# Asplundh visit



## treeman82 (Oct 18, 2002)

A VP from Asplundh Tree Expert Co came to one of my classes the other day to speak with us about what he does. The guy is in charge of what goes on for the company in Mass and in RI. The facts that this man was putting out there were amazing. This is what I found out.

*Asplundh is self insured with a $1,000,000.00 deductable.
*Asplundh has approximately 30,000 employees and hires approximately 30,000 employees each year.
*Asplundh has the largest fleet of vehicles in the world, next to the government (bucket trucks / chippers / pickups / trailers / etc) which consists of 30,000 pieces of equipment.
*Asplundh purchases 2,000 bucket trucks per year just so that they can retire them 10 years later.
*They take care of the people who are general managers or better, the climbers and ground men on the other hand are not taken care of.
*Asplundh used to have their own GMC dealership, Ford dealership, and a whole bunch of other things. They used to make their own bucket trucks and chippers, but got out of those businesses because of liability. Sold to altec and terelift? Now they go and buy old Asplundh buckets at auctions and cut them up. Cheaper to cut them up than to pay out a $10,000,000.00 law suit because somebody wasn't maintaining the equipment.
*Asplundh has a "good" safety record, they lose about 7 people a year (lose = people die). 

There was a lot of other stuff mentioned as he spoke with us for about 3 hrs. I just thought it might be interesting to share some of the info.


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## sonny (Oct 18, 2002)

This is my reply & only my oppinion !
Self insured well %^&* yes I f i only had a million to deposit. Only if they had to pay for insurance from wages.
30,000 employees 30,000 hires Big turn around.
They were the largest GMC truck dealer in the U.S at one time.
Alls I have to say I use to hate them everytime I bought a truck thak had there name on the mud flaps or whatever that was the first thing to go.Ahhhh never mind more power to them . If they want to do tree work for 1980 prices go for it.


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## Nickrosis (Oct 19, 2002)

I believe when Matt told me about Asplundh on the phone, he said they hire 3,000 annually and have 30,000 employees.

Nickrosis


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## spreaderman (Oct 19, 2002)

*largest fleet ?*

I wouldn't think that they would have the largest fleet of vehicles though ....UPS would be tough to beat in that league counting big trucks, vans, and trailors not to mention planes


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## Nickrosis (Oct 19, 2002)

I just searched for "largest fleet in the world" and the result is........the Spanish Armada!

I'm not able to find any other info on the web to confirm or deny that, but I would recommend looking at the Asplundh website.

www.asplundh.com (duh!)  

Nickrosis


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## John Paul Sanborn (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm just looking for their hospitality suite:jester:


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## treeman82 (Oct 19, 2002)

Actually Nick, I believe I did say 30,000 employees and 30,000 new hires. Don said that they have an unbelievable turn over rate. Erik, Don got a bunch of phone calls during the 3 hour session and had to take off early. It was a very enlightening session with him and I feel that I learned a good amount about line clearance. Also apparently back in the 70's or 80's Asplundh had the largest fleet of aircraft in the world, next to the government. That was due to the fact that they were spraying a good chunk of their ROW's with aircraft.


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## xander9727 (Oct 19, 2002)

> _Originally posted by treeman82 _
> *Actually Nick, I believe I did say 30,000 employees and 30,000 new hires. Don said that they have an unbelievable turn over rate. . *


I am inclined to believe they hire and fire 30k employees per year. Think about it for a second. How many groudies quit in the first two weeks (usally after two consecutive hot or really arduous day). If they have 5 people per crew and they go through 6 groudies in year that crew would have a 120% turn over even though only 20% of the positions changed. With these turn over numbers it's no wonder that they have some hacks in the group. Once again this is my opinion and I don't have hard facts to substantiate my claims.


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## Tim Gardner (Oct 19, 2002)

I believe that Asplundh has a high turn over rate. The last time I spoke to an Asplundh employee they said $8.00/hr. Around here a groundie will start @ $100.00/day. But from what I have seen Asplundh groundies have it pretty darn easy compared to Tree Services. It is not that hard to drag small branches to a chipper. 

We have hired a few of thier climbers before and they were very safe on hooks.


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## Reed (Oct 19, 2002)

Lost. 




I believe Evergreen has the largest forestry fleet of aircraft, including balloons. In 1978, while I was in the LoLo National Forest a DC-3 piloted by a USFS bushwacker named Whitey Hackmeister crashed into the Selway River canyon, killing I think 14 smokejumpers. It was directly overhead and compressed into the canyon 1/4 mile upriver - the fuselage went underwater and lodged under some basalt rock. We spotted bodies for days and no vehicles could access - all mule or on foot. EverGreen flew the missions in a Chinook to attempt a cable extraction of the pieces but the current was too swift. They got the midsection and five guys still were seatbelted in. It was very sad and tragic.

Whitey's daughter is still in the FS, in Montana. He was a well known and trusted pilot and she's a babe, bar none. 

If you dig a bit into the bookwork, you'll find Evergreen is owned by the Central Intelligence Agency - known as the world's largest owner of small aviation charter outfits.


