Andrew L

Just applied for BBLS with my business bank as a Ltd company but YES sole traders can also apply. Looks as if you just need to apply via your own bank. I suppose if a Sole trader without a business account, you may need to speak to your bank directly? Cheers A

Thanks for all the comments: I realised when I chose to respond that that was an element of "airing my laundry in public" but I am new to running a business and I wanted to know if the forum did feel I was doing the wrong thing. My first year of business has been a steep, no vertical learning curve. Although mostly positive, I have made mistakes, particularly with quoting jobs and have been financially out of pocket because of it. As a result, I tend to try to work out how long a job might take with how many guys and then add a safety net for unforeseen problems and price accordingly. Before I read Jack's post, I had not given that job another thought. Customer very happy, team happy: all good. So it is interesting to read everyone's comments and perspective, both positive and negative. However I will say to those who do not run a business, that money the company earns does not go to me, it goes to the company. I can honestly say I have never been as poor as this last year despite the company doing well. Why? Because almost every time we make any money it goes straight back into the company to pay for updating equipment, paying off business loans, training etc etc. I pay myself virtually nil. Just enough to pay the rent. Not complaining: I am poor but happy. A

Fascinating because I am the boss described by "Jack R". "Is this unreasonable?" Well in order to make a judgement, perhaps you should hear the complete story: This was a complex TPO job whose main protagonist was a large 60+ft Cedar to be section (rigging) felled in the back of a garden but also involved 2 hedges, a Leylandii reduction (that turned into a fell after the owner changed her mind which meant I had to get the Tree Officer round for re-approval) and a mature apple tree deadwood and thin. I quoted for this job back in Nov, got approval from the council in Feb but diary commitments meant it was going to be undertaken on Weds, Fri and the following Mon. Jack R agreed to work those days along with another completely inexperienced groundie. Jack has a 30, 31 and had just completed his 38 that week. To the best of my knowledge he has not yet done his 39. Jack did the apple tree with his Silky and I also asked him if he would like to put a rope up the Leylandii for me, which he readily agreed to do. Having knocked that out and one of the hedges we then got on with the Cedar. Big spreading multi-limbed tree with a tiny dz and multiple targets. 90% of it needed lowering. After lunchtime I offered Jack to get some spiking practice with my spikes up the tree using my top anchor point. This was of no help for the job whatsoever but I thought it would be good experience for him since he had told me he had no spiking experience other than his 38. On day 2, I offered Jack to climb the Cedar, put up my top anchor point and also the rigging gear: purely and only to give him experience of doing so. It took him a while but I thought it would be good for him to try doing it. After lunch he got another go at spiking. The job went really well, by the end of day 2 the tree was on the floor and cut up and we had walked the timber to near roadside for collection. All that remained was raking up of the site and a hedge trim. Bearing in mind this was Friday afternoon I said to the guys does anyone want Monday off? They discussed it and Jack said he wanted to work. On Monday we were finished by late morning. But the owner also wanted some re-pointing doing and some landscaping stuff undertaking which I gladly handed over to Jack, since that was his background. He told me he would get a full day's work out of it. On return to base, I paid him for 2 1/2 days work at a 2nd climber rate and at no point did he tell me he was unhappy about it. He also chopped through my tool strop which was on my 550 that he hadn't bothered to take off. He said he would replace it but I ended up buying a new one today, 3 weeks later and he has just re-paid me for it. I read his post last night and was pretty shocked by it. I started my business last April. It is small. I have no employees only subbies but I do my best to treat them as well as I can. I put one of them through his CS30 last year at my expense. I have spoken to Jack this evening on the phone and asked him why he did not feel able to talk to me about this issue. He just said it wasn't just me, but something he had come across from lots of tree surgery companies. I have naturally asked around my other subbies: none of them have any problem with what I have done. "Is this unreasonable?"

