Flying for storm damage work, what about a truck?

southsoundtree

southsoundtree

Been here much more than a while
Location
Olympia, WA
This comes after thinking about the Phoenix windstorm that Jesse posted about.

So I worked only one distant storm to help my friend, SyeBlue, when a storm hit his town, my former college town. He already had a truck, chipper and bucket. Regular removal gear, bull ropes, blocks, lowering device, climbing gear, etc. The city was doing curbside pick-up of everything that huge grapple trucks could reach up to 10' long. Just get it to the curb.

First question, how often have you seen the opportunity to just haul to the curb for disposal?


I brought climbing gear and rigging gear as checked baggage.
(I put up two bags at about 65 pounds apiece, and they wanted to charge me an extra $250 for being over 50 pounds. I got some funny looks from other passengers as I pulled all my gear out, pulled out a backpack that was to now be carry-on with bull rope and slings and carabiners, plus (2) 49.5 pound bags. Shipped 2 192t and 361, and he had a bunch of various Stihls.

This seems the easy part if a person were to fly someone, buy saws locally (purchase over phone), and carry-on/ check bags, then the big problem seems to be a truck and chipper.
Chippers are available by rental relatively easily.

Question 2 What could you do for a truck rental?

Question 3 What type of local licensing/ registration have people been required to get? How does your insurance and WC transfer to other states?
 
In last years ice storm in Arkansas I talked to a guy from Alaska who flew in to work.He rented a truck and bought saws and brought his gear on the plane.He had a salesman who came earlier and lined things up and had 4 climbers who all worked for him.It was all stack on the curb for fema and you really didnt have to rake.I think he made out really good especially considering his alternative was sitting inside and alaskan winter,
 
Jimmy, sounds like just a pick-up truck or something to work out of, eh?




How do people find out what the disposal situation will be when it is all happening fast? It so much easier when you just get it to the curb.
 
Could always look into getting a delta dash air cargo account. For about 80$ i can ship 70 lbs, drop off an hour before the plane takes off and pick up a hour after it lands. It's a pretty good deal. They have a cheaper 2-3 day rate too. One shipment I made was, dont know how heavy, but they brought it out with a fork lift and filled a small light duty truck bed for $150.
 
Evo,

Thanks for the great insight!

One trip that I made with climbing gear put me two pounds over so I had to pull out a rope bag. The other solution would have been to tear the covers off of my books! :)
 
We had a bad ice storm in 2003 and they were picking up everything on the curb. I was surprised that took all of the big wood. This past winter in western KY there was a bad ice storm they did curb side pick-up there as well, at least in my parents home town.
 
What town was that, Jesse? I worked that storm! :)

I'd rather just drive my gear there and know I have everything. If you can't afford it, or your truck can't make it, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, IMHO. If you're going to just be a contract guy, I don't see where a PU would be bad, if you're just curbing stuff.
 
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What town was that, Jesse? I worked that storm! :)

I'd rather just drive my gear there and know I have everything. If you can't afford it, or your truck can't make it, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, IMHO. If you're going to just be a contract guy, I don't see where a PU would be bad, if you're just curbing stuff.

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Yes, its great to have known dependability of your own rig. It might be more worthwhile to order a bunch of gear and have it delivered locally, then ship back when you're done, plus you have all new gear for the storm, and when you get back.

I think a PU is fine if you are just curbing stuff.



I was asking, as a business owner, about options that people use if they aren't doing curbside pick-up.

I don't think that it would be worth driving a chip truck and chipper from, say the NE to Phoenix. By the time you get there through the mountains, paying your crew's wages, WC, per diem, etc, the best work will be gone. I think that its a matter of distance/ time, as well as risk of truck breakdown, towing costs, repair costs, auto accident potential, etc with an unknown work load. In the case of the storm that flew to, I had a friend on the ground that said that there would be weeks of work, but it more likely be going in somewhat blind.

Some people that are building their own business could use a winter storm as a stepping stone to get a better truck that would be suited to a long drive. Imagine having to get your truck towed 200 miles from the middle of nowhere to a shop that might have to wait for parts, the whole time paying wages, lodging, per diem, etc., with Zero income.
 
Yeah that dude from alaska made a killing in arkansas,couldnt imagine what it would have cost him and five guys to drive.heck the work would have been done probably when they arrived.I think it would be a good plan for a really big storm,but the key is getting established early in the area-thus getting sales guys in place pronto.
 
Thats how he did it! I was told there was a guy herein town from alaska but couldn't figure how he could get his equipment down here that fast. I had just figured he came down in the 48 and chased storms in the winter but that really didn't seem to make sense. I actually lost a job to him because he had chippers and that was right before I got mine. ( I still had my logging job then too) Which sort of sucked being able to do trees in the evening or weekend.
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. I did make enough on the side+savings to buy a chipper out of it though
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Back to the thread Businesses and people outside of the city pickup zone want chippers chip truck. So they would be a definate te asset to get some of the big jobs. I think it also makes you look more credible rather than the new found "tree guys" that storms generate. But then you could get along without it.
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He must be a real marketing whiz to be able to blow in here and pick up as fast as he did. I'd say as good if not better than the local guys (which probably 80-90% are spikers/Toppers anyway) Wished I had even half those skills! Marketing is by far one of my weaker areas!
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I saw some dudes here in Springfield who had rented a chipper and were chipping into the back of a u-haul truck. I guess they were just shoveling it out when they were full. I'm guessing they didn't get their "return it clean" deposit back?

I'm thinking most decent-sized cities would have a place to rent medium-duty dumptrucks, you would have to plywood a box onto it, but that wouldn't take long. I think the one here is a Hertz contractor's rental place that has dumptrucks.
 
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