Ideal crew sizes

[trevmcrev]

I started this in the business management section but thought i might get more opinions here, so.....

What is the ideal crew size????????

Ok i know there are so many variables to this question. I'm just trying to get some feedback from others experience as to the ideal crew size & combination.
2 people-1 climber, 1 groundie
2 people-2 climbers sharing duties
3 people-1 climber, 2 groundies
3 people-2 climbers, 1 groundie
4 people...........
etc etc etc....
My question is in terms of productivity, profitability, flexibility,team morale...
At present we run 1 truck & bc1800 vermeer chipper & 1 pick up towing 2 stumpgrinders. I have 2 climbers, 1 groundie/truck driver, 1 groundie/stumper.

Any thoughts please.
Trev

 

[beowulf343]

as you said, there are a lot of variables.
i do mostly takedowns and have found that a three person crew-one
climber and two groundies-works well. i do however like to make sure
that one of my groundies can also climb, just in case.
this outfit configuration does require a good climber though. i have
worked with some climbers that can barely keep one groundy busy.

 

[BigJohn]

Two english speaking individuals the rest is gravy. 3 is good 4 even better=1 cliimber,1 wanna be climber, and 2 ground men

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

It all depends on the size of job,I like three men on average

 

[treeminator]

3 works for me.
1 climber/stump grinder
2 groundies

climber goes up, drops branches and then drops the tree. meanwhile the groundis are slicin' and dicin' and hauling it away. when the climber comes down, he gets the stump grinder. pay is $8/hr ... $10/hr if they are self-sufficient and use their own truck/cars.

 

[TreeLady]

We are working most jobs with 1 foreman, (an arborist, can do bucket work and climb, ground work, stumps, phc treatments, talk to customers and do bids for neighbors) 1 arborist/climber, and 1 ground guy (basically hauls and rakes - no saws). Most of our work is pruning in very nice areas, I think it would have to be totally different if we were doing alot of removals.

I like BigJohn's idea of a wannabe climber, we will have to look into that.

 

[treeminator]

hey everyone,
do you guys find it a necessity to have multiple workers purely for the socializing aspect... as in less boredom and higher employee retention???

i have the hardest time keeping stump grinders because they complain it's a boring job.

 

[Freakingstang]

hey everyone,
do you guys find it a necessity to have multiple workers purely for the socializing aspect... as in less boredom and higher employee retention???

i have the hardest time keeping stump grinders because they complain it's a boring job.

Maybe it has to do with paying them 8 bucks an hour and handing them a crapsman 40cc saw. You'd let someone drive their rusted out 77 F-150 to jobsite? WOW!

When I was a groundsman back in 96-99 I made like $10.50 an hour. That was almost 10 years ago. First two years were summer jobs during high school.

We had two crews of three guys, one climber, one saw groundsman and one non-saw-using groundsman per crew. There was one foreman that was split between the crews. He climbed, fell, bucked,etc

 

[jkrueger]

3 works for me.
1 climber/stump grinder
2 groundies

climber goes up, drops branches and then drops the tree. meanwhile the groundis are slicin' and dicin' and hauling it away. when the climber comes down, he gets the stump grinder. pay is $8/hr ... $10/hr if they are self-sufficient and use their own truck/cars.

The pay you offer isn't for being in an important professional biz.

 

[TreeLady]

pay is $8/hr ... $10/hr

I can only imagine the quality of your workforce and service.
Where's clearence? Up in a tree? When he reads that...opcorn:
--He ripped me a new one on another thread for starting guys out raking at $12/hr (no saw).

 

[xtremetrees]

Tree lady you will make a forutne planting trees they will talk for years to come about it..

 

[trevmcrev]

hey everyone,
do you guys find it a necessity to have multiple workers purely for the socializing aspect... as in less boredom and higher employee retention???

i have the hardest time keeping stump grinders because they complain it's a boring job.

Its a matter of finding the right personality for it. My last stump guy was with me for three years. He was a quite guy that kept to him self so it suited him to be more or less on his own, working one step behind the tree crew.

Keep the input coming, thanks evryone so far.

Trev

 

[BigJohn]

Having a wanna be climber is nice to have on the crew for the tree where have just one stub to go after or you have alot of time on job or those pine trees I keep saying I am gonna refuse to climb. It's nice to have an extra man up in a tree sometimes for just deadwooding. One ground should be able to keep up with just deadwood and helps you out and gives you a little break instead of having to do alot of ups and downs chasing your tail to do both sides of the tree.

 

[PTS]

I like 3 guys, trims is two climbers and one ground and on removals one climb and two ground. The same can be said with the bucket truck, One operator to two groundsman. I will on occasion put four guys on one crew if there is a long distance to traverse the debris or if it is a large roping project. One guy doesn't really get anything done but holding the end of a rope so 4 can be good for that too.

 

[clearance]

I can only imagine the quality of your workforce and service.
Where's clearence? Up in a tree? When he reads that...opcorn:
--He ripped me a new one on another thread for starting guys out raking at $12/hr (no saw).

I thought you said you started groundsmen at $9 anyways this guy (treetard)is a troll just wasting our time, I sure hope he isn't for real, cant be, doesnt know the first thing. I think 3 is best for most things, many times it was only me and another guy killing ourselves. Now at my job there are 3 climbers and 1 groundsman all he does is coil ropes and pack gas, get branches of ropes etc. no chipper no cleanup out in the bush away from all the BS.

 

[Tree Machine]

Just me on a solo job
Two men on a two-man job
three men on a three man job.




One time I had a woodlot cleanup and we were allowed to have bonfires. I called up one of my Mexican guys and asked him to bring a friend. I had a friend, also. We were gonna be 4 guys over two days.

Octavio shows up with 3 other dudes, and I was thrilled. We knocked it out in a little over a day and a half. It would have taken the 4 of us probably three days and we'd a been sick of it by then. Instead, we cooked over the fire for lunch and we had four major bonfires. Excellent!!!:greenchainsaw:


This was the appropriate 6 men for a 4 -man job.

 

[Stumper]

1

 

[Tree Machine]

Yea, 1 has a lot of advantages.

 

[lxt]

MMmmm. I like a 3 man crew, but where Im from grasscutters, handymen & their grandmas do tree work, atleast they advertise such. A guy I know has a 6 man crew(can you say illegal immigrants) notta 1, well ok 1 of them speaks english, but not good!! he pay`s all 6 $150 a day. So due to the fact our GOVT. is thinkin about lettin the 11 million work here I guess we should all grab a few & work em fer nothin!! big business does & complains they`ll go under if hosay & habib are deported!!! Heres americas downfall!!! Cheap non skilled illegal labor!!! In the words of one Ted Nudgent If you cant speak the language get the f*&? outta our country.........................

A bitter LXT....................................

 

[Tree Machine]

You need a hug, lxt?