hosspuller
Senior Member
Just a thought... Since a safety harness is required by OSHA to have manufacturer's labels and cert tags... Is that decoration forbidden by their sect ?
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new ride
- Thread starter Tradesman
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hosspuller
Senior Member
HA! I think I'd trade those hard hats for a harness..
I became a harness true believer, when I levitated in the basket. Didn't come out, just had air beneath my feet.
I remember when ever I see Marklift blue.
I love how this site allows one to really really zoom in on pictures posted, other sites (flying sites) I'm on don't seem to do that, or at least I don't know how. Or at least as much zoom. I keep that in mind whenever I post here, it is a great incentive to make sure I am "doing it right" if I am going to post a picture here! Like the other day on my pool job, I made sure the guys had the sling's tag towards the hook, they asked why, I told them because this site has ZOOM!
crane operator
Senior Member
Its hard for me when I'm on a jobsite and the customer's guys are in manlifts with no harnesses. I always make a point to get out of the cab, and tell both the guys and the foreman that they should all have harnesses on. But they aren't my guys and I can't tell them what to do. At least saying something eases my mind. Won't help if they dump one, but I've said my piece.
Sorry for not contributing much lately I’ve been super busy both on the crane and with my building crew. Lots of trusses and internet towers. As I get busier two challenges have reared there heads, first one is cancellations or more precisely postponements, when I wasn’t as busy it wasn’t a big deal I just reschedule, now I find myself loosing jobs because I turn down a job based on scheduled work then the scheduled job cancels now I’m sitting with nothing. Frustrating but I don’t see an easy answer.
Number two. Scheduling, again as I get busier I am challenged to just keep them in my head I don’t find the phone calendar very handy and keeping a book with me is a challenge I could be in a half a dozen trucks in a day on multiple job sights so keeping a book with me is a long shot. With my good clients I get them to Tex me their time and address but that’s not very reliable they can easily forget or my big fingers delete it.
Number two. Scheduling, again as I get busier I am challenged to just keep them in my head I don’t find the phone calendar very handy and keeping a book with me is a challenge I could be in a half a dozen trucks in a day on multiple job sights so keeping a book with me is a long shot. With my good clients I get them to Tex me their time and address but that’s not very reliable they can easily forget or my big fingers delete it.
John Griffin
Senior Member
We've started charging a 10% cancellation fee because of the scheduling issues our customers cause us by cancelling. Part of our thinking on that is we do additional paperwork and take the time to issue coi to the customer when they approve the work. This all takes time which isn't free.
Some weeks it seems about 75% of my "schedule" gets rescheduled! It is a constant tap dance, keeping everyone happy (talking house framers, setting roof trusses), as the guy who canceled his Tuesday appointment because of wind, now expects me Thursday, but what about my already booked Thursday job?! It comes down to first come first serve, get out of line, go back to the rear. Mixed in with that though is my fast paying and reliable customers get preferential treatment, they get to cut in line, but I don't tell them that or the crews they cut in front of. To keep track of what, where, and who, I have a system. 4x5 index cards, folded in half so they fit my shirt pocket, giving me 4 separate areas, and a pen. That's it, no electronics involved. I write stuff down during the day (if I walk out the door in the morning without a pen or a index card, I'm screwed, so extras are always carried in my car and my manpurse.
Then immediately when I walk in the the front door back home, I write down that days billing info on a post it pad, and stick it on my home computer screen. The next time I turn it on I enter the info on the post it, and note whether or not I have billed yet. I'll let several days build up before I get in the mood to do the actual billing, address the envelope, etc., usually on a bad weather day. THEN I'm done for the day. Until you realize you have failed to bill a customer for works done months ago, and they didn't say anything, you won't really know what a true deadbeat is. I've done it twice, the first guy never used me again, knowing he had cheated me in effect (slow payer anyway, screw him), the second insisted he owed me money, I argued back he didn't (confusing another job I had done for him), he mailed me a check anyway and it turned out he was right. That guy goes to the very front of the line every time, though I laughingly told him, "you're hard to deal with, and you're screwing up my book keeping." All in all, once I arrive on the job site, get set up, and sit down in the cab, it's break time, that's the easy part. Everything else involved with running a one man craning operation is more hassle and less fun.
Then immediately when I walk in the the front door back home, I write down that days billing info on a post it pad, and stick it on my home computer screen. The next time I turn it on I enter the info on the post it, and note whether or not I have billed yet. I'll let several days build up before I get in the mood to do the actual billing, address the envelope, etc., usually on a bad weather day. THEN I'm done for the day. Until you realize you have failed to bill a customer for works done months ago, and they didn't say anything, you won't really know what a true deadbeat is. I've done it twice, the first guy never used me again, knowing he had cheated me in effect (slow payer anyway, screw him), the second insisted he owed me money, I argued back he didn't (confusing another job I had done for him), he mailed me a check anyway and it turned out he was right. That guy goes to the very front of the line every time, though I laughingly told him, "you're hard to deal with, and you're screwing up my book keeping." All in all, once I arrive on the job site, get set up, and sit down in the cab, it's break time, that's the easy part. Everything else involved with running a one man craning operation is more hassle and less fun.
crane operator
Senior Member
Glad you are staying busy. Last two weeks have been a little slower for me, been catching up at the shop.
I'm lucky my wife answers the phone and runs the schedule book. I intervene/ help when needed. Good customers can get me direct.
