To expand or not

[Welder Dave]

Guess it depends on the industry. If I'm at 31,000' going 500 MPH, I sure hope someone who's licensed was doing the maintainence and repairs on the plane. Mind you I think they should scrap all the 737 Max 8's and hold Boeing accountable.

 

[Don.S]

So what do you think will happen to teach new employees now? People are getting less and less hands on and it seems like common sense is the least common thing these days.
I think we are screwed.
I also am a firm believer of pay the minimum expect the minimum.

 

[Welder Dave]

I think part of the problem is less and less people are interested in the trades so they are making it easier for the ones that are going into the trades. I went to a trade school and got credit for 225 hours of each year of apprenticeship, 1575 hours per year instead of 1800. Now students can get credit for their entire 1st year and I think a year is now considered 1575 hours. At school you used to learn more in 6 weeks every year than you do now in 8 weeks every year for 3 years.

 

[DMiller]

Went to trade school in 75/76, learned a lot but did not really learn until thrown to the wolves in open flat rate shop. Learned to cut my losses and moved on.

 

[John C.]

There are no apprenticeships for flying at 31,000 feet. Pilots are advanced through a meritocracy that proves they have the ability. The bulk of that training was done through military service for the largest share of pilots today. As far as trade schools go I served on an advisory committee for several years and as chairman of that committee for two years. Students came out of that program knowing how to strike an arc, light a torch, look something up in a parts book and could recognize some of the parts in an engine, transmission, differential and maybe parts of a crawler undercarriage and truck suspension. Most came through the program with unrealistic expectations of the industry and their abilities to actually fix something.
I was in the navy from 74/78 and learned character, ethics, how to follow directions, how to listen to experience and developed the attitude that just because the job is hard doesn't mean that it can be ignored and forgotten. That is called character and is what is missing today in potential new hires. Hire slow, fire fast!

 

[DMiller]

Almost as my Training period at the Nuke, 16 months between Classroom and Hands on with a qual ticket for each Watch Station(Seven in all). Was NOT a walk in the park for a older adult been out of school a LONG time and never in a power station beyond working coal pile disasters.

 

[John Canfield]

I was in the USAF from 1968-72, Vietnam 71-72. The military turned this crazy kid into a responsible adult, most of that happened during basic training and 18 weeks of tech school. The kids now think it's all about them and don't get the big picture. In the military you are part of a team

 

[suladas]

the work force is retiring and the number of people entering cannot fill the number of positions. That mentality will have to be dropped if people want to stay in business. Take someone on and spent the time and money training them the right way and make lots of money off the work they do later.

Not necessarily. I know of a lot of guys who have said screw expending, a guy who is competition selling a bunch of stuff so just him and his son are left said he got tired of dealing with idiot employees (his words). Who says they will learn though no matter how much time you spend? Who says they will stick around? Even if you have brand new equipment and pay really well it's no guarantee you'll end up with good employees.

 

[suladas]

Just my opinion but I think being a excavator makes it one of the more difficult areas to hire people in. I mean a plumber? Easy. They have a ticket and what is the most expensive thing they will run other then a company vehicle? A $500 tool maybe? Big difference then a few hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment that can bankrupt your company in a matter of seconds with the wrong move.

I don't think it's much to ask to find a decent guy to run a CTL and a dump truck and not abuse it. I mean you work by the hour, I will never understand guys who speed, or go crazy fast in those cases. It's a different story if the boss is bitching things are too slow, then I can see guys abusing stuff to get the job done quicker.

We'll see what happens once this crap is over. I've been on my own for 3 years now and not afraid to do it another year. Just would rather not see the dump truck sit and only get used to move the hoe when i'm nearly $20k into it. But it's paid for, and beats having someone destroy it.

 

[DMiller]

Years ago was a time when a Dump operator ran Dumps ONLY, same for Dozer or Friction cranes etc. and all the shops took care of the machines down to cleaning them regularly. Those days are pretty well gone and I am aware those will not change soon where the operators either have to be educated into respecting a Company Owner's machines or sent packing. Local here has Excavation, trucking, materials supply services and farms, his employees are given time each day to clean equipment, are EXPECTED to where if they do not they are told to hit the street and find other work. Some damage can just happen but routine damage is abuse and NOT tolerated. Can get mad or be angry with him all they wish but they were explained is THEIR Duty to attend the machine they made their mess in and they were paid to clean it up or be careful of it, can only be angry with themselves.

 

[Truck Shop]

It all depends on how many holes you have left in your belt.

 

[suladas]

Well my dad is finally on board with a new driver and fired the current one as I said should have happened at least a month ago.

