Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop

How Important Is Documented, Up-to-Date Training?

If a safe workforce was a three-legged stool, one of those legs would have to be competency development. The other two legs are a right-minded workforce and safe tools and equipment. In this article, we’ll focus on competency development. Competency development Some people might call this first leg “training,” but since the desired outcome of […]

Internal Customers

When the economy gets rough, and it certainly seems like things are trending that way, certain elements of running a business that were always important become even more important. Great customer service is vital, and the best customer service starts by focusing on your internal customer. An internal customer is an employee, or someone with […]

Full Speed Ahead!

Out of the proverbial frying pan … It seems like only yesterday – oh wait, it was yesterday – that we were all feeling the downstream effects of COVID. Supply-chain issues caused interminable delays on the delivery of new equipment and supplies. A single COVID case would cause an entire business to shut down for […]

Paper Tiger?

The Tree Care Industry Association held a Legislative Fly-In during the summer before COVID, and we invited a couple of officials from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to talk to our group about impending Entry-Level Driver Training requirements for would-be holders of a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Finding good employees is challenging enough. […]

Unplanned Events

Wearing one of my hats at TCIA, I get to do quite a bit of consultation with company owners and observation of crews in the field, all for safety and compliance purposes. Repeatedly, I’ve seen risk “sneak in” on job sites, with even the most experienced crews, when something about the job doesn’t go according […]

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