wright tree

[thattreeguy]

so
rumor has it davey lost the contract here
and wright is supposed to now have it
on their web page they were hiring 3 foremen for here
davey hasnt left, but their equip is at the old mill and not in their rented yard
i see davey crews actually aggressively trimming here now, like someone told them to actually use a chainsaw
ive only seen 1 wright truck on the road passing by with an enclosed trailer
anyone in the loop or know whats happening up here with all this
and any info on wright...good bad...ugly?

im just curious because davey has screwed up so many of my trees, and left brush all over the damn place before now

and i hear the hazzard trees are going out to bid for pgand e

not that i want it, or have the men for it, but its a market i watch closely

 

[SkwerI]

They showed up around here a couple years ago. Same guys, same job, different name on the truck. The name on the garbage collection trucks changed as well, now it's called 'Veolia'.

 

[Fiddler]

Normally Wright will come in with a GF and a couple foremen and hire locally for the rest of the crews. Like Brian said several of the same guys will end up working the lines they live near for whatever company has the contract. Don't know about out there but up here the utilities keep their own records on all tree trimmers who work on their lines so the bad ones get weeded out eventually or moved to another area.

 

[treesmith]

Back when I worked with Asplundh, one reason I quit was they sent me and my crew to a community 30 miles away, while having another crew work areas near me, with their foreman driving a long way. Plain stupid, when you could assign crews/foremen to areas nearest their homes. Why should the workers eat the gas cost when the company's cost is gonna be the same, regardless?

Now there's a new outfit in the area (I say new, they've been around a few years now) called Burford Tree. A friend of mine whom I used to work with is a supervisor/foreman. He called me a few years back and asked me if I wanted to hire on as a foreman running a crew. I told him flat out I had been my own boss too long...no way I could go back to working for someone else. I think starting pay was $13.50/hour + some benefits. At least they pay a little better than they used to.

A friend of mine works for Alabama Power...he told me about a tap he found that the tree crew just skipped. (No Giraffe access, no bucket access). He got hold of the foreman of the trimming crew about it. He told my friend he didn't have anyone who could climb and their equipment couldn't access it, so they just skipped it. And they call themselves Asplundh Tree E-X-P-E-R-T-S.....

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ha. I hated the travel part, too. Once the local contract is played out, they move their Asplundh asses on to the next gig. It wasn't bad at first...

 

[Fiddler]

I moved 3 times in 2 1/2 years working for Wright.

 

[cory]

Asplunk is working in my town now doing some larger removals, they look like they are doing a decent job. They have a forestry bucket, I think it's a 75'er.They aren't removals by wires, but they are next to the road. What I found interesting was they have a big gnarly looking 10 wheel plus pusher axle log truck. It's an old Sterling. No pics I've never seen them with a log truck before, seems too efficient??

 

[treesmith]

Back when I worked for them, it was a permanent thing. You might move to another town/county, but it was generally within a 30-mile radius. The power company division headquarters was in Tuscaloosa, and they were over the whole region. Since I quit, they've changed up their whole operation. No longer manual crews and bucket crews, but what they call units...one big crew with a supervisory foreman, two or three foremen under him, and a handful of workers. Usually 2 or 3 buckets, a manual truck or two, a couple of Jarraffs, a bushhog or two and a grapple truck. They use whatever equipment they need at the time and leave the rest parked. Seems a waste to me.

 

[thattreeguy]

well they are moving a lot of equipment in to town now, and are all holed up at the red lion hotel

 

[treesandsurf]

Wright tree Wrong Place hahaha

jp

 

[treesandsurf]

I can see the humboldt protesters with signs!

jp

 

[MasterBlaster]

I remember driving a bucket down south after a hurricane. A lotta roofers and people selling generators and chainsaws passed me the entire time. At one point I ran across a fleet of Bloom trucks - three guys to a truck. One white fellow and two messycans per truck... that surprised me. I never saw them before...

 

[thattreeguy]

yer funny J P

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Made me laugh
I could just picture the scene...

 

[gf beranek]

Dave, Utility Tree had the contract in your parts when I started on with Sohner in 69. In 82 Davey grabbed the contracts from all the north bay districts. It was a major event that affected every line clearance worker from the Bay Area north.

On the outside the native crews stayed, just different trucks and pay checks. On the inside it wasn't any improvement for the craft at all. It was actually the beginning of the end for them.

 

[thattreeguy]

strangely the davey guys have been doing the best work ive seen them do yet

 

[OTGBOSTON]

when I started on with Sohner in 69.

DERAIL ALERT... I met Robert Phillips last month at our trade show in Boston. Cool guy with lots of great stories. He had nothing but nice things to say about you Mr. B

 

[thattreeguy]

i met robert in the early 90's great guy....his dad is a consulting arborist in willits ca.....he's super cool as well...even organizes a greatful dead family type music fest at his ranch each year