One of the last nails in the coffin was he went to start the truck and couldn't figure out why air wasn't building up, my dad happened to be going to the yard and showed up to have to show him that the tank valves were open. Always had the habit of draining the tanks every single day, driver was told to do it like a million times but anytime we checked it was left aired up. It's also good safety as one time he parked the truck without putting on the brakes, thankfully it didn't roll into anything. The horn goes off if you open the door without the brakes on, but guess he just ignored it. The reason they were open is because I was driving it prior. I was blown away, i'm sure his hearing isn't near what mine is (I can hear the air instantly from inside the cab if I start it with the valves open) but how the fawk do you do a pre-trip without ever going to the passenger side? Or not have the common sense to go check the tanks if no air is building?

But the final straw was him trying to clean out the box I guess, he tagged a overhead crane with the top of the box cylinder. No damage to either thankfully, but enough is enough. Do a ton of work in older areas with overhead power lines and not going to risk having a driver who just puts the box up without checking for overhead stuff. It's a fairly big site with ONE overhead obstacle and he manages to hit it. In my opinion maybe he was a ok driver years ago, but he shouldn't be driving anything more then a regular vehicle anymore, it's just a matter of time before it's a massive accident.

 

[grandpa]

Just remember, when your are lying on your death bed, are you gonna say to yourself, ( I wish I could work just one more day)?

 

[Vetech63]

I only repair equipment and couldnt cut a grade with any machine if my life depended on it, but based on past experience for myself, hiring more people to do work for me only put me in the red even more. I went back on my own and was much happier when I knew exactly what had been done and could back my work up.

 

[Truck Shop]

Just remember, when your are lying on your death bed, are you gonna say to yourself, ( I wish I could work just one more day)?

Well if it's the same bed I've been sleeping in the last X amount of years, then that's my death bed and for some reason I keep waking up and end up going to work.

 

[DMiller]

Thought I would work until they requested I finally lay down, then beatup started beating on me and had to give it up.

 

[sanchez04]

Well if it's the same bed I've been sleeping in the last X amount of years, then that's my death bed and for some reason I keep waking up and end up going to work.

I totally understand, cause sometimes I feel like I sleep and work only during my entire life. Some people say that making predictions and looking them to happen can make their lives more interesting ad exciting. I usually don't like to read those numerology articles, but recently found one 777 angel number article, which helped me in some points.

 

[DMiller]

Some days wish I could get more than 3 hours in a stretch but then may not wake up either.

 

[Norwegian Steam]

Currently I have no employees, I have my 210 hoe, 6 ton, and a CTL and for the past 2 years it's went great. Been busy, many times too busy but no stress of employees and making very good money. I did a demo job a few months ago for a fairly decent size home builder, I think they build around 40-50 a year, they are not happy with their current excavator and have asked me if I want to submit tender to take over. I know a finishing carpenter who has worked for them for over 10 years now and has nothing but good things to say and financially the builder is very stable. Payment terms are decent. I don't know who i'm bidding against, but having already done work for them I think I have a pretty good advantage if i'm comparable price wise.

For me to even consider, I know i'd have to be willing next spring to buy another hoe and have at least 2 full-time employees. I wouldn't want the risk of having one customer be more then about 25-30% of my work. But i'm wondering is it really worth the hassle? I really like the idea of having even 1 guy so not everything has to be done by me, but also know employees can be headaches. My brother does concrete and has around 15 guys or so and at the end of the day this summer i'm probably making the same amount of money as him.

The thing I like about the bigger builder is less BS. With so many of the one time builders I deal with now i'm always chasing money and virtually none have any idea what they are doing, and it's getting old quick.

There's been a few of the bigger guys closing doors the last few years, from what i've heard it's sick of not making any money because it's hard to find good guys and rates dropping so much. I have no desire to ever get that big, but wonder if it's better just to maybe find 1 good guy and stay small.

for what its worth, this is an issue ive been wrestling with at the company I work for. My previous company did all their business (wet utilities) for large publicly traded home builders. we averaged about $15m a year in contracts and made a decent margin, but when COVID shut things down all our business basically stopped. we were able to keep about 3/4 of the field crews working but had to furlough all our estimators and project managers except for one. Had this company been diversified better by doing work for commercial/industrial and public works jobs we wouldnt have had any issues as those sectors kept moving.

down here they say there is no such thing as a $10m contractor. Once you hit about the $7m mark you need to hire full office staff and estimation/project management people and you need to all of a sudden be around $15m just to cover the overhead that creates.

the companies down here (SoCal) who have weathered the storms are the ones who stayed small along the lines of where you are now or went full blown corporation and bet the farm on scaling up and going hard.


all that being said, getting a second machine and 1-2 other employees is a totally sustainable model if youre committed to it.