? for the old timers

[mpatch]

Has your hourly average kept up with inflation and increased costs over the years? It seems to me that everything has gotten more expensive except tree work.

 

[treemandan]

don't start... please. If I say anything they hire the illegalls. When it comes down it its just like anything else. The cheaper the better and most people look at tree work like its paving the drive; just another chore to pay for.

 

[tree md]

Absolutely not.

I have been billing the same as I have since I started working on my own in 94. Now I am having to bid 1/3 less than that to even be able to compete and work. The bottom dropped out around here in Oct. 09. Since then I have been averaging 1/3 less on my bids just to keep working. My labor has remained the same and in the grand scheme of things prices have more than doubled on fuel and most everything else since I started out.

 

[RAG66]

I have two good friends who also do trees and they are 25 & 35 yr. vets of the industry. They say the prices have not gone up in 10-15 yrs. Give or take on average a $150.00 job is still the same. I basicly will throw out the price and give my pitch and ask for the job. If they try to talk me down I warn them about an unreasonably low price, and the end result. I do not under any circumstances throw another company under the bus.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Well, I won't say, but depends on your market.
Jeff

 

[mckeetree]

I do not under any circumstances throw another company under the bus.

Ha! Several of them in my area need thrown under the bus and I'm just the man to do it.

 

[loadthestove]

It's not just the tree business that has suffered this way.I've been in my business just over twenty years .My product prices have raised very little if any yet my operating cost have tripled