My area is very suburban so everything is close. I only work in the town I live in and the adjacent town. My average travel speed with the convoy is 23-25 mph and 15 or 20 minute door to door is the norm. Close range saves on appt time too which is big. We aren't real busy but things are picking up a bit with improved weather.
Gotta love this one:
I hear the call of the wild (chainsaws) a few Saturdays ago, so I hop on bicycle to check it out, turns out to be my neighbor more or less across the street; a big leader fell off a huge dead maple, landed in driveway, he was sawing it up with a POS saw, I offered to cut it up for him to be neighborly. A couple years earlier the same tree dropped a big leader on his volvo and crushed it, we cleaned up that mess and all went well.
So I spent 10 minutes cutting and we were both happy that I saved him alot of work. He cleared the driveway making brush piles and log piles. We agreed I'd send him an estimate for the tree removal; one price for crane and therefore no lawn divots, a lower price for no crane and lawn divots. A week or 2 later he brought over a box of chocolates to my wife as a thank you for the cutting; nice gesture but unnecessary. A week or 2 after that, I drive by and see the tree is now a stump. A no namer who is a fireman on the side used a crane to do it and left the place looking clean.
Business: The Ultimate Adventure.
Wouldn't ya think that he might have said to me, 'hey I got another estimate and it was lower, I'd love to use you if you can do any better'. Then the ball would be in my court and he's off the douche hook. Oh well!!