Union girls moonlighting

[Stumper]

Ralph makes a good point. If you check out Asplundh's corporate policy, private work practices and prohibitions are regionally determined.

I think that we have all felt the frustration of watching somebody underbid us. Especially the frustration of someone who isn't very qualified or is of questionable reputation. On the other hand-after a while doing good work Your own GOOD rep kicks in and staying busy is less of an issue (Winter tends to be tough on everyone but prime time is different) I still get frustrated with hacks but there is no way I can do all the work there is to be done. Start-ups and scammers are actually fairly harmless in the overall scheme of things. In fact, lil ole me is considered harmless by the local big boys.

 

[wiley_p]

That was my point I,ve bid against the Asplundh residential crews here and they are over 75.00 man hour. So what if they got the buckecxt rented to them, who is insureing the job, does Asplundh rent the insurance too?

 

[ORclimber]

If you really want to know, a call to the local utility forester would be a good place to start. He could tell you whether the utility's contract allowed Asplundh to do residential jobs on the utilities property(potential conflict of interest). He could also give you a phone # for local Asplundh, and the union hall.

Where are you located Wileyp, maybe I'll come up and underbid all of you at $50hr.

 

[begleytree]

Orclimber Don't bug the utility.
I was a regional manager, for the green row company that Asplundh recently bought, for 6 power companies. Not one contract stipulated that we could not do work other than theirs. It merely stated that (bid work) the project would start on date and be completed by date and t&m work was that x # of crews would work 7-3:30 5 days a week on their ROWs after that or on saturdays were none of their concern, or buisness for that matter.

Call the headquarters in willow grove PA and ask. You might get the canned response, but it will stop if not allowed!

If you really want to have fun, call in as the client, give the address and all and say they were out at your place on date and time and that they crushed the septic or dented the car or something and tell them that the crew said it would be taken care of and you've still not heard anything, or that they left a saw on property and they need to come back and get it and that you want additional work

As far as the up and up residential crews goes, what can I say? competition is a good thing overall. imagine what a truck would cost if you could only buy 1 from 1 company!
At $75.00/hr I wouldn't complain! they will be broke soon. Davey charges in cincy, ohio $125/hr and still has a hard time cutting it.
I personally charge $125/hr also for a crew, truck and chipper. Most times with all the expense I have to pad the job on hours to make it worthwhile. And I don't have to pay corperate office either!
My main competetior here charges less than me and sends a bkt a dump and chipper and 5 men to a 3 hour job, which they take all day on. Someone tell me how he makes any money!
I always figure the jobs I don't get are 2 things 1- pay less than I will do the job for anyway, so I didn't make $$, but I didn't loose it either and 2- my prices are fine, I get about 60-70 % of what I estimate, so I am not too high or (maybe ) a bit low
-Ralph