Successful Hacks

JohN Dee

Well about a week or two ago we were driving down the road to get lunch and driving down we saw a tree company doing a land clear operation. The first bloke we saw was in a cherry picker - no harness, no hard hat, no eye protection. So we grabbed our lunch came back and sat across the road from them eating our lunch and taking photos.

I blurred all the rego plates and business details. This bloke owns two trucks, 1 chipper, 1 bobcat, 1 ewp and 5 stump grinders all ranging in size but can't afford a single hard hat or even a traffic cone? Successful hacks is what seem to be the case here, they've been around for 10 years or so scraping by (No safety regulations etc...)

When his bobcat was ripping this trunk off its hinge some bloke carrying his shopping walked right behind the bobcat!

Here are the pics:


This is the overview of their jobsite, public walking straight past, no bunting tape or even witches hats. The guy in the bobcat their has no eye/ear/head protection.


This is their other truck with their EWP, look around that stump - shid everywhere for the public to walk through.


That bloke cutting that stump has no eye or head protection, wearing short shorts and didn't use a single wedge to support his cut. The white thing on his head is a sun hat. The other bloke got that stumper off and was grinding the stump with no PPE while the other guy in the green stood right next to the stump/rotor watching.


That bloke on the bike was their for ages fart assing around behind the guy on the saw...


At first he was helping push the trunk with the bobcat, then when the bobcat broke it off its hinge he almost hit the guy in the green with it.


That's the guy that walked right behind as the bobcat tore the hinge and had started turning.

So that's it ^. Successful hacks working along side a busy main road.

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Fairfield

Unreal ... Well hate to say it but same thing happens on the other side of the pound also. Cant count how many times I have seen opperations like that.

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Drouin Tree Service

I know a similar guy he's doing quite well

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Eric Frei

Bugger it, I gotta start hack'n!

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Jeff Darby

True Ekka,makes you wonder why you bother, on a take down as long as it go's smoothly does it matter ??...of course it does...useing tried and proven techniques keep us safer than the ..HACKS...but have said this if they were wearing PPE and a little obvious work exclusion barriers we never would have picked them..so they stick out like the perverbial dogs B@@##s but they get away with it and as you know if any thing goes wrong we are all bundled together and judged by the way these untrained bozos operate wich is so unfair to the ones that comply to OH&S and workcover standards,me I will keep on improving myself and striving for a safe work place were ever it may be.
JayD

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mdvaden

It's a new breed.

Arbor + culture is arboriculture.

These guys are a blend of "hazard" and "culture".

They are "Hazaculturists" - its the latest thing.

TrevMcRev

Well one day they might be "Haz-beens"

jim1nz

I dont get it, dont they care for their own safety!? Obviously they dont care about others safety. Everyone moans about the rules and regs the bureaucrats place on us, but they have to to protect people from themselves!!!

JohN Dee

Jim, are there many hacks in NZ?

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We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

jim1nz

To be honest John there is not. There was a story regarding a hack that was also threatening people and they got done for it BIG time and jailed, ever since this it is not too bad. There is the odd one here and there but generally the tree work in NZ is great.

Eric Frei

NZ send them all here!

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jim1nz

Piss off Ekka, they come straight from the Islands!

Sean Freeman

I'd like to back up jim's answer with some insight from one of the best Arborists I know of in Oz Daniel Oaten originally from Wellington. He tells the story of coming to Oz to be with his lady and asking her over the phone to give the numbers of some Arb companies in Brissy (she was and still is in Ipswich) so she's looking through the book and says, no can't find anything under "A" no arborists, he says ok look under tree surgeon, she says no but there's heaps under tree lopper....he goes nuts (as you can imagine!!!) saying no surgeon, doctor specialist NOT LOPPER!!!, but when he came out there were non listed. He still can't get over guys having LOPPER signwritten on their trucks etc... As he says in NZ that would be like advertising that you are an idiot with no understanding or qualifications in Arb, completely incapable of looking after the clients trees!

