Anyone Having Trouble Finding Climbers?

[lxt]

True, but I have some good Mexicans, who are legal, speak perfect english, know lots of fancy knots and tricks who are GREAT CLIMBERS!

very rare & if true you oughtta sub em out & make a fortune? fancy knots & tricks? along with being GREAT climbers????? not sure what you mean by that other than they prolly know how to do it right(very rare) ??? I would think they`re prolly all around decent as many in this treade who have years in would tell you fancy knots are used every day along with tricks of the trade...... its just normal tree stuff!!!, the next problem is having them wear PPE & understand the A300 or minimum approach distances in regard to energized powerlines.

sad thing is the aforementioned not many tree care service owners even know..........just watch Big Bad Wood, but if you have as you say then I hope you`re paying them accordingly? good luck N Stay Safe!!!


LXT.........

 

[TreeBoi4Life]

Thats so true. Two or three weeks in the whole when you get a "job", taxed checks, 20-30 hours(so they don't have to pay benefits, etc.) unreasonably streched over 6 days, depressed employees or customers, all for what one good tree job can pay for a few miserable weeks punching a clock. Being slow hurts temporally until the headache of a back log of jobs come but it kills us or at least me to feel unappreciated helping a big company get rich when I have a trade like this one. It comes down to what's been mentioned being wise with our "Hard Earned Money" which is different everywhere you go do to our ever changing economy.

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[jefflovstrom]

very rare & if true you oughtta sub em out & make a fortune? fancy knots & tricks? along with being GREAT climbers????? not sure what you mean by that other than they prolly know how to do it right(very rare) ??? I would think they`re prolly all around decent as many in this treade who have years in would tell you fancy knots are used every day along with tricks of the trade...... its just normal tree stuff!!!, the next problem is having them wear PPE & understand the A300 or minimum approach distances in regard to energized powerlines.

sad thing is the aforementioned not many tree care service owners even know..........just watch Big Bad Wood, but if you have as you say then I hope you`re paying them accordingly? good luck N Stay Safe!!!


LXT.........

 

[jefflovstrom]

Get a good op's guy,,,,
Jeff,,

 

[treecutterjr]

I think its hard to find good help all the way around: climbers or ground guys or even anyone with half a brain. I'm 29 and nobody my age wants to do this kind of work or even anything remotely LIKE work. All the ones that will work and may know a little something are getting OLD (no offense old people) and tree work really is a young mans game (no offense old people)

If they are any good they are already taken. I second that. There are a lot of "c-" climbers that are floating around out here working a day here or a day there. Most have some kind of problem or something. Substance abuse, undependable, SOMETHING. If they are any good they are trying to do their own thing or are somewhere else.

To be honest: to get "grade A" employees you need to be a grade A company your self: offering grade A wages and grade A work place. And to offer those things you need to be making "Grade A" money & picking up A grade customers!
hard to do that though because PRICES are steadily going down and competition is steadily going up.

In 2014 and moving forward I am focusing on becoming more efficient with my business practices and focusing on getting some better "A+" equipment that allows me to eliminate my "c" team and maybe make ends meet with less: labor-wise.

that's just my opinion.

 

[imagineero]

Why does a market with steadily decreasing profits attract more competition?

Because it isn't just our industry; it's the economy as a whole. Folks who are hard up for money and need to eat and pay their rent start thinking how they can make a dollar. Layed off work, hours cut back their own business not going so well or for a hundred other reasons, people start thinking how they can make a dollar. Most industries are facing this kind of competition now.... it's bad enough for tree guys, but how do you think it is for fire wood guys, demolition guys, yard cleanup guys, lawn guys, roofing guys etc etc etc... Guys start thinking "I've got a mower" or "i've got a chainsaw" or "I've got a pickup" and how can i make some money from that. It's a beautiful thing in a way, but in another it kind of reminds you of the grapes of wrath

“You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Since I put my new ad in the phone book I have had two climbers call me looking for work. The last one is isa certified.

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[imagineero]

I've been affected by all the scenarios you have mentioned. I've seen the common labor market get flooded by those forced to leave a more specialized trade when their gravy boat got docked. Tree care is specialized, don't get me wrong. However, most of the landscape type trades tend to get lumped together with agricultural type pursuits.

There used to be a theory of business which was illustrated by pie. You could slice up the pie for four guys and divide it equally until one of them found a way to increase his share. Then when a couple of them did it, one guy got jettisoned or simply left for another pie. Employers use smoke and mirrors to convince a guy he can't have a share, though the ambitious ones see through it. As more and more guys jump on, the pie they are disputing simply falls off the table and sticks all over the floor. Now the current thinking in business is not how to get a bigger slice of the pie but rather how do we make the entire pie bigger. (Diversify.) We can weed out the pussies and the good ones will drive the technology. Sounds good on paper, except very few people want to work. And fewer people give one #u@x about trees.

That theory fell by the wayside when they realized it was pure horse ****. Start out reading Peter Drucker and see how you go.

 

[treecutterjr]

Why does a market with steadily decreasing profits attract more competition?

And the are no barriers to entry in the tree industry. If I'm sittIng around broke but I have a pick up and a chainsaw "I'm a tree man, now!"
Its good on the one hand because everyone started out that way but on the other handnce you become an established company you realize there is nothing safe gaurding our industry.

The other trades are a good example. I can't go grab a wrench And run around saying i'm a plumber or an electricianor an hv/ac contractor because then I'd need a license, and to get that I'd need to go take the test and work for some one so long, then be a journey man, then what ever comes next, then 10 years later I might become a master plumber/ electrician or whatever. In our industry and some others (lawns/roofers/some general contacting) you can just come in with LITERALLY nothing and start competing from day one.

