Like so many other Approved Contractors before us, it's been quite a challenge to achieve accreditation, but in my opinion the project has been extremely rewarding and quite enlightening.
Among a host of the modules I appreciated, the one that stood out and indeed consumed the most amount of our time and energy was H&S management. Although at times a bit of a bind, it did help me to truly appreciate the responsibilities we all have towards each other's welfare, and although the quality of our work I believe has been of a high standard, I will admit that I failed to recognise the importance of implementing a H&S policy. Happily that is no longer the case.
The Association has a very robust support network which makes it much more accessible for aspiring arb contractors to achieve the high status. Without wanting to sound too cliched, it has been the proudest moment of my 30 years of being in the industry, which I hasten to add could not have happened without our back office staff and dedicated workforce.
It has also been a great investment. Since we got the approval back in March, the advice and additional support provided in marketing specifically have been inspirational and quite unexpected. We quickly incorporated it within our systems, so a very special thanks to Paul Smith and Polly Stone for their continued support and guidance.
Our team is customer focused and very passionate about tree management within an urban and woodland setting. We are extremely proud to now be a part of the ArbAC scheme in which we hope to make a real difference in raising the standard in contractual arboriculture.
The Trees-Uk website
Article taken from Issue 183 of The ARB Magazine. Members can view their copy here.
To find out more about becoming an ARB Approved Contractor click here or if you are interested to find out what you need to prepare to become an Approved Contractor attend one of our workshops.