Learn to Love the Glorious MEWP
by Rob Forrester
Ten years ago the idea of using a cherry-picker for tree-work would have been seen as a short-cut means for the less skilled arborist to work on trees which in the “real world “ of climbing, he or she wouldnot have the ability to take on. Visions of old fire engines, Utility Co cast offs and even old construction site machines, trying to operate with finesse on the nations trees did not sit well with the climbing elite, and raised fears that high level work had come within the scope of cowboy chainsaw flashers.
Others among our noble profession, most of whom are quietly competent but not necessarily brilliant climbers, began to think seriously about the potential of MEWPs to improve our standards of work and crucially of the improved service which that would precipitate.
Tree climbing is a great skill to perfect. The best practitioners are artists, but in the world of business we heed to recognise when a technical breakthrough supercedes the status quo....
The long arm of the Health and Safety Executive allied to the new Work at Height regulations, has moved the goal-posts and changed the rules of the game. Risk assessments, as far as the Health and Safety people are concerned should “ where practicable” conclude that a MEWP be used to access a tree.
Now this puts the traditional contractor and the switched on employer - say a local authority tree officer - in a very tricky position.
Its all very well to carry on climbing as we have done since the dawn of time but if there were to be an accident, and a MEWP could have or should have been used instead of the climber.... need I say more? I accept that in a sizeable minority of situations there are good sound reasons to employ a climber instead of a machine, but not in most cases.
There are not too many trees that I have looked at that are beyond the scope of or inaccessible to one sort of MEWP or another. These days, tracked narrow-access machines of 16m are commonly available, and the UK’s first 30m and 50m tracked platforms will appear in the next few months.
Huge truck-mounts have been on the scene for years, and if you do a lot of street tree-work, how can you possibly pretend that they are not practicable?
The number one excuse I am forever hearing is that MEWPs are too expensive, and the client won’t wear it. Now then... You can buy a decent new 16m tracked machine for about 30 grand, how much would a top climber cost you per year?
A 20m to 30m reach truck-mount might cost between 40 and 100 grand, but it will last you for 5 to 10 years if you look after it, and at the end of that you can sell it for a sensible amount and buy a new one. With a bit of rational thinking it all begins to make sense, and there is always the hire option if you break out in a sweat at the thought of investing that kind of money.
The writing is on the wall. I fail to see how any forward thinking firm can avoid making the shrewd decision to embrace the MEWP.
My suspicion is that in the next few years, the platform will become standard issue, just as the chipper did in the 70’s - who on earth would be taken seriously as a contractor without a chipper today?
Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps you are still out there with your explosives license, blasting out stumps... Give me a ring if you are, because I’d LOVE to see that.
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