Chipping Away at New Business

If you do a considerable amount of pruning in your business, one of the chores you probably face is dealing with the debris. Branches and trunks are unwieldy, and simply carrying a load from Point A to Point B can gnaw a big chunk out of the day?s time clock. While it?s true that brush is a waste that must be addressed, it?s also true that it can be easily converted to manageable ? perhaps even marketable ? chips.

A greater number of landscape contractors are buying chippers these days, as opposed to subcontracting that work out. Robert Kinnucan, president of Kinnucan Tree Expert & Landscape Company in Lake Bluff, Illinois, attributes this trend to a couple of things. Firstly, more contractors are determined to grow their businesses into full-service companies, and the myriad of continuing education opportunities for contractors is putting this dream within easier reach.

?There was a time, 15 to 18 years ago, when landscape contractors simply didn?t do tree work of any kind,? says Kinnucan. ?They didn?t have the equipment, and they didn?t have the trained personnel. Now you?ll see many tree-trimming training seminars geared to the landscape contractor conducted around the country by state associations, national associations, and cooperative extension services. This is a good thing. People are learning to trim trees properly.?

The second factor that Kinnucan sees as a major contributor to a greater interest in chippers is the disposal/recycling issue. Disposing of yard waste and brush is no longer an easy matter. Landfills are nearing capacity, and many prohibit such materials or else charge nearly unbearable rates for their processing. Contractors, then, have turned to chippers as a solution to this ever-growing concern.

?[Contractors] have come to realize that a chipper is an essential item for any professional landscape or tree contractor,? says Bandit Industries? Public Relations Co-ordinator, Leslie Kinnee, ?because it significantly reduces the volume of material that needs to be hauled from the job site. In most cases, when dealing with trimmings and brush, the reduction is between eight or ten to one.?

Sal Rizzo, president of Salsco, cites a couple of more reasons for the growing interest in chippers. ?First is the convenience of not having to depend on the subcontractor,? he explains. ?I believe that the second reason is that, with all the negative talk about the economy, it?s better to keep your own crew busy rather than sub the work out.?

If it?s been a while since you?ve studied the brush chippers on the market, perhaps you should consider taking another look. Today?s models have evolved, becoming safer and more compact units. And today, it?s likely that manufacturers will offer features specific to a landscape contractor?s needs.

?Ten years ago, chippers were lovingly referred to as ?chuck and duck? machines,? says Rizzo.

Fleet coordinator for Davey Tree?s Residential and Commercial Division, Chuck Daum says of the chipper shopping process, ?Contrac-tors are going to have to crunch some numbers and determine that they have to get X amount of increased productivity to justify the expense.? Will you be buying new or used? Should you go with a 110-horsepower machine, or can you get by with 65? And what about the added costs of training and maintenance? Each will determine the impact on your purse strings.

When it comes to the new versus used debate, some will argue that going with an older chipper has its advantages. Kinnucan, who?s been in the tree care industry for 32 years, started out with the drum-type cutting system, most popular in the 1970s and the early 1980s. In 1985, his company purchased what is believed to be the first disk chipper in metropolitan Chicago. And while he notes that the drum chippers are steadily being replaced in the marketplace, it?s this type of machine that he prefers.

?In my opinion, it was the best built, most dependable, easiest to maintain chipper on the market,? he says. When the disk cutting system first became available, the claim was that it was a safer system, due to the fact that these units were roller fed and had a larger capacity.

Proponents of the disk chippers like the fact that these units are significantly quieter. Even Kinnucan laughs that, when you run a drum chipper, ?you can hear it a quarter of a mile away.? In areas where noise pollution is a concern ? such as those places where your clients live ? this is a mark in favor of the disk units.
While there is some debate concerning which of the two cutting systems is safer, each has its pros and cons. Says Daum, ?One thing we found with the new disk chippers as opposed to the drum style is that it?s easier for the operator to get comfortable with. They?re very user-friendly, as opposed to the old ones that would literally rip the brush right out of your hands as they took it in. Most operators learned to respect the machine pretty quickly, whereas with the new ones, there?s a comfort factor. The operator still has to be aware that he?s working with a dangerous piece of machinery that?s not very forgiving for the person who makes a mistake or isn?t paying attention to what he?s doing.?

(Incidentally, most of the major manufacturers, including Morbark, Bandit and Vermeer, carry both disk- and drum-type chippers.)

Size matters
When it comes to chipper needs, Rizzo puts landscape contractors into one of two categories: those who save firewood and those who don?t. ?If firewood is to be saved,? he says, ?then the size of the machine is smaller ? four- to six-inch diameter capacity. This group usually looks for a small, quiet, less intimidating machine. The group that wants to chip everything will be limited by the size of the trucks they own.?

The latter group, he says, seems to prefer chippers that handle trees up to the 10-inch diameter range, and these chippers can be towed by most 3/4-ton trucks.

As for Davey Tree, Daum says that, on the residential end, the chippers used take up to 12-inch diameter wood and are 110 to 115 horsepower units. A landscape contractor is more likely to use a machine that will handle wood six to nine inches in diameter, and 65 horsepower. Because the vast majority of landscape companies will be pruning smaller ornamental trees, a light-duty chipper will probably serve you well.

Furthermore, Daum recommends that contractors go with a major chipper manufacturer. Many lawn equipment companies are now manufacturing brush chippers, he says, so that they?ll have a full product line. From his perspective, however, a major manufacturer will have access to more proven technology and will be better able to stand behind its products. Also, there?s less likelihood that chipper models will come and go.

Added income
When it comes to weighing the need for a chipper, Chuck Carr, president of Carr Landscape Management in Porter Ranch, California, says, ?It?s like the old ?chicken or the egg conflict? ? do you buy the equipment and then generate revenue to support it, or do you wait until you have a large enough backlog of work to justify the purchase? To me, the answer is somewhere in the middle. One way to hedge the expense is to buy a less costly, used chipper to use as you build your business. Then, when volume and revenue are there, you can invest in a new, state-of-the-art chipper.?

And it?s entirely possible that a chipper in your fleet will create more business opportunities in your territory than you expect. On one hand, you could handle some of the subcontracting business from those landscape companies that don?t have their own machines, assuming you have the capacity. Of course, there?s also the possibility of using wood chips to create marketable mulch or compost, if you?re willing to deal with the required processing.

For instance, an Ohio nursery took brush management to a new level when it built a composting facility on its site. Within a few years, landscape companies and city governments were paying them to process their yard waste, and they were left with high quality compost they could sell back to other growers. It?s an extreme example, certainly, but one that illustrates where a bit of ingenuity can lead.

?Chippers have an excellent return on investment,? says Rizzo. ?They recycle waste and allow it to be used again. In some cases, the landscape contractor is getting paid to remove the waste and then to put the chips around the trees.?

A brush chipper can be a powerful addition to your fleet, but only if you handle enough debris to justify its purchase. If you encounter or plan to encounter a fair amount of tree care, this is a tool you should become familiar with. A great many landscape contractors are finding that a chipper can add a measurable boost to their services.

September 2002