Survey of how your sales are this year...

[treemandan]

70 bucks a week wow are you using horse and buggy?
I spend that in one day on a slow one I have only been filling one
tank on my mack at a time and everytime its 177.00 then the bucket
180+ then the pickups 200+ that usually is my week and I don't go
anywhere unless it is job related.

My God, Who is driving all those trucks? That's just a weeks worth?

 

[treemandan]

i was thinking the same exact thing... $70 a week this guy must be using a toyota prius. i have a ford ranger that pulls an empty 5x10 trailer for the tiny jobs and that drinks more than $70 a week.

Wait. Did you just say you were thinking?
Would anyone care to hear my gross thus far? No to brag and obviously its in relation to what I spend but if you all don't know me by now...
I promised pics, I've been busy, they are coming, I wish I had taken a lot more.

 

[thebiggreenone]

We were a bit slow for two months or so in the spring, but now that summer is in full swing we are plenty busy.

 

[Xtra]

This year started out as my slowest in over 5 years.
Now, we have steady work (2-3 weeks booked), but profits are really poor (landscapers aren't busy, so they are under-bidding tree jobs).

Most jobs are dead tree removals due to oak galls or trees that are too close to a structure and must be removed. I've only did 1 removal for a pool installation this year (usually we've done about a dozen by mid-July).

Fuel?! we travel local (within 20 miles) and our diesel is $1,800/month.

 

[(WLL)]

My gross sales are increasing every month from previous years, but fuel and labor are so high that my net is less than previous years.

I've had a lot more price shoppers from the yellow page ads and lowballers and hacks are flooding the local market , I've had to drop my prices just to get any of the work.

I'm working more and harder, but making less proportionally.


Increasingly, the people around here aren't concerned with quality of work or even insurance, it's more about the bottom line low price.

x2

 

[ropensaddle]

My God, Who is driving all those trucks? That's just a weeks worth?

Me I am 20 miles from anything so it costs and try to bid jobs in between!
I just got back from a two hour drive in the bucket one day 155.00 but 800.00
for the work so all is not lost.

 

[Slvrmple72]

I find myself working harder for every dollar this year. Higher fuel costs and customers trying to get more for their dollar. The work is there but I have seen an increase in lost bids. I still won't work for free.

 

[ozarktreeman]

Me I am 20 miles from anything so it costs and try to bid jobs in between!
I just got back from a two hour drive in the bucket one day 155.00 but 800.00
for the work so all is not lost.

I.m with you rope.i am 20 miles from 90% of my work.fuel cost for me.at least a 650.00 a week.but business has been good.not the larger jobs i was pullin in this time last year.but blow and goes make up for it.(smaller jobs)

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Voted better than average. Better than when we were in southern Oregon, but better than when we were up here in Beaverton 3 years ago.

Not only are sales up, but I'm referring more work too.

Also, we are making more, and able to work about 10% mellower pace.

 

[mckeetree]

Wait. Did you just say you were thinking?
Would anyone care to hear my gross thus far? No to brag and obviously its in relation to what I spend but if you all don't know me by now...
I promised pics, I've been busy, they are coming, I wish I had taken a lot more.

My company spends about $900.00 per week on fuel right now. I can't help but think you are another of the several guys in this forum that are just plain old full of sh!t.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

My company spends about $900.00 per week on fuel right now. I can't help but think you are another of the several guys in this forum that are just plain old full of sh!t.

I just did a job last week for the city council close to my place. My fuel bill for the whole job, 3 days, 3 x 3 foot round pines around power lines was less than $60. 3 hours on off chipping took $24, Chainsaw fuel was another $25, vehicle fuel was less than $10. I priced it at $3200 and was bang on with price. My GRCS got a good work out and the 2 of us got it done safely and effeciently. The tree officer had a couple looks and was impressed.

Closest big company (I have worked for them before) priced it for 5.7K and the next one up quoted 9k.
There gear is big so they would have needed to traffic manage the road. Get in a Crane, all there guys would have had to come from at least 15 miles away through traffic. Truck, Crane, road control truck and maybe a truck to pick up the wood. This would have cost at least meant 4 trucks x 15 miles x 2 (return trip) for there size gear would cost over $170 in travel fuel alone.
They have 2 guys on road control, one guy on crane, and at least 2 climbers and probably another 2 on ground to deal with the chipping and managing blocks. Thats 7 guys, and they probably lost at least an hour each in travel to and from job. So they are about 8 hours behind collectively. Along with the crane rental the job owes them well over a grand in chargable hours before the job even starts.
They can get the job knocked out in a day, but for a quoted job like this they cant feasibly do it for anything like we can, and there general overheads are much higher.
Of course this is not always the case, but its an example of how little local companies can have such low fuel bills and still get real jobs done.