I keep a weekly planner book that's narrow enough to fit my back pocket. I keep track of my daily billing in it. She keeps a larger schedule book at the office in pencil, and we share a google sheets document that is able to be pulled up on everyone's phone that shows a current status. She can then bill off the schedule book, with daily time from me or the other operators.
The busier you are the worse the schedule gets. Weather and trucking cause most of my scheduling issues.
I'm lucky my wife answers the phone and runs the schedule book. I intervene/ help when needed. Good customers can get me direct.
I keep a weekly planner book that's narrow enough to fit my back pocket. I keep track of my daily billing in it. She keeps a larger schedule book at the office in pencil, and we share a google sheets document that is able to be pulled up on everyone's phone that shows a current status. She can then bill off the schedule book, with daily time from me or the other operators.
The busier you are the worse the schedule gets. Weather and trucking cause most of my scheduling issues.
Thanks for the comments. I was talking to my book keeper today and by coincidence she gave me a small booklet ( small enough to fit in my back pocket) that displays a week on two opposing pages, I’m going to give that a try for a while. As for the postponement problem I don’t see it getting any better. I’m just a little ouchy right now I had two guys screwing around this week re-scheduling several times and I had to turn down a 8 to 10 hour job to honour my commitment to them both canceled and I ended up sitting for the day. To make it worse I ended up pouring concrete.
Thanks for the comment billing is the easy part i fill out a field sheet and quite often give it to the customer and get paid on the spot if it’s my regulars, when I get home I do my inspection, log book, grease, fuel up if required then sit down at my computer and enter it into quick books then email it to them. It’s not because I’m that organized but because I would likely never think of it again.
CM1995
Administrator
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Don't know your business climate but can you charge a "no-show" fee? I know all businesses are as different as the area and customers they work in but maybe a $100 - 250 cancellation fee if they cancel within 24 hours or something along those lines.
crane operator
Senior Member
I use the 3 1/2" x 6" dayminder "at a glance" in my pocket. One week in every two pages. I rip off the top corner of each page every week, so I can instantly flip to the current week without paging through. I also keep back years in a drawer, I have looked through them for old info. (made in USA too!). Usually hold up all year.
https://www.amazon.com/AT-GLANCE-Weekly-Planner-DayMinder/dp/B07QM9FV11
https://www.amazon.com/AT-GLANCE-Weekly-Planner-DayMinder/dp/B07QM9FV11
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I'd post a picture of one of my 4x5 cards, but as much of the writing is scribbled while driving and my handwriting sucks at the best of times, it'd be pointless. I should also point out that along with my so called work schedule, I will also have notes like,"get milk, stop at the post office, stop by the lumber yard," whatever, my personal business is also taken care of while in town craning, so my cards are a mash up of my life. Job #184 for this year, tomorrow. Charging a cancellation fee in my market would go over like a t*rd in a punch bowl, I still get outraged comments about charging for travel time, these smaller contractors knocking together houses are working too close to the bone, most of them anyway. Now a commercial job for a big time outfit, yes I could do that but won't, I rather complain about it. I'd have my wife deal with my paperwork, but she's been living in Hawaii for the last 35 years and is remarried.
crane operator
Senior Member
No- its just part of the deal. I know one outfit that tried it in my area for a while, and it went over about like natman explained.
crane operator
Senior Member
I see it includes the time travel option. Its not october yet.
Didn’t want include my clients names and numbers so I skipped to an empty page. Thanks for keeping an eye on me, it keeps me grounded and takes some pressure off my wife.I see it includes the time travel option. Its not october yet.
Raildudes dad
Senior Member
I carried those little calendar books for years (Just started year 48 ). Have every one in a bankers box in the corner. Now days with my smart phone i have a bigger one on my desk that I try to write every thing i did that day. Appointments are on the smart phone and desktop / outlook. I spend a lot more time in the office than i used to.
So I'm a volunteer at the local tourist railraod. No bathroom at the engine facility, for several years we had to walk a block away to the city park bathroom. So one day nature calls. There's no way I can walk that long block without filling my pants. So, I grab a handful of paper shop towels and go into the woods a few steps from the engine house. Unbuckle the pants, squat and dump. I standup, turn and look, my little calendar book had fallen out and I had dumped right on top of it LOL. Picked it up, wiped the vinyl cover off and put it back in my pocket. No damage to the in side pages. I tell my wife what happened and she thinks it's absolutely gross. I tell her it's vinyl for petes sake, no different that wiping off the changing table for the kids . I'm just bigger than they are
). Have every one in a bankers box in the corner. Now days with my smart phone i have a bigger one on my desk that I try to write every thing i did that day. Appointments are on the smart phone and desktop / outlook. I spend a lot more time in the office than i used to.So I'm a volunteer at the local tourist railraod. No bathroom at the engine facility, for several years we had to walk a block away to the city park bathroom. So one day nature calls. There's no way I can walk that long block without filling my pants. So, I grab a handful of paper shop towels and go into the woods a few steps from the engine house. Unbuckle the pants, squat and dump. I standup, turn and look, my little calendar book had fallen out and I had dumped right on top of it LOL. Picked it up, wiped the vinyl cover off and put it back in my pocket. No damage to the in side pages
. I tell my wife what happened and she thinks it's absolutely gross. I tell her it's vinyl for petes sake, no different that wiping off the changing table for the kids . I'm just bigger than they areisn’t this nice. This is the first time I’ve set for a city developer. And maybe the last, before I could set up I had to move enough junk to back in. The sub divisions I usually work in are from local developers and this crap would never fly with them every house has a dumpster and they best use it or they’ll be kicking there lunch kit down the road 