FrozenNorth, post: 431504, member: 10219 wrote: How is that possible? I assume most highway jobs have a pretty large component of FHWA funding, so they need to be Brooks Act compliant.
This is a very important question and the public officials need to be aware of this. Many aren't.
Peter Lothian - MA ME, post: 431492, member: 4512 wrote: Low bid wins the public jobs in Mass. :tired_face:
Brooks Bill doesn't apply there, huh?
It's always the same responses on this complaint. Why don't the cheap skates comment on here why they bid so low?! Ha
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As a young licensed surveyor, who ran a family owned surveying company with my dad, and now a government surveyor who gets to moonlight with old clients of mine, I just don't understand this low bid equal low quality work. I get the bad surveyor who has to lowball to get work, but they usually don't last long, for example all the companies that closed doors in 2008-2009. But, I have been beat out by other local companies that I know that do quality work by half or so many times, and vice versa. Sometimes I feel this profession is holding itself back by doing things like this complaining about low bids and trying to trap our competitors because we didn't get the project. I feel that we should be spending more time trying to truly define what it is that we do. I know I have had difficulty explaining to people I meet what exactly I do in terms that they can understand. I believe once we can do that we can be be true professionals with professional income. Rant off. Agree or disagree, to each their own. Destroy me if you want.
And the reason I'm not running a family firm at the moment is that I wasn't licensed at the time my dad passed. He always believed that a true surveyor never has to worry about money, they'll always be busy because of the quality of the reputation. We never advertised and and grew through the last downturn as everyone around us downsized.
Nate The Surveyor, post: 431468, member: 291 wrote: OR, he/she/it will unloose a whole pile of garbage on the community.
Probably relying too heavily on their equipment...
One problem we see (as an engineering consultant) is clients try the "lowest price conforming" method then, after a series of failures they revert to a (often quite complicated) technical ability and price weighting system. Trouble is, fiddle the technical evaluation so that all bidders get the same score, then it just comes down to price. Even better, if lowest price comes from technically best bidder, just find a reason to knock their technical score down so that their price gets inflated, then you have the winner you wanted from the beginning.
