Davey Buys Care of Trees?

[BarkingMad]

I heard a rumor, but don't necessarily buy it. Anyone confirm / shoot it down?

 

[BarkingMad]

If it's true, I think it's a massive event in the industry. I'm former TCOT, and wonder what the shakeout / blend will look like. They're very different sorts of tree care companies. My sympathy goes to all the TCOT folks out there. Even if it goes fairly smoothly, change can be disturbing or even scary. Interesting times aren't necessarily fun.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

There is a big thread on da'buzz where Norm Hall and a Davey employee both sat they are "talking" which they have probably been doing for years.

 

[Mark Currie]

As a former TCOT employee, I'm kind of curious about this as well. I just emailed my old crew leader, to see if he's heard anything. He's always up on the gossip.

Hey BarkingMad, I see you're in the Philly area. Is that where you worked for TCOT? I was there for a week or two, in King of Prussia. My roommate and I were on loan from the Dulles, VA office. That would have been in the summer of 2005 I think.

 

[BarkingMad]

MC, I worked out of the Gaithersburg office for most of 10 years. The name's Joseph. I left TCOT in Sept. '02. I've followed the company's progress since I left because they lead the industry in many of the best ways and because I still held stock. I think I was the first to leave of a whole slew of folks at the end of '02 and into '03.

 

[Mark Currie]

That's cool. Gaithersburg had some cool people as well. You'd know Jim Benkelman then, at Dulles. I was on his crew when I was there. I learned a ton from that guy. A pretty good group of guys down there (the ones that are left anyway).

 

[Job Corps Tree]

Davey Buyes Care of trees

I do hope not, having worked for both I for one would not want to see Davey buy TCOT. I worked with John Hendricson long time ago back when it was Hendricson Tree Experts and got my start with John's older brother Bob Hendricson. I know that TCOT has been employe owend sence 87 or so but I thought they were far better than that big co. with the green and yellow name.

 

[Mark Currie]

Employee owned, yes, but John H owns like 70% of the company and word has it that he's looking to cash out. Any sort of vote will be pointless.

 

[Job Corps Tree]

Davey buys TCOT

I did not know that John h still had that much interest in TCOT. I was out in just a few months, went back to Rw H. Just long to realize that employee owned did not mean much less you had been there a long time. I an with ACRTinc we are employee owned, but it is a far better setup for the working stiff

 

[Mark Currie]

Might not be that much, but that's the number I heard. I do know that as the other owners/employees have tried to buy his interest out in the past, but that's about all I know.

I liked working there though. Hopefully a buyout doesn't change much on a district level.

I'm wondering how different Davey USA and Davey Canada are from each other. A guy from school went out to Alberta to work with Davey (been there for 3 years now I guess) and a crew leader in the Toronto area contacted me a while back, letting me know that they're looking for a climber or two.

 

[Job Corps Tree]

Davey buys TCOT

When I worked for Davey just up the road from the TCOT shop on Foster in IL. Davey was just a Budget outfit for the North Chicago Territory. Comming over from tcot it was bad. Still I stayed for 2 Years

 

[AxeKnot]

MC, I worked out of the Gaithersburg office for most of 10 years. The name's Joseph. I left TCOT in Sept. '02. I've followed the company's progress since I left because they lead the industry in many of the best ways and because I still held stock. I think I was the first to leave of a whole slew of folks at the end of '02 and into '03.

BarkingMad,

I was at the Alex, VA office in 01/02, do you remember doing some big crane removals up near DC Zoo right next to the Metro maybe early 02? We did some work with you guys up in DC or over in Maryland a few times but I cant remember wether it was for the Dulles office or you guys? Do these names ring any bells, Todd Nedorostek, Dave Booth, Jim Benkelman, James Powell, Sasha Kryvonos, I remember some guy from Maryland use to come in with a huge log truck and take away all the heavy timber for you guys and the Dulles office. Anyway, hope your doing good now. Just remembered - was there a climbing female crew leader in Gaithersburg office?

tCoT were a great company to work for when I was with them, I suppose part of the reason they made it big was because they would buy well established tree care companies and assimilate them into their 'way'. Which seemed to be a pretty good way to me.

Hopefully they wont be assimilated into the Davey 'way'

 

[Mark Currie]

I know it was for BarkingMad, but Dave and Jim are both out of the Dulles office. James was out of Alexandria I think.

Female crew leader would have been Melissa. She left last year though.

 

[BRCCArborist]

Is James Doyle still the manager at Dulles?

 

[Mark Currie]

Nope, he ended up going to the Alexandria office then left the company on an indefinite leave or something like that. He was still there when I left (which is one of the reasons I decided to leave when I did) though. I forget the guy's name that's in Dulles now. I met him while I was down on vacation in September. Seems pretty nice. Everyone seems to like him.

 

[BarkingMad]

AxeKnot, I don't remember the exact jobs, but DC in the neighborhood of the zoo was my territory. Benk was the regional go to guy for challenging take downs, especially where a crane was key. His crew worked super smoothly with the crane operator.
Where are you now? Your handle puts you in the U.K. I think. I have family courtesy of my wife in Salisbury now and get over there fairly often.
...and TCOT was at about it's peak in that district at that time, in my opinion. Which is not to say that my leaving contributed materially to its decline. It just seemed to be firing on all cylinders ...until it blew a seal.

 

[AxeKnot]

AxeKnot, I don't remember the exact jobs, but DC in the neighborhood of the zoo was my territory. Benk was the regional go to guy for challenging take downs, especially where a crane was key. His crew worked super smoothly with the crane operator.
Where are you now? Your handle puts you in the U.K. I think. I have family courtesy of my wife in Salisbury now and get over there fairly often.
...and TCOT was at about it's peak in that district at that time, in my opinion. Which is not to say that my leaving contributed materially to its decline. It just seemed to be firing on all cylinders ...until it blew a seal.

I'm in Scotland. PM me if your ever over and want to see the Highlands, Edinburgh Castle and the Loch Ness Monster.

I remember one arborist/saleman from Dulles who shall remain nameless who made a very tidy profit from the work going on in DC at that time. Were you on the Russian Embassy job where we got our log truck jammed up against the fence of the Embassy and ended up having to drive it out of there with half the fence attached to the truck with the KGB and diplomat's kids looking on in amazement and horror? ha ha, they thought we were CIA trying to create a diversion, lol.

One of our spray rig guys accidently drove into the Pentagon and was immediatly surrounded by armed guards and thrown out his truck onto the ground pleading for his life. Ha ha. What a great place to work DC is. Always something happening.

Benk and Booth were good instructors, Booth used to visit the satellite office of Alex. and train us neanderthals in the art of rigging. What about the Rip Tompkin's Training day? remember that one?

Carlos Rodriguez? ever heard of him? El Salvadorian climber in Alex. office, great guy.

 

[Mark Currie]

I had the honour of being on Benkelman's crew for the year I was in Dulles. I think it was his way of complimenting me one day when he told someone that I was, "too stupid to be scared." haha.. that was while I was setting up the speed climb course at the mid-Atlantic comp. in 2006. Pretty sure it was in 2006 anyway.

I learned everything (which is limited) I know from that guy. Was just emailing back and forth with him about this whole Davey Tree thing last night.

 

[BarkingMad]

My regards to Mr. Jim. And back to the lead topic of the thread, I feel sympathy for the TCOT folks who've CHANGE coming at them, I'm afraid.