Yep, the whole game changes as soon as there's a hangin' rope license with your name on it.
> Yep, the whole game changes as soon as there's a hangin' rope license with your name on it.
It surely does.
One thing to remember in the contracting business:
If you're walking away from a job with $20 in your hand, the fella you contracted from probably walked away with $40 or $60.
As long as there is a choice, I wanna be on top of the food-chain. Slammin' hubs for money is ok. I'd rather be here in the comfort of my office and pay the hub-slammers....and I walk away with more than them...trust me.
I was not trying to put the guy down, I respect anyone that works hard, and even some who dont.
We have all found corners and, the minute we see the name on the CAP, we know we need to look for more corners. Thats the point I should have made better. When I find a survey factory company cap I know I need to look for and find more corners. He could be the best crew at the company, but I dont know his field, from the worst crews field work.
I agree with monetary being a driving force in this business, however it would be nice if they charge a higher rate so they could spend more time on a survey. I cant do a lot survey in less than two hours, finding corners, drawing the house. Then someone needs to plot it up.
From a brief read, that would be illegal in the states I'm licensed in, at least the way I understand and interpret the rules.
"You'll see this business model become the norm in the coming decade."
Perhaps in select markets. Others won't even change their law to allow it in that time frame. Business models vary widely by geography and jurisdiction...
In the case of an unlicensed crew it would most likely be illegal in New Jersey. You would either run afoul with the State Board or the IRS.
The IRS says to be a contract worker and not an employee the contract worker is making the decision on how the job is done, with minimum control from the contractor.
From the IRS http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Behavioral-Control
Degree of Instruction means that the more detailed the instructions, the more control the business exercises over the worker. More detailed instructions indicate that the worker is an employee. Less detailed instructions reflects less control, indicating that the worker is more likely an independent contractor.
New Jersey Regulations in NJAC 13:40-9.1(a) requires regular and effective supervision.
A licensee in responsible charge of an engineering or land surveying project shall render regular and effective supervision to those individuals performing services which directly and materially affect the quality and competence of engineering or land surveying work rendered by the licensee.
To meet the State Regulations I believe the IRS would treat you as an employee. To be a contractor in the eyes of the IRS you would be in violation of the State Regulations.
> Yep, the whole game changes as soon as there's a hangin' rope license with your name on it.
My dad told me in December of 2002, when he found out I passed, that I now had a license to get sued. 🙂 It stuck with me.
They crossed paths with the Florida board in 2012.... The board's 23 count report on MTS violations ... hopefully they have cleaned up their system.
> they go mow em down at 100 or 150 a pop. Often off of a single setup.
Okay. Maybe there would be money to be made in a timely manner with the scenario you describe.
flyin, do you know is the $100-$150 per staked house going to be what the firm charges or what the contract crew gets paid per house?
I honestly don't- probably the firm- that's a number I've gotten from a couple very casual conversations with builders (or- more specifically- site guys). But if you take into account that you also have a contract with a builder, you may be discussing slab checks and maybe even titles once they start the grand opening extravaganza sale on all those new houses. So, really, you could have 2-3 visits at that fee where you already have all the background info built up. Say a contract crew knocks out 15-20 forms a day, goes back and does that again with slab checks, and maybe a good chunk of that on titles on the third trip... even if the crew only clears $50 per you're still talking about a contract crew making upwards of $1000 a day. If you take, say, a $20,000 investment cost (I believe I've seen that # in this thread somewhere)- you're paying that back fast.
> Craigs List Advertisement
>
> I'm not sure who that this is
> but are things on the up swing for this profession?
>
> Very interseting
In what way is that more interesting than any other scam advertised on the internet?
32 posts to a thread on BeerLeg/SurveyorConnect
There's your answer, Kent.
Talk about being taken to the wood shed....
With nearly $10,000 in fines and costs (this would not include the fines and costs to the individual surveyors) hopefully they got the message. Although, It's seems a little unusual that they would have 5 separate complaints in such a short period of time. Maybe they were pushing so many surveys out that their number was bound to come up sooner or later (in this case 5 times). Makes me wonder if they are on double secret probation here in Florida. You have to wonder how many times it would take before the Board punches some company's ticket and tells them to find some other line of work to be in...
32 posts to a thread on BeerLeg/SurveyorConnect
> There's your answer, Kent.
I thought P.T. Barnum already had that one figured out.
I'm not done with my SIT time requirements, which is why I'm not an RPLS yet. And yes, money is a big driving force. But that's not a bad thing when you love and have a passion for what you do for a living.
> I'm not done with my SIT time requirements, which is why I'm not an RPLS yet. And yes, money is a big driving force. But that's not a bad thing when you love and have a passion for what you do for a living.
Have you considered the large cost of not learning much of value about land surveying practice by working for this sort of survey mill? Most if not all of the folks who learn about Texas surveying by working for inferior operations never amount to anything. In the long run, it costs too much not to work for the best mentors available. Selling used cars pays well, I've heard.
The good thing about these types of threads
The good thing about these types of threads is that they serve as a wakeup call to many of us. What we do and what we see others similar to us doing is what we view as normal, acceptable and standard. Then something like this thread comes along to alert us to alternative ways of thinking, both good and bad. We force ourselves to either stand firm against the contrary practice or to reconsider things in a broader context and decide it might actually be fine.
(Forgive me Wendell) Thank God we have this wonderful resource available to us, i.e. BeerLeg/SurveyorConnect.
The good thing about these types of threads
> The good thing about these types of threads is that they serve as a wakeup call to many of us. What we do and what we see others similar to us doing is what we view as normal, acceptable and standard. Then something like this thread comes along to alert us to alternative ways of thinking, both good and bad. We force ourselves to either stand firm against the contrary practice or to reconsider things in a broader context and decide it might actually be fine.
I agree that more surveyors need to reconsider their life choices if they find themselves working for one of the Walmart entities offering "surveying" services. I have never seen one of these remote-control, quick-and-dirty, low-price operations that even came close to producing work that met the minimum technical standards. I don't doubt that someone is getting rich off of them, but highly doubt it is any of the contract workers bustling around.
I know of some guys that are doing that very thing. The "party chief" gets half the money for the survey, and he has to buy the equipment and pay his help. Of course, I don't have any hard proof so turning someone in to the board or the IRS would be useless.