Profitability of buying a bucket truck

[Altissimus]

.....I have had some of them come back after .... When that happens I can only chalk it to keeping my quality high ...

 

[cory]

Yup, same here. The bastids

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

I followed up with a customer that went with the cheaper bid for taking down a big, hollow hemlock near their house. The guy didn't hit the house, and didn't hit anything important, but it didn't go as planned. They said next time they'll save up a little more and call me. For a hazard tree like that, I would let someone pay me over time, if need be. They were going to do all the clean-up, as in the past.

 

[MasterBlaster]

You get what you pay for... most of the time.

 

[Cobleskill]

Most of the time is it. There seems to be rapists and butchers in most fields.

 

[Altissimus]

.... Hacks ..... They gotta work too I guess

 

[cory]

Ha ha, true!

 

[802climber]

Yeah, I climbed for a guy in a metro area and we finished plenty of hack's jobs. Most of those customers probably wouldn't have pulled the trigger had it not been for the low initial price from the hack.

 

[802climber]

What is your access like? Trees like?

Access can be fairly crappy around here, but I swear I have had so many perfect bucket jobs slip through my fingers lately.

It is also a must-have for municipal / highway pruning work. And dead tree removals, etc.

802, is it your company?

Yes.

 

[cory]

You are young, buy one now, get it helping you early in your career. Sure they can be expensive but how else are you going to crank out the work??

Re costly machinery, Ive mentioned this before but maybe it will be meaningful here too; the owner of Mayer Tree in Mass. has several large cranes, he has a mind-blowing operation imo. He says tree guys often ask him how the heck he can afford these very expensive mega machines to do tree work, and he tells them that these cranes are so unbelievably productive that he couldn't possibly afford not to have them.

The same can be said of a good bucket

 

[Tucker943]

Early in business sure is the time to make the money and pave ones future. It seems so many tree guy that influenced me wasted the first 2 decades. Not all of them. But the ones that did are too far behind the 8 ball to make it to their grave in good shape financially.

 

[stig]

Seems to be the fate of many tree guys.
They rely on youth and strenght to make money, and when they get older and that is gone, so is the ability to make money.
Getting towards that point myself, I'm happy that I have set up a busines in such a way, that I can switch from grunt labor to doing more paper work/estimating when I can't keep up with the youngsters any more.

I'm still not over my flu, so I have kept out of the big trees and futz around logging the smaller stuff, which is easier on the body, while the youngsters kill the big trees and have fun doing that.

 

[Mick!]

Hmmm, lot of stuff to think about in this thread.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

at some point I'll start a thread about transitioning from doing work to simply orchestrating it and letting someone else do the climbing. That's part of my concept in my bus a big enough client base to hire a climber and move to operating machines and running a pen as well as Consulting. We'll see.

 

[sotc]

I'm not digging the pen. I charge quite a bit and still can't get motivated to sit at the computer :/ I write pretty decent reports but it doesn't come easy to me, rather swing a maul. Peasant syndrome, must be in my blood

 

[cory]

rather swing a maul. Peasant syndrome, must be in my blood

Holy chit, didn't know there was such a condition but, I've got a malignant case of it. Deep rooted.

 

[Mick!]

I'm not digging the pen. I charge quite a bit and still can't get motivated to sit at the computer :/ I write pretty decent reports but it doesn't come easy to me, rather swing a maul. Peasant syndrome, must be in my blood

Willy, I do believe you're being disingenuous!

 

[sotc]

Nope, I struggle with it for shore.
On another note, new bucket is broke down again waiting on an alternator. Won't be back up till Tuesday but we won't miss a beat because old faithful will ride again!

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Its good to have back-up.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Damn straight!

One is nothing, two is one.

 

[stig]

Except for boys.

This old guy I worked for in Idaho had some boys helping him out.
He'd always say: one boy is a boy, two boys is half a boy and three boys is no boy at all.

 

[sotc]

Yeah, heard that before. Now I see it happening!

 

[802climber]

Yep, good point, also I have already learned that paying people well does not seem to make them work any harder.

 

[802climber]

There's no question whatsoever that a bucket is a money maker. Wraptors are a great tool. But they make you go up. I can set up some sweet rigging with a bucket in a matter of moments. It's not so much about going up, but about moving every which way effortlessly and accessing even the trickiest parts of the tree in seconds.

Well put.

 

[cory]

Yep, good point, also I have already learned that paying people well does not seem to make them work any harder.

Yup.