Make Surveying a one man job

For 20 plus years i have had a 2 or 3 man crew but for the last year and a half the bosses decided to go with a one man crew.?ÿ Some days it is great other days a major pain. Some of the things i noticed that are of concern are safety and not enough hands to pack around all the equipment. When doing grading work the office guys get very upset when they have to go out in the field to help out.

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Lifting the burden of keeping another set of hands busy frees up my cognitive functions enough that I do not miss having another person for consult, having another person to point out that I pulled a boner like not spinning the backsight or whatever has been missed.?ÿ

You may find that talking to yourself increases.

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Breaking your leg in the forest with no cell phone coverage.

I have whole heartedly embraced a hatred for a one-man crew for two reasons. Safety and the ability to train up folks.?ÿ

However, a one man band turning out lot surveys is probably doable since you nearly always park on site and work in a highly visible and populated area.

Solo surveying is pretty common.?ÿ With modern technology, it get's easier all the time.?ÿ ?ÿIf your helper isn't really a surveyor, how much brain power is he/she adding to the day??ÿ ?ÿ I found that I was more efficient by myself.?ÿ ?ÿWere there days I wanted someone to help me drag the gear through the jungle??ÿ Of course.?ÿ ?ÿ But I didn't want the stress of employees.?ÿ ?ÿThere are pros and cons to both situations.?ÿ?ÿ

also... reflectorless instruments and RTK that doesn't need a base station are two common and simple solutions to the problems listed.?ÿ?ÿ

Safety is a huge concern, especially since a lot of us going out doing this solo work are on the wrong side of 40 or 50.

Been solo since 96, with the exception of some construction staking and deep woods line running. But 99% for me has been solo. I don't see anything that will make a change to that.

Solo surveying has been around for a very long time and has been consistently doable since robots entered the scene. Reflectorless technology has improved robotics even more & now with Network RTK it is going to become more and more prevalent, so I do not understand the reason for the question.
I will say this though, unless and until surveyors pull their damned head out of their a$$es and start charging more to be able hire good people and pay a decent wage and make a profit, surveying will die a death of a thousand cuts and it will be a well-deserved death.

Profit is not a dirty word.

As far as whether solo surveying can be done effectively - that ship sailed about 15 years ago. Yes, you need to change the way some things are done. Starting with getting a robotic instrument - with reflectorless (does a robot exist that doesn't have reflectorless?)

I've never left anyone watching my RTK base. Only once was it a problem, and that one time was only a brief setback (A word of advise - don't set it up right next to the road). If it's a problem in your area that's a good reason to get signed up to an RTN.?ÿ

Safety. What, a farmer never goes out to his field alone? A person never works in an office alone? You never drive someplace alone??ÿ Phhhht! Stay in touch with someone responsible via your cell. Check in every couple of hours. It really is a rare place where there is no cell service these days. If you work in BF Alaska or something get a satellite phone.?ÿ People have been solo surveying for quite some time and the safety concerns people raised way back when really haven't been an issue.

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I routinely work in areas that have no cell service, the Berkshires and Green Mountains have lots of holes in coverage.?ÿ We work solo a lot, but prefer to work in tandem when the job allows, within a few miles of one another

I've been solo for over 20 years now.?ÿ Even when I ran several crews, they were primarily solo.?ÿ On the rare occasion I will add a second person to a crew for heavy brushing and such.?ÿ For the most part I can get the second person from a temp service when needed.?ÿ As for safety, I carry a 'Spot' device.?ÿ For the record, I'm on what is apparently the wrong side of 50.

Posted by: StLSurveyor

I have whole heartedly embraced a hatred for a one-man crew for two reasons. Safety and the ability to train up folks.?ÿ

However, a one man band turning out lot surveys is probably doable since you nearly always park on site and work in a highly visible and populated area.

for the last two months i've been doing just about everything BESIDES turning out lot surveys.?ÿ but here's the thing: i LOVE to work.?ÿ and i don't mean 8 hours of CAD every day (or even every third day).?ÿ i mean sweat, bleed, dig, chop, jump, crawl, etc etc.?ÿ the safety concerns mentioned are, imo, somewhat valid, but norman's counterpoints are an effective argument to that, as far as i'm concerned.

i realize i'm probably an outlier to some degree in how much i enjoy the labor end of things (did i mention i also come home and run 10k with the dogs 5 days a week after work?), but i rationalize it like this: 1. the beer tastes better at the end of a day of hard work and 2. i do not intend to?ÿ?ÿgo gentle into that goodnight.