Afternoon all I was intrigued and succumbed to Fleabay temptation a couple of years ago and bought a 2nd hand 536i XP with 4 Amp battery and charger. Perfect? Gawd no. Frustrating? On occasion, yes. But overall, good enough to go for the 535i replacement. Summary of what I've found in 2+ years of use below. Good things: 1 Ease of use. Just brilliant. Hold down start button for maybe 2 secs and go. No choke, no pulling anything, no ear-muffs etc just get to work. Chain brake exactly the same as a petrol motor except the warning lights come on to remind you that its on. Best bit? If there is a problem, your groundie can shout and you can hear him. 2 Maintenance. The oil tank holds enough for about 3 or 4 (4 Amp) battery recharges. Other than re-charge the batteries (I should say I use a slow 80w charger out-of-hours to lengthen battery life), sharpen the chain and maintain the bar, just keep the air intake clean. That's it. 3 Motor overheat cut-out. Got to admit this was the most frustrating bit about the saw. But I accidentally came across the solution. I was running it with a pair of 4 Amp batteries which I would charge with a QC330 rapid charger. I never managed to empty a fully charged battery before the other was charged up. But if I was chogging down a tree and getting near to bar length (14" bar), I had to be really careful not to push it too hard because the motor would cut out and then take a while to cool down and recommence operations again. The frustration was in a number of ways: the on light sometimes flashed before cutting out for a second or two and sometimes did not. On one occasion it cut out after I had finished cutting!!! It would then refuse to play for anything from 10 secs to a couple of minutes. No rhyme or reason as far as I could make out, although I did notice that this happened more often if the battery was losing its charge. The fix? The older of my 4 amp batteries passed away (sniff) and I replaced it with a 5.2 Amp. OMG what a difference! No cutting out, no matter how long I cut for or how big the timber, truly a revelation. Bad things: 1 Bar life. I seem to have got through a lot of bars. 4+ in the last year alone. I don't think I am unusually heavy on my kit since nothing else has a similar problem and this issue is compounded by the fact that it is much harder to get hold of pattern replacements since not many people are using these saws. 2 Weatherproofness (is that a word?). Early on in our time together it rained hard and the saw was out in it. I had been using it up a tree earlier in the weather and it had been fine but then it just refused to play. I brought it indoors, pulled it apart, dried it off and left it alone for a few days and it started up again and has been fine ever since then. But I am now quite fussy about bringing it when the rain starts. 3 Its electric. I know, this is a bit odd but,,,, There is something missing about a chainsaw that doesn't make a racket: it just doesn't seem as dangerous somehow. When I first got it I found myself not bothering with c/saw kit when I used it. When I stopped to consider it, this is nonsense. Chainspeed is 20m/s ie more than quick enough, as I found out (another story) but the lack of noise lulls you into a false sense of security. 4 Robustness. I am a bit of a Husky fan and so also have a Mk 1 550, 2x 562's and a 572 (plus a rebuilt Stihl 076 AV, again, another story) but the 536 does seem more plasticky and less robust than the petrol saws. Having said that, other than the water resistance and bar issues as mentioned above, nothing else has let go or broken. So the 536 is to be relegated to be a chipper saw and I am ordering a new 535 with another 5.2 Amp battery. Going for a 12" bar this time. Cheers Andrew

Just had a surprise visit. 3 youths arrived out of the blue to where I live and work from. We have a long drive from the road (with no passing places) cos it is a farm. Said they wanted logs. I have no adverts on the road to my premises so I asked how they knew I sold logs. "It says Wood Farm on the sign outside". Right. "Jack" couldn't decide if he wanted 2 or 3 tons of logs and he couldn't remember his own delivery address, so his mate helped him out but managed to misspell it. He said he would ring back in an hour. Naturally nothing heard. Audi A2, grey LD03 NNT 3 lads, all late teens early twenties. Hoodies and tracksuits. Look like they've never done a day's work in their lives. I have CCTV pics if anyone needs. They've been reported to our local plod. Cheers Andrew

Hello Yes, I could help you on those dates. I have 30/31/38/39/40/41, a 155mm chipper and a tipper plus multiple saws. £5M 3rd party insurance. Drop me a line on the mobile Andrew 07920 078458

Just discovered this thread. What did you do ? Andrew

Update: Didn't I tell you he was good? Last Saturday he took his CS30 and passed with no formal training. So that's zero chainsaw or Arb experience 7 weeks ago: then CS30 pass.