Its funny how cultures so geographically close can be so dissimilar in this respect.

I don't want to speak for Daniel or make statements that maybe he would prefer not be said but I would like to add that I know in NZ Arborists working in the same locality are not in violent competition with each other rather they support and help each other, cover each others back when sickness or family commitments mean you are away for a time, share tha work load on bigger jobs...like I said a very different cultural outlook, one we should learn something from me thinks.

Eric Frei

Boa, the arb associations dont have any trouble at all accepting Tree Loppers.

Neither do the insurance companies, in fact on a recent ring around to many I asked if there was any difference in premium between qualified arborists and tree loppers ... nope, ya all lumped together and you pay the same premium as our ole mate in the home video taking out a pergola.

The issue here is severely ingrained to permanently etched into the psych of many, the media continually call us tree loppers. Take a look at the BCC thread and Rangitatas news article ... once again tree loppers commented on the tree.

If there's change to be made the first port of call is the associations, second the media lobbied by the associations.

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Sean Freeman

I don't disagree that the QAA needs a kick start in that direction, but I also recognise that the QAA only survives as a going concern through the money generated by its membership camps etc... they are not going to turn away members nor alienate them. (Check some of my very earlier posts mate about Arb standards and regs in Qld, I'm not in the QAA for precisely those reasons) Other Arborists I have spoken to about this who are in QAA argue that things are changing slowly, and many of the earlier problems with certain individuals and their atitudes are no more.

Maybe its incumbant on me to join and change from within, but frankly I've enough on as it is with ISAAC and trying to change the attitude of numerous other professional bodies that directly impact on tree health in our urban communities.

jim1nz

Once again Boa, your dead right. I dont want to say its better here or there but it is most certainly different. As a general statement you could say we take a lot of pride in our work and in our trees. Arboriculture is a reasonably small industry in NZ, every body knows ever body, so ya hear of a lopper they are automatically on the outside.

We do look after each other, im a contractor and i hate working by myself. I get another local contractor to help me on jobs and he does the same when he gets work. Im lucky he has been a NZ climbing champ and is one the best all round arborists in NZ if not the best.

Thats the thing, the best get work and they deserve it, around here you know who is good.

JohN Dee

Well it has almost been a year since our last post and the intial post. Alot more members have joined and I'd dare say that there are more Arborists, Horticulturalists, Tree loppers, Tree guys, Chainsaw guys and home owners that have joined, that participate and learn in here and we all get on as a community.

Over the last year I have seen an astonishing rate of: Successful hacks

But the latest one I'm posting about actually comes from former member Polly's neck of the woods - South Australia (SA)

Western Tree and Stump Removal, Garth Williams - Seacombe Gardens - HomeImprovementPages.com.au. I found this page going through that directory.

It's very brief and states a little bit of their business.

Yep 20mil liability sounds all good (and bloody expensive insurance bill) aswell as the services they offer. His qualifications look top notch, Certificate IV (4) or a level 4 arborist.

Now here lies the proof in the pudding:

Look closely at the pic.
















Now the two trucks (one chipcanopy, one logtruck) one hydraulic driven stump grinder and assumed a bc1800xl vermeer wood chipper. This is the Success indicator.

Here is the hack indicator:

Shocking and a bloody disgrace.

Now that may not be the level 4 arborist, but it's the lvl 4 arborist's worksite and he has the duty of care for that climber and an obligation to advise him on the latest and greatest safe work methods (including his bloody PPE). This is a good indicator of letting your qualifications (minimum 2-3 years to get them mind you) and 14 years of experience go by the way side.

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__________________
We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

Arizona Kenn

The problem as I see it is the customer wanting to pay as little as possible, therefore willing to hire anybody, course there will always be somebody willing to sell their soul for a buck so the vicious cycle continues.

OsAGe85

You know most of this is common sense, if you care about yourself at all, but where did these idiots get tought.......A freakin Cracker Jack box. Seriously.

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Gotta love the smell 2 stroke and wood chips. Be smart, be safe.