Farrar Recycling - School Bus job site - Page 2

I havent had a chance to update this thread and today's a good example why I hate not having insurance at this job site. Keep in mind alot of reading ahead.
Please note the following is being used with permission from my employee.


One of our employees (name hidden for privacy reasons) was working on a junk truck at the salvage yard and its a good thing I don't leave my employees alone for more then a few minutes. She was pulling parts off the engine and slipped on a milk crate I was using to reach over the fenders and I didn't know she was on it in front of the truck, I heard her hit the front of the truck and call me (I was under the dash pulling wires) and went to check on her when she called me. Well to make the story short she ended up with a hood latch in her arm and ended up in the hospital for 6 hrs waiting on surgery before we could bring her home. Took an hour to remove it and clean the wound and wrap it. We were cleared for everything since it could have happened to anyone but shes my hardest worker and being out for 5 weeks will really set this job site back. Now keep in mind this could have happened at this site as well and now im really considering insurance for it just incase since its better to have it and not need it then not to have it and need it. I dont have insurance at the junkyard but I might be getting it since it could have been alot worse, she ended up with a cut, some bruising on the muscle but no veins or nerve damage. They tried her family but no one answered so I was the only one who got the final findings. (This is being used with her permission so someone else in a case like this could possibly avoid it).


Shes fine and I was told not to let her work in any dirty environments for at least 3-4 weeks buts shes stubburn and already wants to get back to work but im following what the doctor told me. I spent the entire time with her up to when she went to the OR and for a few minutes when I brought her cell phone out to car and her corporate employee file with her medications listed, etc... Not one member of her family could be contact during that time. But even the nurses and doctors said she was lucky. Shes both an employee and a friend so her safety comes before everything else. I didn't care we shut down the yard as soon as it happened I would rather get her to a hospital then have anything else happen, I would rather lose money then put her safety last, if any metal had arrived I would have turned it away no matter what it was, just to make sure she was getting treated.


Well that's what I learned today but as a warning for anyone new or old to the industry keep the above in mind since if it can happen at my yard it can happen anywhere. This was our first accident in 9 years and I dont plan on anymore anytime soon. But either way my employees safety is our #1 concern. It cost money to make money and this case could have resulted in a law suit or even criminal charges (Our county here in Maine is a little different and can place blame on the company owner for injuries or death resulting from on the job accidents if not insured), so for everyone who thinks this job is easy and quick money keep that in mind. She is paid $12 / hr to dismantle vehicles so think about it is it really worth the risk of no insurance, she could have easily had it in her neck, or worse. Our ambulance takes 45 minutes alone to get here and in that time I kept two cold face clothes on her head to keep her from fainting, but like we said in that time you could bleed to death if its serious and the county dosent do anything about it since the contract is up and they dont have a licensed EMT who can give medications at the closes fire station so we have to wait for the rescue to come from 36 miles away. She was the only one working today so it could have easily been worse.


Let it just be a wake up call to alot of people who dont have insurance. Weather a new or established business I never thought this would happen but look it did, and you could easily lose everything if your sued. I had her sign a liability insurance waiver stating she was waiving her liability just this morning to. Here in Maine part time works don't need workers comp if under 15 hrs / week so that's not a option for anyone here but may soon be just in case.


Ok go back to what your doing. Im done for now. I will update this thread as we make progress on the bus, I just wanted to say the above and show a good example why insurance is so important.

We even made the decision to close into next Wends to update the safety policies such as removed the latches from 1990's Ford F150-F450's like the one today this could have been avoided with just 5 minutes work.

Originally Posted by bullion

Be very careful around bins and never work alone!

Thats a good point to never work alone and something were trying to get through to our employees. I have 1 new one and the other employee mentioned above coming in next week for training. She was trained but due to being rushed in for emergency treatment she has to come back for a onsite drug test, and be retrained to comply with our policies.


Usually I tell everyone never to work alone if they can avoid it, now do I follow that no but I should be since us owners are no different then the employees. I cant count how many times ive had to stop on the road side alone to fix straps, etc... and how many close calls Ive had with tractor trailers coming within inches, cars not slowing down and moving over like there required to do in Maine for any emergency vehicle including tow trucks, and roadside assistance vehicles like I use when hauling vehicles or metal.


I think that may soon change since anything can go wrong at anytime and above are two good examples of no matter how your trained anything can go wrong from falling to even medical emergencies. Usually there not something you think about into it happens, but I would rather make the changes now if it can help prevent another accident or even worse here in the future or at any of our other yards, or company owned properties I would rather do it now then receive a fine for anything or even get sued.

Yeah it shows no matter how strict the policies anything can go wrong regardless of what you do or who your working with. Also I forgot to update this thread about the cabinet handles. There chrome plated brass so there older then we thought. I tested them a week or two ago.

Finally got down to the bus to do some work. Due to the bugs we only worked for 2 hours down there but it was still long enough to get this much done. We broke the rest of the windows out, removed one front door, some more roof panels came down and we started cleaning it up inside.

The bus is tipping at a 50 degree angle and getting worse every time it rains up here so it wont be long before shes either cut up or laying on her side.

Inside Front roof


Front Doors


Drivers Side of Bus with windows broken out.


For the last picture the girls were suppose to be out of it but that didnt happen due to the way she sits in the woods. The roof is almost ready for removal in which case we have another employee coming in to help me and the girls out and get all 4 tanks removed (2 fuel, 1 water, 1 small septic tank) Bus has 2 60 gallon fuel tanks according to the old records from the school district I was able to obtain.

