The crane was a monthly lease, came to $150 / hour, plus $20 / hour extra for operator overtime. We averaged 11 - 12 hours crane time a day, and worked the heck out of the operator.
The contract called for a hotel room and $25 day per diem. I gave him a $100 bill every day and paid for his meals as well,
(and a king size suite) at the Holiday Inn Express. at the end of the week when he went home for the short weekends, (150 miles away) I gave him 5 $100 bills.
He was a Union crane operator, and the lowest paid guy on our crew until I made the above adjustments.
Now I had a HIGHLY motivated crane operator.
We were lifting 80' - 100' tall oaks and poplars off of houses all day long, (We did over a hundred).
We also did a lot of leaners with lifted rootballs. (plus every tall tree that moved with the wind it seemed like.) we tried to talk them out of it, usually to no avail.
we moved the crane as fast as possible from job to job, I kept the jobs in the same neighborhood as long as possible.
Scars 2 proveit, your boy was gouging.
I averaged at most $2000 for a 3'-4' DBH tree on a house.
and thats why I got a $60,000 HOA job in the the most selective neighborhood. The security guards would close the streets for our crane and give references at the gate. what happened to your boy the 2nd day?
I got the call last week to go back and bid 174 acres of easement clearing for the HOA, too.
the moral; honesty pays off.
