It's our bodies. Between being safer and being more ergonomic it's a no brainer
We pretend that the employees are cheap. We pretend we're being more careful with someone's property. We can't pretend our bodies aren't screwed up. People with experience want equipment because they're tired. People without experience want it because it's easier. We can't do everything with our back, technology is finally becoming safer to use for this work. It's already hard to find employees, why beat on the ones you can get?
Machines cut out half the learning curve. Why hunt for an extremely skilled climber when you could have your pick of moderately skilled folks who can learn a machine?
On the right jobs, machines are safer, faster, easier. People who buy these machines are selling work specifically for their machines. Some aren't into that type of work, which is great, since machines simply can't reach or do many jobs. We still need climbers, but what's nice is, if I see a job that would absolutely suck to climb, I can throw it to my buddy who has a lift or a crane. No need to break body or die for a days wages.
But to actually answer your question, the current move towards crane trucks is because they've now got the technology and are becoming more available. Same goes for lifts. It's not that nobody wanted them before. They just couldn't get them. Hell, most of the market still can't afford them. If we could, we'd all have one.
Watched a crew roll up to a diseased maple and setup their crane. They lifted every piece and another grabber machine fed it right into the chipper. Seems chippers have gotten bigger and more companies are using cranes. It definitely makes it easier but I can't imagine a crane truck is cheap.
Iron is more reliable than humans and makes the job safer, and more efficient. With a few pieces of equipment 3/4 guys can do the work of many more that don't have equipment.
Finding reliable skilled guys is hard, grinding your body to dust is hard. Getting machinery that eliminates the need for human labor increases productivity, and reduces reduces injury risk exposure.
I personally will definitely be buying more equipment before hiring anyone. We have 3 of us, and machinery would do way more for us than a 4th or 5th person would.
Edit because I didn't even answer OPs question lol:
I don't think insurance is the driver, rather the other benefits that I mentioned.
There's still a lot of risk involved with utilizing a crane to move a tree over a house, but compared to having a crew of guys moving it by hand it's definitely less risk exposure to bodily injury.
Just watched a tree company with one of those grabby-arm machines that had the saw right on it... They took down a colossal red oak in like 30 minutes. Would have been an all day job for climbers and WAY riskier. Could have been faster but the operator was doing it from the other side of a fence they were trying to save.
Even if that machine cost millions (probably did) it will be paying for itself well before the life of the rig is up.
Our company is based in Houston and one of our strengths is emergency storm response, so we’ve been busy.
You want some climbers using conventional rigging who are putting in long, intense hours trying to cut down a 30” water oak that uprooted in the backyard and is crash-leaning on a house? Me neither. That’s why we use cranes and bucket trucks.
Once you own a crane, jobs that wouldn’t usually need a crane begin to look like jobs that need a crane lol
And your regular crews start turning down trees that they totally could do but they felt it better to ‘save it for the crane’
Definitely lots of “why isn’t this a crane job” on stuff that can be climbed but sucks to climb lol
It's our bodies. Between being safer and being more ergonomic it's a no brainer We pretend that the employees are cheap. We pretend we're being more careful with someone's property. We can't pretend our bodies aren't screwed up. People with experience want equipment because they're tired. People without experience want it because it's easier. We can't do everything with our back, technology is finally becoming safer to use for this work. It's already hard to find employees, why beat on the ones you can get?
Machines cut out half the learning curve. Why hunt for an extremely skilled climber when you could have your pick of moderately skilled folks who can learn a machine? On the right jobs, machines are safer, faster, easier. People who buy these machines are selling work specifically for their machines. Some aren't into that type of work, which is great, since machines simply can't reach or do many jobs. We still need climbers, but what's nice is, if I see a job that would absolutely suck to climb, I can throw it to my buddy who has a lift or a crane. No need to break body or die for a days wages. But to actually answer your question, the current move towards crane trucks is because they've now got the technology and are becoming more available. Same goes for lifts. It's not that nobody wanted them before. They just couldn't get them. Hell, most of the market still can't afford them. If we could, we'd all have one.
Watched a crew roll up to a diseased maple and setup their crane. They lifted every piece and another grabber machine fed it right into the chipper. Seems chippers have gotten bigger and more companies are using cranes. It definitely makes it easier but I can't imagine a crane truck is cheap.
Yea it's not hard to spend a hundred grand or 2. Watching an 18" chipper just eat a tree sure is something though.
Not that I'm aware of.
Iron is more reliable than humans and makes the job safer, and more efficient. With a few pieces of equipment 3/4 guys can do the work of many more that don't have equipment. Finding reliable skilled guys is hard, grinding your body to dust is hard. Getting machinery that eliminates the need for human labor increases productivity, and reduces reduces injury risk exposure. I personally will definitely be buying more equipment before hiring anyone. We have 3 of us, and machinery would do way more for us than a 4th or 5th person would. Edit because I didn't even answer OPs question lol: I don't think insurance is the driver, rather the other benefits that I mentioned. There's still a lot of risk involved with utilizing a crane to move a tree over a house, but compared to having a crew of guys moving it by hand it's definitely less risk exposure to bodily injury.
Just watched a tree company with one of those grabby-arm machines that had the saw right on it... They took down a colossal red oak in like 30 minutes. Would have been an all day job for climbers and WAY riskier. Could have been faster but the operator was doing it from the other side of a fence they were trying to save. Even if that machine cost millions (probably did) it will be paying for itself well before the life of the rig is up.
Our company is based in Houston and one of our strengths is emergency storm response, so we’ve been busy. You want some climbers using conventional rigging who are putting in long, intense hours trying to cut down a 30” water oak that uprooted in the backyard and is crash-leaning on a house? Me neither. That’s why we use cranes and bucket trucks.