I understand that's just part of the business and ive come to the conclusion that you must continually grow as a business in order to combat all the entry level competition that arises each year.

On the regular residential tree trimming tree removalside there are hundreds of competing tree services trying to all get the same jobs. But here for example one you step up a level to the land clearing (large scale) and recycling of material into mulch or bio fuel, there are only a handful of company's that can even do that kind of stuff. So it looks to me like that's the direction to head towards because not everyonecan follow.

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[gtrees]

When i said i have it all down i mean that i have the tools in my head to figure out what ever task i have at hand.

As far as learning. It never stops. I can go on and on.

That being said id like to get the new study guide to become CA. The one i have now is the 1992 edition thats was my fathers.
Im in now rush , im happy where im at for now.[/quote.
Are you from mt. Lebanon in pa?

 

[bobbynbray]

Same problem here in New Orleans the only way you can teach the younger generation to climb is to make it a x box game ! This is why I'm looking in to a back yard lift so it will take some of the load of me


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[ropensaddle]

The answer is instead of attempting to hire climbers for x amount per hour your bids should include contract climbing pay. Many small tree services throughout the country have slow times or are willing to take on extra work. We need to organize a cooperative for logistics to dispatch and trade rendered service. It needs legal parameters to protect the client from potential theft of advertising but it could work if its done right. Sorta a union but more like a club with clear definitions of expected performance in field operations I/E following ansi and no betrayal of client assigned area "side work" if caught immediate expel out of system etc. Contractor climbers expected to insure their own work general contractor expected to pay service rendered and may provide ground crew and insure their work as well.

 

[beastmaster]

At 59 years old, thanks to all the young climbers out there. No offence young climbers, all i have to do is get on the phone any place im at and make a few calls and im working. It's not often I meet a true professional. Lots of owner operators out there suck too. Lots of greed in this industry. I mean if you can't pay a good climber at lest 200 a day, stop complaining about nothing but tweeters and losers applying for work.
You can get 10.00 an hour at in and out burger. Why would a sharp hard working kid stay in a field where there is no future but poor pay and injurys. Where is the incentive.

 

[domonick]

They're pretty good hires down here in FL

 

[island edge]

Get a treemek it doesn't complain about previous injuries, and such, and it shows up on time.

 

[Cody Willard]

I might be an example.

About me: I am 25 years old and have been climbing since I was 17. I have a wife and kids and have a crazy stable life and strong character. I am a certified arborist and have been studying the last two years to achieve my BCMA which I'm eligible for in another year and a half. After I have passed my BCMA I will start working towards become becoming a Registered Consulting Arborist. I have done numerous technical removals with GCRS's, tri-vector, speedline, sideline, negative blocked, preservation pruning, crane assisted removals, bucket truck work, cable and bracing, etc.

I would say I have personally cared for or removed 6000-5500 trees so far.

I currently make $17.00 an hour as a lead climber/foreman and will be topped out at 18.00 once I get my BCMA. Many of my consulting skills of value go unused, as I mostly just cut stuff off trees. I am there only climber and 6 hours a day climbing is to much, we also can't find ground guys so the Company I work for has been using a staffing service like Standby Personel to give me a groundman everyday. Almost daily I have to train each new person I get how to use a chipper, how to tie a saw on the rope, where gas and oil goes in the saw, the most basic tasks I generally have been having to teach to a new person every day, only to get someone different the next day. I am a highly efficient climber compared to most, but with my perpetually ill-equipped ground men, especially when it comes to any simple rigging, my production sometimes gets cut by 50%

I did a large crane removal last week, and after we're finished the crane operator came up to me and try to get me apply to their crane company, he said I was a animal and they're looking for animals that can climb places and understand rigging loads, he said with my experience I could start out as a "third year rigging apprentice" most likely making $25.00 per hour and can work my way up in pay.

I am currently working on my application..... Now I am looking into crane work as a partial career and just doing side work on the weekends or if I get laid off.

 

[Del_]

Sounds great Cody!

I bet self employment is in your near future.

It should be.

 

[Zale]

Cody- you can do much better for yourself.

 

[Cody Willard]

Thanks guys. I plan on starting my own company in the next year or two. Of course starting out small and having spotty work the first few years I will have even more problems keeping employees compared to well established companys. But no bussiness starts easy!

I wish I could stay a "good employee" for a company forever but I have to realize I am making about as much as I ever will and though 27,000 a year is not bad, it's hard for a small family.

450 a week was easy to live off of when I was single, then I got married and things got tight, I got a raise to 500ish a week, then we adopted our son, we lost the 500 a month reimbursement we received for being foster parents so things got tight again, then we had our youngest son and I got bumped up to about 540 a week but things are still pay check to pay check and side work is needed for any suprise bills, $7000 adoption lawyer costs, Etc.

It will be rough when I have an employee like me someday that has to leave but it hits a point where your skill set exceedes your pay, also hits a point when your knowledge exceeds your job description and it goes unused, and though we are making our bills just fine, who knows what life will throw at us, and chances are, it will cost more money

 

[earlthegoat2]

You are worth way more than that down here. Inexperienced climbers (6 months to a year) will usually be able to pull 25/hr. Cost of living is not outrageous either so that is already considered.

I'm not a real climber. I only climb if I can use gaffs. So imminent removals is all I really do and that is infrequent. I am an equipment mechanic for a land clearing/development/landscaping company. I am really starting to think about becoming a real climbing arborist though. Mostly because I am so disgusted with a few of the so called tree professionals around here.