Running multible crews

[HappyTreesLLC]

I am running tree service since 2003.
In 2005 the Happy Trees LLC is established as legal entity.
In 2008 June - August tried to run 3 crews. It was DISASTER. Lost control of people. Lost $40k. Quality of work went south. I had more OOPSs in 3 months then in all previous years, combined.

So I am seeking from you input, suggestions, critics. Any input, especially negative is appreciated.
Do you run multiple crews? Share your experience.

 

[treecutterjr]

I've been debating trying to start a 2nd crew but the key is quality. In tree work (in my opinion) most of the reallygood guys that you could trust to run a crew and not take short cuts decide to go out on their own and start their own thing. The guys that are left are leftover for a reason. It's hard to find quality, COMPETENT employees. I have to baby sit my guys as it is. So I could just imagine letting them run loose on a separate crew.

I have thought of maybe having a separate clean up/ chipper crew. Maybe you and the climbers hit the more technical things, get the tree on the ground and then head to the next one and let the chipper crew come behind and clean up.
I don't know.
In my experience ive had very little luck with finding "really good guys" , but it does happen. There are alot of big companies out here with up to 10 different crews running around and they seem to make it work.



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[imagineero]

You can run a second crew, but you need a good climber/foreman to run it and he isn't going to come cheap because if he's any good he's going to be basically doing as much work as he would to run his own company. Not easy to find guys like that.

The second options is the split crew as suggested above and I've seen it done successfully before. It depends on the kind of work you do, but if it's a lot of small to medium stuff and trims then you can smash out a huge amount of work in a day by splitting the crew. Climber and one or two groundies goes ahead and dumps stuff, docks it up ready to chip but doesn't drag or stack. Cleanup crew follows. You can crank out 5-7 jobs a day like this and make good money, and the cleanup crew doesn't need to have anyone particularly skilled. It leads to a very divided crew though, and you get a real high turnover of guys on the cleanup crew. I'm looking at going this way after watching some of my buddies doing it. Saves buying a whole second truck and chipper, saws, climbing gear etc too, but gets just as much work done as running a second crew.

 

[BuckmasterStumpGrinding]

You might consider subbing out cleanup. If someone else's name is on the line they will probably do a better job.

 

[sac-climber]

At that point (3+ crews) you need to remove yourself completely or severely limit your time working with a crew. That may already be the case for you, idk. Spend time doing estimates, going from site to site making sure your standards are being met, and making sure that clients are happy. Make sure your crews are happy; and that they don't know when you might just pop in to see how things are going. Let your employees know how much is riding on their hard work. People need to feel that they are irreplaceable and a key part of your operation. Get them invested in you and your company. There doesn't have to be high turnover in this industry. The leap from one to two crews is big, two to three is huge. Adding a crew is one of the most stressful decisions in this business. Huge risk and huge expense but potentially a huge payoff if you're poised correctly.

Just my 2 cents. Best of luck!

 

[catbuster]

I know this is an old thread. But if it comes up in a search I feel like this may be worthwhile.

Anyway, I'm a foreman for a separate crew. My crew is better than the main one... Haha. But we take pride in that. If you're going to hire a guy to be a foreman, you need to give him autonomy. He/she needs to be able to decide on their own equipment, and they also must be able to have the ability to make their own hiring decisions. Otherwise you're setting them up to fail. Two foremen, no matter how similar they appear will have different approaches to jobs. My crew tends to approach things radically different in comparison to the other crew.

 

[HappyTreesLLC]

I believe this topic will be alive forever.

 

[rtsims]

I believe this topic will be alive forever.

Are you running a second crew now?

 

[Gypo Logger]

I think it's much better to, 'Stay Small and Keep it All.'
John