Samuel Patten

My work here is the management of a small holding of land that includes a number of orchards.

Land management / Clearance:

My role here has been, to start, a complete clearance / cut back of a number of years worth of overgrowth. This has involved the heavy use of petrol strimmers and various other powered garden equipment to cut back all brambles which had choked the orchard. Removal of various thorn bushes and unwanted weeds. The removal of dead apple trees and pruning of live ones.

Coppice work:

Included on the land were a large number of Hazel trees which had not been coppiced in over a decade. As such I have coppiced the trees, stripped off all the brash from the trunks and prepared the wood for use as firewood and or useful building materials etc.

Alongside the above, both the landowner and myself make great efforts to manage the the land in such a way as to not damage the environment for natural plant and animal life. This is done in many forms but includes the leaving of trees regularly used for bird nesting and not overly cutting back to leave cover for said nests. Making sure the the right types and amounts of local flora remained untouched for honey bees etc.

This was a proctical two day course in the skill of Hedgelaying in the traditional north Devon style.

Learned hedgelaying techniques using hand tools such as billhooks and axes for farm and land management.

NPTC Level 2 Certificate in chainsaw maintenance and cross cutting.

In my efforts to retrain, I have completed the above chainsaw qualification.

This was three day course which as well as the certified use of chainsaws, also covers all areas of health and safety regulations involved. all risk assessment training as well as the complete maintenance of the chainsaw and saftey equipment.

A two day course in the skill of traditional hedgelaying in the north Somerset style as well as the skill of coppicing hazel trees.

This course was a practical course with hands on hedgelaying skills using relevant hand tools as well as general coppice and woodland management theory.

Transport / Yard:

• Organisation of all transport planning for both the company vehicle and external hauliers.
• Liaising with customers to acquire stock and then arranging all parts of the collection. Also reporting vital information back to customers as well as completing waste transfer notes and other relevant paperwork.
• Arranging all the maintenance for the works vehicle, including arranging the regular services, MOT's and daily checks.
• Ordering of any parts, equipment or PPE required.
• Arranging and booking CPC courses for the drivers.
• Downloading and uploading of drivers cards and vehicle unit information form the Tachograph.
• Data entry and log keeping of all required information, including but not limited to, weights, vehicle registrations and materials delivered to site using both Excel and Word spreadsheets. This also includes monthly reports on formulated spreadsheets to external bodies such as the Environment Agency amongst others.
• Organising all returns of any sub par materials delivered. This would involve reporting any problems to the suppliers, arranging photo's etc displaying the problem and coming to an agreement reference any costs incurred.
• Arranging all maintenance / repairs of Forklifts on site, including annual services and log keeping of all forklift problems reported by staff through to resolution.
• Organising all deliveries of diesel to site.
• Weighbridge operations. Weighing in / out of vehicle, printing of tickets and record keeping.

Administration / Customer service:

• Data entry and log keeping on various company and legally required spreadsheets. (Mentioned above)
• Customer services. I was the first point of contact for all incoming customer phone calls as well as visitors. I was also the sole transport contact throughout my time at Wessex.
• Acquisitions. My role also included the acquisition of new materials. This involved making first contact via cold call or email to potential new customers / suppliers within certain industries.
• Cost benefit analysis of all potential new jobs and liaising with the potential customers and suppliers to try and secure materials for recycling.
• Stock taking and reconciliation. I complete monthly inventory and reconcile the physical stock with all financial and weight log information.
• Financial records and fee's. My role included taking payments from customers as well as logging all the fee's accrued monthly by account holding customers ready for invoicing.

Additional information:

• Forklift experience (Not currently licenced)
• Experience working with power tools as well as table saw, bandsaw, shredders and granulators.

Administrator:

• Completing daily intake of tonnage figures and entering it into an internal system.
• The completion of weekly / monthly tonnage reports for customers.
• Training of new staff members on internal intranet system and weighbridge.
• Setting up new accounts on internal system and amending existing details where required.
• Completing agency staff time sheets on payroll.
• Correspondence with new and existing customers via phone and email.
• Ordering of office and warehouse equipment.
• General Administrative duties including, data entry, filing, customer services and correlating month end figures.

Weighbridge operator:

• Weighing in / out of all vehicles using a computer based weighbridge system.
• Completing all required paperwork with vehicle, weight and material information.
• Liaising with hauliers to arrange bookings and collections.
• Liaising with customs agencies both in the UK and abroad to provide required information, paperwork and export documents.
• Constant communication with yard operatives to organise loading / unloading of materials.

Details available on request

Details available on request