Posted by: Norman Oklahoma

People have been solo surveying for quite some time and the safety concerns people raised way back when really haven't been an issue.

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It had been an issue for some. The latest year Bureau of Labor Statistics has data for in 2016. 11 surveyors died on the job, and that doesn't count the surveyors who were working on construction and mining jobs.?ÿ

That's not to say that many surveys can be executed safely solo, but you have to remember a day in the field can be vary radically from surveyor to surveyor and from day to day.?ÿ

That second set of eyes, legs and arms is a tremendous help. ?ÿWell worth the expense because I will bill them out profitably. ?ÿCharge what you are worth and it's not a concern.

Posted by: aliquot

Posted by: Norman Oklahoma

People have been solo surveying for quite some time and the safety concerns people raised way back when really haven't been an issue.

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It had been an issue for some. The latest year Bureau of Labor Statistics has data for in 2016. 11 surveyors died on the job, and that doesn't count the surveyors who were working on construction and mining jobs.?ÿ

That's not to say that many surveys can be executed safely solo, but you have to remember a day in the field can be vary radically from surveyor to surveyor and from day to day.?ÿ

11??ÿ i mean, i don't want to be unnecessarily contrarian or crass- but that seems like a statistical non-starter if you ask me.

like a year or two ago when the news was crying about a measles "outbreak" when like 8 people in minnesota had it.

and look- i get the whole "what if it was somebody you knew?"?ÿ well, it has been.?ÿ and it sucks.?ÿ but i don't think using that data really supports the argument that it's an inherently unsafe proposition.?ÿ in fact, considering our working environments and conditions, the inverse argument might hold up just as well.

So I did a lot of construction layout for 10-11 years all by myself. Super easy to do it by yourself with GPS and a Robotic total station. But it honestly was always the absolute worst. I would constant be cursing to myself under my breath, along the lines of why am I doing this, because it really is a pain in the ass laying everything out, stopping to bang stakes in, mark them, flag them, pick up and carry all the stuff on your back and move to the next point.

Having one person helping carry and bang stakes in the ground is really such a game changer that once you do that one or two times, it really just makes you hate doing it by yourself a lot more.

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But thats just my anecdotal experience. Super easy to do a one man, but also super frustrating as well (imo).

I did alot of one man surveys at my last company, everything from boundary, topo to construction layout and as-builts.?ÿ?ÿ With the ability to team up if needed.?ÿ I actually enjoyed it, being able to work at my own pace and do what needed to be done.?ÿ Never felt unsafe, but I've spent alot of time out in the woods and on a farm growing up.

Now saying that, some of my co-workers were not as happy when working solo.?ÿ But they enjoyed talking alot and complaining, which slowed me down, which is why I probably liked working solo.

We started working solo a few years ago and at first I didn't mind, but given the volume of work we typically crank out in the summer and fall here in Alaska, I soon came to the conclusion that what we really needed was a pitch hitter that could go out with whoever had the most wood to sling or line to cut. It's just a wear and tear thing as my shoulder?ÿand back?ÿis not what it was twenty years ago. The solution I came up with was to seasonally hire a surveying student out of the our university's geomatics program. It's a win-win for everyone. The student gets some real?ÿ hands on experience and I've got a young buck to pound lath and chop line and I'm freed up?ÿto concentrate on keeping things moving and not blowing something because I had too many balls in the air. On long drives after working in the rain all day, having someone that can take the wheel so I can grab some shut eye?ÿis huge in my book.

Aliquot,

Of those 11 fatalities, how many were solo??ÿ How many were just driving to or from the job site??ÿ I'm not saying that field can not be dangerous, but those numbers may include things that a second or third person would not change.