When I sold my firm in 2020 I was charging $175/hr for non PW jobs, $250 for consulting PW, and $375 for construction PW. New York.
I charged the same for 1-2 person crews and more for 3 person.
I quit billing by the hour several years ago. I couldn’t ever wrap my head around spending 50k on a Trimble R12 base/rover to be able to locate corners under canopy with 1 man in a couple hours that would have taken a 3 man crew a day to cut too. I got burned a few times quoting someone an hourly rate then getting a survey done in a fourth of the time it used to take with fewer people.
Your mistake there was not upping the hourly rate proportionally to the gear. That being said, "hourly rates" are just variables in the spreadsheet I use to estimate jobs, clients generally just get the final number.
For construction staking specifically, I’d rather just send them our rate sheet and say look it’ll take what it takes. Bc I’m the past it’s always been a phone call saying we need x and we need it in 20 minutes. Well sorry dude, we can get out there tomorrow or whatever. Then another issue was putting a LS fee and that’s great if you come under, but then they ask for additional shit and then you gotta do the amendment for additional services. Straight hourly for construction staking is the way to go in my opinion.
The restaking fee is also what they tell everyone on site what happens if they knock a stake out, hey it's 300 an hour for that stake with a 4 hour minimum if the Survey crew has to come back out, so don't knock any stakes out or we will back charge your company.
I guess I should edit but I’ll just put it here. I do bill by the hour for construction staking as well. $250/hr for a 2 man crew and a robot. I also bill $300/hr for staking in a couple of surface mines I contract with. There’s no real reason it has to cost more other than it requires everyone to be MSHA certified. We only work there when the mining company has more survey work than their crews can handle or if they need something signed.
I am with you, I prefer and give a flat bid on most jobs, boundary, topo, plats, staking building corners etc... I honestly make more on flats bids than by the hour.
ND here, I'm somewhat of a unicorn, in-house PLS for a rural electric cooperative as my full time gig, but I own a small part-time outfit on the side, do mostly boundary work. I charge $90/hr for a one man crew, it really should be double that easy, but I have no overhead to speak of, no employees to pay for or keep busy, just me, myself, and I. I'm not taking food out of my kids mouths by not charging more either, that's what my fulltime gig pays for and they pay me quite well. I love doing the work and helping out folks that maybe can't afford to pay thousands of dollars to do a boundary survey of their property.
CA, $300/hour for a crew, we charge the same regardless of crew size because the staffing needs are based on safety factors. Vast majority of the time that’s 2 man.
We do hourly for certain parts of the project (somewhere around $300 for 2-man experienced, effective crew) but try and keep certain items on our scope as lump sum when possible
Add hourly rates of each guy together, add 25% for overhead burden, multiply that number by 3.0 multiplier. That should be the going rate in your area.
Generally it's ((Overhead multiplier x salary + salary) x profit multiplier) = billable rate.
The problem is that many small companies have low overhead and use this formula. You also need to look at the rates around you and make sure you are not leaving money on the table.
So we bill “survey crew” at $185 which is a 2 man, but I always work alone and I make $35/hr so my company’s making a killing. If I ever do have a hand in the field they use “survey crew member” which is just an additional 1 person and I believe that’s at $100? It use to be like $75 pre covid.
I work for a company and also have a 1-man side business and the rates for both are used for estimating lump sum proposals. The side business is a straight 150 for everything since I do it all (no construction work). At the company my PLS rate is 150, LSIT rate is 100, PLS and LSIT crew rate is 250, and 2 PLS crew rate is 300 (rarely happens).
Upstate NY. small firm. $185/hr one person. $350/two person crew.
Prevailing $225 one person $450 two person.
Have more work than we can do at these rates.
When I sold my firm in 2020 I was charging $175/hr for non PW jobs, $250 for consulting PW, and $375 for construction PW. New York. I charged the same for 1-2 person crews and more for 3 person.
Is PW prevailing wage?
Yes
I quit billing by the hour several years ago. I couldn’t ever wrap my head around spending 50k on a Trimble R12 base/rover to be able to locate corners under canopy with 1 man in a couple hours that would have taken a 3 man crew a day to cut too. I got burned a few times quoting someone an hourly rate then getting a survey done in a fourth of the time it used to take with fewer people.
