It’s all about the challenge for David Coronado. With more than 35 years in the tree care service industry, he enjoys figuring out the best way to do a job and getting it done. He knows firsthand no two jobs are the same.
“Sometimes you just don’t know how you’re going to do it, but you find a way, and it feels pretty good,” says Coronado.
After working more than a decade for a company, he decided to start his own business and founded DMC Tree Service in 1990 in San Jacinto, California. While getting the company off the ground, he continued to work for his employer. It took two years before DMC Tree Service became his full workload. As a one-man operation, Coronado would sometimes recruit his brother or friends to help on weekends.
Now, DMC Tree Service has four full-time employees and one part-time employee. About 75 percent of the work is tree trimming or tree removals and the other 25 percent is stump grinding. The majority of Coronado’s clients are municipalities and businesses including casinos and golf courses. He attributes his 25 years in business to being diligent.
“We focus on providing the customer with quality work at a reasonable price. We make sure our work is the best. I don’t cut corners.”
Another challenge Coronado — and his customers — has been facing is the drought in California. His crews ensure trees not only look nice, but are healthy, too.
“With this drought, some trees are dying. They get to the wilting point and can’t be saved,” explains Coronado. “We try to avoid removing trees but don’t have a choice if we can’t save them.”
There is one challenge Coronado doesn’t put up with: equipment that can’t get the job done. He started his company with what he could afford — a dump truck and a used brush chipper. Then a few years later he demoed Vermeer equipment; he knew it would benefit his business.
“It’s amazing the difference good equipment makes,” says Coronado.
Coronado provides a perfect example. His previous stump grinder couldn’t fit through a 36-inch (91.4 cm) gate, was hard to maneuver through grass and didn’t grind efficiently. It was such hard work that he used to bid high on stump grinding jobs that were in backyards — hoping they wouldn’t get them. That’s not the case with the Vermeer SC372 stump cutter now in his fleet.
“We bought another one last year because we’ve been doing so much backyard work. It’s diesel so it has a lot more torque and power, and we can get through a 36-inch (91.4 cm) gate.”
The Vermeer BC1500 brush chipper also helps DMC Tree Service be more productive. Coronado estimates his crews are 30 to 40 percent more efficient with Vermeer equipment than other brands.
“With a Vermeer chipper, you don’t have to sit there and cut everything up so it’ll go through the chipper,” he says. “That saves a significant amount of physical work.”
Before Coronado purchased the Vermeer brush chipper, he would take an extra truck to jobsites to haul away wood that was too big for his old chipper. The gained productivity means DMC Tree Service can be price-competitive.
“The Vermeer equipment allows us to get the larger jobs and beat out competitor prices,” Coronado says. “Customers estimate a job will cost them $500 and they wonder why we’ll do it for $200. We bring in the Vermeer machines and are done in no time. Then they understand.”
Vermeer equipment lets Coronado worry about the challenge each job brings and not about whether the equipment is up for the task.
“All we buy is Vermeer machines. They make the work so much easier.”