That's the bit I hate. Absolutely no incentive to get things done even a little bit quicker.
That's why I won't do hourly/daily rate. I don't want to be in a position of feeling unmotivated or resentful while working. There's a real reluctance to pay contract climbers more than the going rate, despite there being a huge difference in the amount of work different climbers will get done in a day. Tree work isn't done by the hour when quoting because jobs vary in complexity and risk. Also, because different companies have different amounts of equipment. A company with their own crane, large capacity chipper, mini etc is obviously going to get a lot more work done in an hour than a guy with a ute and a couple saws, and charge a correspondingly much higher effective rate per hour, but may still be able to get the job done for less money.
Some contract climbers will turn up a little late, have a cup of coffee, get gear out, maybe have only a couple tired old saws, limited rigging and ropes. They might enter the tree by recrotching in the way up, rig small and be a slow climber. Plenty of staff climbers are like that, and thats the rate they can get work done at day in day out day after day.
I generally turn up at least 15 min before the job starts, with a dozen sharp saws fueled ready to go, loads of rigging and ropes, friction drum, pulleys, wraptor, and all the odds and ends plenty of throwlines, big shot, arbor trolley, wedges etc etc... I'll usually have my rope and rigging set before the crew arrives when contracting and be in the tree ready to work when they arrive. I climb fast and rig as large as is effective, and can generally get a days work done by about 10:00-10:30 which translates to about a $3k job, and I charge about $500 for a job that size. I can usually get a $5k job done by lunch time and will charge about $650 for that. Most contractors are happy enough to pay when they see how quick the work gets done. I'm happy to keep going and crank out 2-3 jobs in a day, with each of the jobs being about a days work, but I'll charge 2-3 days climbing rate for it also.
Did 3 jobs for a guy yesterday and it was a long day, 12 hours in trees. All up was maybe 80-100 cubes of mulch at 3 sites, and the trees were large and technical. First 2 jobs were over power and houses, last one was 100' euc that had fallen onto other trees and needed to be climbed and pieced out. Was probably somewhere on the order of a $10k-$12k for the principal contractor. I was completely exhausted by days end, but he didn't flinch when I billed him $1100 for the day.
I've had a couple guys complain, after turning up and smashing out a huge job for them in 3 hours and bill out a day at $500-$600. They usually say something like "how can you charge that, that's a day rate and you were there for only 3 hours!". I just tell it to them straight, that it was a days work and I'm billing a day for it. They usually call back some months later in need of a climber for a big technical job after they get sick of guys that turn up with no gear and take all day to get easy jobs done.