Don't forget she has about 10-20 lbs of #2 copper for my pile still under it as well. Copper here still isnt worth turning in at $2.00 / lb for bare bright $1.85 for #1 Copper, and $1.68 for #2 Copper and $1.53 for light copper. These prices may have changed since 2 weeks ago up at ScrapCo in East Millinocket Maine since I went up with Raven. Light Iron prices have been the same if I call KP Enterprises (Schnitzer Northeast Auburn) I can get $75 / ton if I have 30+ cars to crush minus transport fees or I can bring it to East Millinocket and get 0.025 / lb

That was originally looked at since we usually use them for storage here at the junkyard but the floor is completely gone throughout it, right now the frame is barely holding her up alone it was shacking when we were removing the panels today. I wish we could have saved her to sell for storage or something but after 40 years of Maine winters it finally took its toll. The passenger side wall started to collapse not long after I took the pictures.

Here's the picture that didnt come out when I tried yesterday to take it. The passenger side is starting to collapse and theres currently no support there at all. It was fine two weeks ago but this is what it looked like when I checked it.





Ill update this as we go since I was called in to help my cousin out at large site clean up down the street so im taking all the ewaste, firewood thats still left for my lot, and any other metal, etc.. I can get in the buses while hes having fun the gas powered refrigerators, and buses, and everything I dont want. This is one of those jobs my 608 license comes in handy since he dosent have it and dosent know how to deal with appliances since the crushing company usually handles that for him.

Its been awhile since ive had a chance to work up at the bus. Since I had multiple vehicles to remove on the same lot we quit the bus into the weather cleared up some. Having done that has helped us out some but the bus is still stuck the way it was when we last touched it. I had another junkyard go look at it yesterday and he had the same problem as us how do you remove it in one piece without tearing up the yard. We will be trying to get permission from the property owner behind where the bus is sitting so we can cut some trees and back the rollback up to the bus and pull here out that way.

Since we did make a little progress below are some images of the vehicle we removed from the woods there today. The van was a 1963 Ford Van, rusted out, no engine or transmission and the rear axle fell off when being loaded on the road side. It was 50ft into the woods off a dirt road upside down, and crushed on one side as can be seen in the images. The entire van was rusted out from front to back. I gave the van to another junkyard but with steel being at $0.007 cents per pound (yes you read that right its under $0.01 cent per pound here in Northern Maine for incomplete vehicles), it made more since to have someone else haul it out then to mess with it myself.

Below are the images of the van I have more and will upload them when I get them (there on my phone but I dont feel like waking Raven to have her send them to me). I also have a few short videos of the removal process.

Van when first pulled out of the woods:


Being loaded on side of the road:


Being chained down:

I havent updated this thread in awhile and finally found the video I wanted to add of the inside of the bus back in July. The video is short but I will try to get one showing the outside as well so you have a idea of what it looks like now. I have to contact the local logging company and see how much it will cost to have them pull the bus up to the road with a skidder since were out of options and it will cost to two much to finish cutting the bus up. We only quit for the summer due to the heat and a bees nest in the front roof section behind the tear drop lights.

Any questions please feel free to ask. The video is short but I forgot I never uploaded it to youtube so I did that tonight. Feel free to watch it and I will try to get a better one soon.

Its been a while since I was able to get on back on here. I just wanted to stop in and update this thread. My company is currently on 5 different site clean ups and we had a chance to get back to the bus with the entire crew minus one DOT supervisor since she had to watch her sister while there father helped us at the bus. The pictures below were taken after the bus was cut up some. We ran out of blades prior to finishing that day. The bus will be cut up all the way and cleaned up this week. Our company was closed due to being contracted on another site clean up that was originally on here shared by scrapbabe97 since we were awarded the contract and asked to clean up the mess and send the bill to the property owner. This bus will be done soon and I will updating it as we go. This was with three of us working that day.

Below you will notice we have rubber and glass mixed in with the scrap up here were allowed to turn it in with the metal with no additional charges, etc... since it was part of the vehicle the metal was removed from. The bus was 90% #1 iron and #2 iron as classified here in Maine #2 iron usually will fall into #1 iron when going over the scale at most scrap yards we sell to within 150 miles of here.

Our company will be back to buying soon. Sorry for anyone we missed with messages and text we were closed for the last 3 months working contracts each day around Maine and other states.

Passenger Side of Bus - We did save the Carpenter emblem if anyone wants to buy it.


Drivers Side of the bus


Scrap pile in front of the bus

Originally Posted by diesel1

Seems like a lot of work for minimal scrap tonnage. How do you make any money on these jobs?

This job was done as a favor since we had a site clean up to finish we were able to charge more on that clean up to cover the cost of the bus alone here. The other job site were on is being covered by the owner being charged for labor and trash removal, plus other income.

The bus came to 11,000lbs so far and we still removing metal from the job site. I will release the total weight once I know it and load the additional images once I have them on the computer.

The bus has cost us a total of $4000 since we started the job site and we have made most of that back since we started before the price drop in 2014. The bus itself so far is 3tons removed and still going. Were the only company in this part of Maine that will take these jobs from property owners, department of transportation, and the state direct but were one of only 6 licensed recyclers in the entire county so they dont have many options with the proper training and experience around this area or within 200 miles of us.

$4000 to cut up a bus?..........A generator/ some saws and some hard work way less that $4000

Yea I just figured in the generator because usually if there is no power readily available battery powered tools will be a nuisance...........If it took me two years to do a job I would be embarrassed to even show up