Chrissy

14 minutes ago, Mack said:

Think I know what the problem is here and im going to go our on a limb....job and knock fridays by any chance?

guilty

2 minutes ago, Mull said:

Can’t be arsed with “ someone complained!” Must be the grafters fault!!

As I said in the opening post, this isn't the first time this has happened

7 minutes ago, woody paul said:

Have you seen it, some people make a fuss over little things. Bucket of water and cloth sort most marks out 

Not yet no

Just to add there was ample time allowed on the job. They were done by 2

Your bog standard side alleyway. Arm fulls of large branches bullied through rather than cutting them smaller and carrying them through in bundles.

This one comes up time and time again and im sure im not alone.

I had an irate customer complain today that my lads had dragged branches across the side of his rendered house leaving marks. He's within his rights to be upset about this and we will be going back tomorrow with a pressure washer to hopefully sort this out.

Thing is, the lads have been told time and time again to cut stuff smaller but insist on still doing the same thing, whether its just lazyness or they just don't give a toss I dont know. They are hard working lads and on the whole don't do an awful lot wrong. How would you tackle this? Im not sure legally I can make them pay for this sort of thing, nor would I want to be the boss to do that.

The worst ones have to be some of these LWB mercedes panel vans. I've seen them looking like they are literally scraping the floors before now.

Some of the older Ivecos really showed when they were overloaded also, not sure about the newer ones.

The test we always used to use was to see if the rear tyres were touching...if not we were good to go and obviously fully legal 😁

We are also in the process of looking into this. I can't get my head round the whole benefit in kind thing. Being only newly formed as a ltd company I don't really understand the difference in company vehicle types. I will post if/when I get a better understanding. That Jaguar looks mint!

nice work 5 shires

I keep seeing the most infuriating comments on social media, things such as 'people are making too much fuss about this', or 'people are too set in their ways'. Looking at the profiles it seems people with this attitude fall into 1 of 2 camps

1. Office bods who are little or no climbing experience. If the former, its likely they were never a climber of any note.

2. Training providers/bodies...surprise surprise, they are looking to make a tidy profit from all the retraining they can offer, not surprising more of them are on side.

I saw a comment from a training provider stating that they were going to be training the other training providers to teach twin rope working. Just what we need, more clueless trainers with no real life experience in the industry teaching even more techniques they are not well versed in.

Looking forward to seeing the finished bed. Stuff like this is worth a small fortune to the right people. Your daughter will certainly love it, yet she might not appreciate for years to come

Gorgeous looking little pup!

Probably my most embarrassing was whilst working on a large contract maintaining some roadside trees. A larger mature Ash tree that broke into 4 stems at about 6ft up needed one of the stems removing. Plenty of room to fell so rather than getting up there I went for the lazy option and felled it from the the ground, obviously with the saw above my head. It happens, everyone does it. The problem in this case was my cuts involved a certain amount of guesswork and I was way out. As a result when the limb started to fall it barber chaired and ripped out a section of the trunk right to base level ?

I was lucky not to have hurt myself but my primary thought was how embarrassing leaving that wound was. Few years ago now and I still cringe whenever I see it!

Whats the stupidest thing you have done?

Really interested to see how the 500i plays out over time. My 461 is still going strong at the point but im sorely tempted. Does it really offer that much more power?

can't quite work out where they get the 15 billion figure from

Why is it that trees from nurseries are supplied with the leader removed? I have noticed this from some of the big name nurseries and can't understand why its done, even on standards. Surely this is creating a potential weak point down the line?

5 minutes ago, DanBous said:

Thanks
So in the first quarter, what I will collect for them will be far less than what I have paid because I can go back 4 years and claim for tools/machinery that I still have. So my first VAT return would be good news for me??!

Absolutely, you would get a rebate

Never done it.  Probably everyone should at least once

Good advice above.  A lot of it will come down to your budget though.  Pyracantha should be incorporated into whatever you do though.  Fences can be scaled, even spiked palasade fencing but pyracantha is pure evil.

We have a lot in place at our yard to the point it takes 20 minutes just to get into the yard in the morning.  We have not had any trouble in 20 years of business so far but thats not to say its inpenetrable.  I find it hard to believe the place hasn't been cased out in all those years though as its visible from the road.  They just haven't found out the best way to get in or have just written it off as not worth the risk.  I'm sure our time will come though.

That ditty bag is well nice

5 hours ago, john meehan said:

I think you are better just hiring gear to them, that way nobody feels like they are missing out.

We pay x amount then can use what we want.

Normally use staff from work and everybody gets paid when the person who’s job it is is.

I wouldn't go this route.  I've seen it go wrong a hundred times.  Chipper breaks down, something gets broke etc.  Could be that the breakage was inevitable due to the age of the chipper, but when faced with the bill the owner will most likely try to blame it on the hirer.  Sour grapes all round.

A commission is a great idea.  Gets the guys to actively start putting work your way rather than looking for private work or cheeky cash jobs when on site doing your jobs.  If they want to hire kit tell them to hire it from a company who is properly set up and insured to do that.  Add on to that they will likely need their own plant hire insurance, public liability and employers liability, private jobs soon become less attractive.

Tell them what you want as a company to earn as a minimum for a 3 man team say, then whatever they price it above that rate they could have 50% of, thats on top of their day rate.  Everyones happy, and jobs get priced properly assuming they don't screw up on the timing.

Would be nice to see something like this small enough to fit inside a chainsaw.  Looks a great piece of kit

You don't always get what you pay for when buying expensive.  I have had cheap trousers last a couple of years, whereas my steins lasted barely 6 months.

Another vote for engelbert strauss

Any plans to move this to different destinations in the future?  Seems just about the furthest place for anyone to get to

i'm going with old.  Could argue its a coppice but it certainly doesn't look like an intentional coppice