Asplundh evolutionizes vegetation management

摘要

Looking back, when I was first exposed to our industry as a climber and foreman in the late 1950s, it was an industry that had little or no training. The industry also lacked mechanization except the introduction of the one-man chain saw, which was so heavy that calling it one-man was a real stretch. There was no question, we were tree trimmers-not line-clearance workers, not vegetation management specialists. The days of telephone trimming were just ending with the telephone companies going into a reactive-trimming mode, and the electric companies moving in a preventative mode. I moved to New England where the first bucket trucks had been in use since the early 1950s. We used Sky-Worker lifts until we started to manufacture our own lifts, which revolutionized the work of roadside crews. The utility inspectors in charge of the crews generally were linemen who, for one reason or another, had moved into overseeing the tree crews. Town lines determined what was to be trimmed and almost all the work done in the United States, certainly in New England, was contracted by time and material, or hourly rate work.