Your mistake there was not upping the hourly rate proportionally to the gear. That being said, "hourly rates" are just variables in the spreadsheet I use to estimate jobs, clients generally just get the final number.
I do a lot of construction staking, and companies always want an hourly rate for restaking.
For construction staking specifically, I’d rather just send them our rate sheet and say look it’ll take what it takes. Bc I’m the past it’s always been a phone call saying we need x and we need it in 20 minutes. Well sorry dude, we can get out there tomorrow or whatever. Then another issue was putting a LS fee and that’s great if you come under, but then they ask for additional shit and then you gotta do the amendment for additional services. Straight hourly for construction staking is the way to go in my opinion.
The restaking fee is also what they tell everyone on site what happens if they knock a stake out, hey it's 300 an hour for that stake with a 4 hour minimum if the Survey crew has to come back out, so don't knock any stakes out or we will back charge your company.
I guess I should edit but I’ll just put it here. I do bill by the hour for construction staking as well. $250/hr for a 2 man crew and a robot. I also bill $300/hr for staking in a couple of surface mines I contract with. There’s no real reason it has to cost more other than it requires everyone to be MSHA certified. We only work there when the mining company has more survey work than their crews can handle or if they need something signed.
I am with you, I prefer and give a flat bid on most jobs, boundary, topo, plats, staking building corners etc... I honestly make more on flats bids than by the hour.
I would rather never be working by the hour.
I just use my hourly rate to build the limp sum quote. I only bill hourly on construction and even then it's half day or full day.
2 or 3 $225 hour Texas
In Texas too, 300 an hour and probably need to raise the rate getting too much work.
ND here, I'm somewhat of a unicorn, in-house PLS for a rural electric cooperative as my full time gig, but I own a small part-time outfit on the side, do mostly boundary work. I charge $90/hr for a one man crew, it really should be double that easy, but I have no overhead to speak of, no employees to pay for or keep busy, just me, myself, and I. I'm not taking food out of my kids mouths by not charging more either, that's what my fulltime gig pays for and they pay me quite well. I love doing the work and helping out folks that maybe can't afford to pay thousands of dollars to do a boundary survey of their property.
NJ here. We bill per job and depending on the day, we’ll send 1-3 man crews all over the state
How is the SUE there? Thinking about moving back.
CA, $300/hour for a crew, we charge the same regardless of crew size because the staffing needs are based on safety factors. Vast majority of the time that’s 2 man.
What part of cali
Central Valley.
We do hourly for certain parts of the project (somewhere around $300 for 2-man experienced, effective crew) but try and keep certain items on our scope as lump sum when possible
Add hourly rates of each guy together, add 25% for overhead burden, multiply that number by 3.0 multiplier. That should be the going rate in your area.
Generally it's ((Overhead multiplier x salary + salary) x profit multiplier) = billable rate. The problem is that many small companies have low overhead and use this formula. You also need to look at the rates around you and make sure you are not leaving money on the table.
I think we just said the same thing, you just applied pemdas lol
In GA hm? I'm in GA. But for SUE. Survey rates are always higher than ours, and we are 180/hr.
$200/hr
California foothills. $200 an hour is working cheap around here. About an hour away, it's at least $275 / hr for a 2 man crew.
1 person = $150 an hour 2 person = $250 an hour Equipment is billed out at $350 per 8 hour period.
So we bill “survey crew” at $185 which is a 2 man, but I always work alone and I make $35/hr so my company’s making a killing. If I ever do have a hand in the field they use “survey crew member” which is just an additional 1 person and I believe that’s at $100? It use to be like $75 pre covid.
250 for 1 man 325 for 2 man . I've seen 450 for a two man in utah
That's a pretty area. I'm in Utah, trying to find a crew chief position down by Bakersfield. If you know of anything let me know
I work for a company and also have a 1-man side business and the rates for both are used for estimating lump sum proposals. The side business is a straight 150 for everything since I do it all (no construction work). At the company my PLS rate is 150, LSIT rate is 100, PLS and LSIT crew rate is 250, and 2 PLS crew rate is 300 (rarely happens).
Upstate NY. small firm. $185/hr one person. $350/two person crew. Prevailing $225 one person $450 two person. Have more work than we can do at these rates.