Hello 6 inch hydraulic feed chipper only 65 hrs, excellent condition. Complete with 3.5t tipping arb truck and operator. Based in Knockholt, nextdoor village to Biggin Hill. Unexpectedly free for the rest of this week. How can we help? Andrew 07920 078458

Evening all, I am very sad to be losing this guy who is off to Holland with his girlfriend. He has only been with us for 6-7 weeks but more than long enough for me to say: highly recommended. He is bright, strong, hard-working, switched-on but also sensible and polite to customers. Only had to show him how to tie a bowline ONCE! Disadvantages: does not have full driving licence, only auto. Doesn't speak very good dutch but I suspect will pick it up rapidly. No formal tree courses so far but can already sharpen a c/saw and use a grinder and chipper. Any dutch colleagues in Leeuwarden or Dwingleoo areas please drop me a line and I will pass on your details to Toby. He will be in Holland from 1/12/19. Cheers Andrew 07920 078458 Wood Farm Tree Care (Sevenoaks) Ltd

Hi Patrick, Whereabouts is the work please? Andrew

Just a thought but if you went for mesh sides, you could ziptie company name/logo etc printed on a board to them which would both stop the chip coming out and advertise your company name at the same time,,,

Sittingbourne, Kent. And yes I gather there had been “issues” previously,,, Bloody things will need felling in a year or two

Agreed, I was really surprised by their attitude: apparently could not care less how long I took, what I did or did not do. On my way down I offered to remove smaller branches that were almost touching the wires and they said only if you want to. But they were clearly going to cause a short out imminently. Weird. The trouble is the customer wanted as much left on as possible. Rubbish job from start to finish. Very glad to leave. A

And finally, on Tuesday 21st May, UK Power Networks got around to turning off the power for an hour or so,,, They also had a bloke in a MEWP who earthed it, just in case,,,, Thanks for all your advice Andrew

Just been looking at local council TPO notification for a property I have been asked to work on and although it states "No TPO's listed", there is something nearby about a TCA but I cannot find it written in full. Can anyone enlighten? Andrew

Which model do you have? I have just bought a 2nd hand DANequip 25SP Have you managed to sort your issue? Andrew

Finally managed to copy n paste a pic!! A

Thanks all A

Just checking,,,, Asked to reduce a line of Leylandii by my groundie. He was going to hire a MEWP. He assured me there were no targets or issues nearby. Got on site to discover a sub-station in the middle of the 100 yard line of 70ft Leylandii !!! Have worked around them leaving the trees adjacent to the sub-station alone. Uk power network are coming to turn the power off in May for an hour and are bringing a linesman to earth the cables in case of a surge (!) I have not done any power line work before: Should I have specific insurance? (can't find anything in my 3rd party policy) Should I have specific courses or kit? I have only done CS 30, 31, 38 and 39 but about to do 41. If it helps, the sub-station is on a H shaped frame, 3 large naked cables at @50-60ft high, with a grey transformer whotsit sat in the middle. Be grateful for advice, thoughts A

Cheers all. Demo was good. Liked the design and layout. Everything easy to get to for servicing etc. The 2016 demo with 6 hrs registered did had quite a lot of roller wear?? My only other worry is that it is maybe a touch too small (155mm infeed and 24bhp). Still dithering,,,

? Ta muchly

Sorry to show my ignorance but what's a "gypsy stick"?

Demo today of a TP 155. Anyone got any experience good/bad? Cheers Andrew

Thank you (all) for your advice and apologies for tardiness in my acknowledgement. Went for an off-the-shelf registration in the end which was a) much easier than companies house and b) cheaper ??!!