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## WillyStDruid (Oct 21, 2002)

My dad has been a foreman for Asplundh on and off now for over twenty years in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. I say on and off because he's in with the IBEW union and when Asplundh loses a contract, he would change hats and work for whoever won the contract, Wright, Nelson, etc... As far as a company to work for they're okay, through the union they receive health and dental benefits and a pension. He makes around 20/hour with them plus benefits. He's had the opportunity many times for promotion but has passed it up. He says above a foreman you get into some major ass kissing and politics. Latest news on Asplundh is that they just bought out Nelson Tree Service, the second largest utility trimming company. They are the largest, Nelson second, Wright or Davey third. Smell a monopoly? They have a huge rate of turn over, low pay scales, and the work to me is stressful and boring. I'd rather run a private tree service than spend 40+ hours a week trimming around high voltage power lines for miles on end and then get called out in the wee morning hours to do storm work pulling trees and broken limbs off of power lines.

-Willy


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## NeTree (Oct 21, 2002)

HAHA

Me too Willy, which is why I do it on my own now, too. I remember getting sent to Canada after an ice-storm ripped down just about every power line Quebec Electric had. UH-UH, no more of that for me!


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## smokechase II (Sep 21, 2005)

Oakwilt:
Regarding your arboristsite post "In 1978, while I was in the LoLo National Forest a DC-3 piloted by a USFS bushwhacker named Whitey Hackmeister crashed into the Selway River canyon, killing I think 14 smokejumpers.”
The two pilots were jumper pilots but I don't believe there were any smokejumpers on board that flight. The passengers were district folks either headed in or out of Moose Creek. The reason both engines failed was a maintenance problem. There were two survivors. The young man in the very rear of the plane that was facing forward and a dog. The survivor said he looked forward in the aircraft after the crash into the Selway and saw that everyone else had a broken neck. Side facing seats are well known for being neck breakers.
If Whitey had been able to just clear that one last tree top, they might have all survived the water landing. I cannot recall the number of fatalities.
The two Turbine conversion DC-3's that the USFS uses for jumpers now have upright, rear facing seats. Had that set up been available then, perhaps most would have survived even that crash.


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## Husky288XP (Sep 21, 2005)

Go work for Bartlett you will be happier in the end. We question or beat the Davey Difference of Tree Care everyday. If you want scientific tree care than its either Bartlett, your own co., or lastly Davey. From the work around here Davey is a glorified Lewis. I cannot tell you how many trees I pruned and found old gaff wounds on, its that Davey Difference.

Oh I forgot The Care of Trees is another good one.


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## stehansen (Sep 22, 2005)

Asplundh's employee turn over around here is very high as they gain line clearance contracts in some places and lose them in others.


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## a_lopa (Sep 22, 2005)

you get a bad R.O.W contract thats underbid its like rats deserting a sinking ship,its fun for a little while.


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## VTclimber (Sep 22, 2005)

Used to work for Bartlett in NOVA, we had an Asplundh in the area. If the power lines were too iffy for us to do some of the work, we would specifically call Asplundh and they would come deal with it so we could prune the tree the right way when they were done. After seeing the work they do and the people who end up working for them (at least in this area) I wouldn't work for that company if they were the only ones left. No thanks.


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## diltree (Sep 22, 2005)

I respect Bartlett and the Care of Trees, they are good companies, and set a high standard for such large companies. Asplundh is horrible....the fact that they are self insured allows them to undercut medium sized companies such as our own; on municipal contracts. Their rates are absolutely horrible....someone mentioned 1980's pay rates...thats pretty accurate. I recently bid a contract for a municipal light department, aspluhdh Won the bid...they where $68 per hour for a foreman, ground man, bucket, chipper and associated tools........The must own an oil field too because there is no way I could make money at those rates when we are paying $3.00 a gallon for fuel. The good news is, we win allot of contracts as the #2, and #3 bidder, because asplundh gets fired for f-ing off, or poor workmanship.


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## daveyclimber (Sep 22, 2005)

Gee , everybody can piss and moan over how crappy these companies are , however if you had several thousand employees and the buying,selling and bidding that these guys do I know for a fact you would be hearing others piss and moan over your companies. That is just the way it is , higher the volume lower the quality


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## Ax-man (Sep 23, 2005)

Anyone ever checked out their website?? Asplundh does more than just trees, they have fingers into other kinds of work all utility related. I bet this is where they make their money and doing emergency storm work they specilize in to make up the difference for lowball line clearing prices.

I don't know if this has any merit, Howard Ekel had a series of articles in Arbor Age way back when dealing with finances on how to run your tree business.

The questioned raised was how a company could feild a crew and equipment for so little, compared to the average tree company.

He mentioned that some of these bigger tree companies that do line clearing have a set price for labor and equipment and had another totally seperate charge for depreciation on the equipment,that was billed seperate. The way I took this was it was a double bill for the utility, one for labor and the operating costs of the equipment and another for just the depreciation of those new trucks or those less than five years old. 

This is way out of my league, but found it interesting that there is more than one way to negotiate a contract. I have no way of knowing if this can even be done, but might explain a few things.

Larry


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