not producing enough?

[treeman82]

ok, i got a couple of guys who i work for, i keep my stuff at their place. so one guy owns a house thats worth about a million or 2. so he wanted some trees cut. so i told him that i would put in a few days when i had some time to kill. we went there one day and cut down 14 trees, they were small, about 10 - 14 inches for most of them. however there were about 5 that were aproximatley 20 - 24 inches. we got them cut and cleaned up in 1 day. drag em into the woods. we were working that day in a somewhat forest area, and only about 4 trees had to be climbed that day, simply to put pull ropes in them. well i thought all i had to do after that was go back and grind some stumps, the owner said "matt, stop! i want more trees cut." so it has gone up to about 35 trees we are cutting. yesterday we cut down about 11. they all had to be climbed, and some were limbed out a bit, the others just pulled over. but each tree was about 24 inches in diameter. we got em down, and somewhat cleaned up, however we cleaned up today too, 1 guy, and still have another day to clean up with another guy. well i still have to cut another 6 or so i think, each of these is over something. mostly septic, however there is 2 that are over a shed and fence. so i figure i got about 2 more days of climbing, he says we arent workin fast enough. i think we have done plenty. how much do you guys usually produce? this is, no chipper, skidder, or bucket.

 

[sonny]

You must be working by the day or the hourly rate. That works out great on a emergency job. Or unless you know the customer,or he knows you. That will happen 8 ot of 10 times. the customer will never be happy with your performance. I will always remember a few yrs back, I was doing some hourly work & the inspector came out to the job to inspect I guess. But anyway I was up in a tree & he told me it was lunch time, & to come down & eat. Well I did not & Yes I did tell him what I thought. End of story . I found another job shortly. Sometimes you just have to just do the best you can, & keep your mouth shut.If this person does not think your doing enough work, Well I dont know what to say.Sounds like your doing plenty of work to me. ?????

 

[georgia]

It sounds like a tremendous amount of work to me! I have never had anyone say something like that (to my face anyway ). However, when I feel like they might say something about production I always bring up the "safety" factor. "We'll Sir, we work consistently, but cannot get into a hurry because that is when accidents happen and safety comes first here with our company." Usually shuts them up before they say anything. Or you can try the "We can always use more help if you would like to come out here we might can speed it up. This one might make them mad but if you know him, try to get him to help and watch him wither away after about an hour of throwing logs.

Somehow I keep people reminded that this is one of the hardest industries in the world (with respect to potential danger as well)

Don't let it get you down,

Steve

 

[Deere John]

From the sounds of it, you work faster than I ever did, so I figure your production is fine. Bigger trees take bigger amounts of manual energy - a limited commodity.

Here's what to tell him:

Fella, my ole' body has only got two speeds;
If you don't like this one,
Well, I'm pretty sure your not going to like the other one.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

>>he says we arent workin fast enough.

Well you could have him rent a timber snake and a chipper .

 

[treeman82]

tomorow we are gonna go back. there are still about 8 trees i think. 2 up top, that are over the shed and garden. bombing them would be askin for trouble. so most of the stuff will have to be lowered, wood we may be able to do some stuff with. then there are about 4 - 6 down by the septic. the ones by the septic, we are gonna try to pull one off of it. and another one, bomb the top and pull it off the septic fields. the other 2 or 3 will have to be pieced out. cause there are kid's play stuff there. and a fence. tomorow i will have 5 people including me there. i am doing this by the day because i know the guy, and also we have a business arangement. so the deal was that we would go there when we have some days to kill. at first i thought that 15 trees would have kept him happy. then he went last week and added about another 20. so its all time. i figure we will cut tomorow, maybe only be left with one. and then get the rest down on tuesday, clean up tuesday, get the grinder wednesday. i figure the stump grinding there is worth easily 2 - 3 grandt. because there are about 40 - 50 stumps. nothing massive, but just having to move around is time consuming enough.

 

[Treeman14]

Sounds like he's taking advantage of you. Let this be a lesson. Never begin a job without a signed contract, even if there is no money changing hands. That way, all parties involved know what is being done beforehand.

 

[Dave]

Hand him the tools and have him show you how fast you should work

 

[treeman82]

well, you guys were right. we went there today, 5 guys to cut down 4 trees. smallest was about 20 inches in diameter. 3 guys to clean up, 1 to climb, and me to supervise and help where needed. the 4 trees took us about 6 hrs. 2 were right on top of the septic, we put ropes in the tops and cut em at 20 feet tall. we cut down another one that was close to 2 feet, had to blow the tops out of that one, and pull it over with some ropes and come alongs. last one we cut we had to piece out one branch that was about 1' in diameter. the rest we pulled over. so biggest tree was 2' there were 2 like that, other 2 were 18 - 20 inches. everything was cleaned up, and the wood stacked. guy got home, and said that if you can cut and clean up 15 trees in one day, 3 guys, then you should have been able to get all these done in 1 day, 3 guys. we weeded his home one day, one person. he paid me, 1600 for all this weeks work. i wanted 2500. i was not happy. i was hoping to pay off a credit card or two with that money. i guess not. so ya know what? all my customers are gettin contracts tomorow morning. i wont leave until they are signed. i am tired of people agreeing to the price i give them, and then back out. there is one thing i have to say about this guy though. he may have not paid me 900 bucks. but, they save me at least 3,000 a year in not having to pay for storing my stuff, food, and dumping privelages. cause around here a year's pass at the dump is 1000 dollars. and yards will get around 200 a month for just one truck.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Yeh, but if you have ulcers when your 21....

I would think about a threshold for verbal agreemnets, say $200? Some times the hassle of running over to get that signature is too much. I had mine set at $500 unless I was with them at the time of the estimation, then "just sign in the circle by the number".

And I did'nt call it a contract, but a service agreement "This is not something for me to hold you too befor the work is done, but so that we both know what is to be done for how much".

Then get something to bind it, like 10%, that is refundable 2 days prior to the scheduled work date. They are less likely to hire someone else with out letting you know, and to be there if needed.

 

[Deere John]

To get rid of stuff without dump fees, or a huge pile at my shop, I put an ad in the paper in the spring advertizing free wood, usually delivered, and free mulch chips, delivered, minimum quantity one truckload.

For the wood, I would make a list of addresses, and plan the route for the day partially around the shortest distance to dump the load of wood. I had everyone sign a waiver as they were cutting the wood up and I would not be held responsible for metal et.al. in the wood.

For chips, same thing - I would plan to drive by a wanting address when the dump was full.

I never paid one cent for a tipping fee in the time I was in business - just some advertizing $$.

I kept all the hardwood clear wood, and on rain days, we ran the splitter at the shop and made pocket money for the winter's snowmobiling.