sectioned for picking this trade in this climate.

Voice of the consumer? What do I make of the responses? Well you answered my query, and some. For the most part it seems the expense is down to equipment upkeep. Also extras that many other trades may not need, public liability etc. I would say maybe people don't rate tree work as trees generally don't take much tending to, they just grow quietly away without notice until you pull out the old photos and remember what the garden used to look like when light could get through. People don't like to pay for something they don't want. If you have a trademen in he is doing something for you. When a tree surgeon comes in he is dealing with something in general people didn't buy, and don't want, and so separating with money is something slightly more painful. Yes people look at chainsaws as something very dangerous, the noise alone scares most people enough to not want to use one. But overall it has to be the previously mentioned issue. As far as danger in general goes, I think in employing a professional you hope to eliminate that, just as I would if hiring an electrician so no one gets shocked. Driving is dangerous if you don't know how to do it, but few would consider it dangerous once we have passed the test and been on the road for a while. So baring in mind this then it should not be dangerous, I think. Like anything else these days, it's all very expensive.

Thankyou all for the input. Appreciated.

There are no real hazards, just chop them down onto the road and drag them off I would presume. So the quotes seem realistic then, 1 £900 and the other £650, quite a difference hence my curiosity in how there can be such a variable.

So I know nothing of trees or tree surgery but I'd like to know what is going on when I pay out so much money. So I have conifers to come out, about 5 of which are 20 to 25ft tall and up to 8ft wide. A couple of big fat ones about 35ft tall by maybe 15-20ft wide and 4 or 5 inbetweeners, young so thin but quite tall. Is there a way to roughly knw how much I should be charged for this, it seems something quite difficult to put a price on but I expect it would be maybe two days to process these, fell, chip and take away. I've had a couple of quotes but it seems high. Any ideas? In the north.