Three months ago---Ring Ring
Me:?ÿ Hello.?ÿ How may I help you?
Him:?ÿ My brother told me to get you to do a survey for me because you did such a good job for him last year.
Me: (thinking his brother was an excellent client)?ÿ Be happy to help you out.?ÿ What needs done?
Him:?ÿ Long story that will require a section breakdown so that he buys a house and 20 acres while his other brother buys the remainder of 200 acres.
Me:?ÿ We should be able to get to that in about six weeks and the cost will probably be around $XXXX.
Him:?ÿ Put me on your list.?ÿ I'll let you know if anything changes.
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Two months ago---Ring Ring
Me:?ÿ Hello.?ÿ How may I help you?
Him:?ÿ Hey, this is Drew.?ÿ Remember me?
Me:?ÿ Yes, I do.?ÿ We should be able to jump on that in roughly two weeks.?ÿ Everything going OK?
Him:?ÿ Well, here's the deal.?ÿ It looks like I will need to buy the full 40 the surveyed tract was going to come out of.?ÿ So,?ÿ I need to cancel the survey.
Me:?ÿ No problem.?ÿ We had not had time to even research it, yet.
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Two days ago he calls again to tell me now he is only going to able to buy the house and six acres and asks how soon we could do it.?ÿ Told him at least four to six weeks.?ÿ Then he tells me a guy down the road suggested he call ABC Surveyors because they did a great job for him a few years ago.?ÿ He had called them and they said they could be there in two weeks but for about double what I had told him three months ago for a more complicated tract.?ÿ He asked if I could somehow get it done within two weeks. No.?ÿ Sorry.?ÿ We have already committed to other clients.?ÿ He bids me a fond farewell as he prepares to learn a very hard lesson.
I had spoken with the owner of the other survey firm just a few days earlier.?ÿ He was running a solid two months behind on everything.
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In 1994 I was working at a place in Chilliwack, B.C., Canada. Business was very hand to mouth -we would arrive for work in the morning not knowing what we were going to do after lunch. Too often it was go home and hope there would be work the next day. This is pretty much how it was at all the places I worked in Canada. We never had more than a day or two of work lined up in the best of times.
There was a fellow there who had emigrated from Switzerland. He said that when he surveyed there, they never had less than 6 months backlog of work. This, at the time, I considered inconceivable.
This was my last job in Canada. When I was laid off from that employer my next stop was Portland, Oregon. We've always had work to do here - except for a couple years following 2008 - but rarely more than a week or so of backlog.
So now we arrive in 2023 and guys have 2 months or more backlogged. And I hear about a "shortage of surveyors", blah, blah, blah. I say that it's about *&@%^#* time! The rest of the world considers 2 months backlog "slow".
Hallelujah! At long last the surveyor has some leverage in these business relationships! He can charge closer to what his work is worth, he can pick and choose who he works for. Let's not screw it up by rushing to license any Tom, Dick, or Harry.
So now we arrive in 2023 and guys have 2 months or more backlogged. And I hear about a "shortage of surveyors", blah, blah, blah. I say that it's about *&@%^#* time! The rest of the world considers 2 months backlog "slow".
Part of the problem is some (myself included) surveyors spent too many years busting their butts jumping through arbitrary time constraints that were not actually all that important in the grand scheme. We added to the problem of time expectation. Long hours and 7 day work weeks do not shorten the journey by enough to matter. Its like speeding down the highway to gain a few extra minutes at the end of the journey when we could have just cruised at the speed limit and made it to the same point. I've pulled up to the stop light directly behind the person who flew by me miles back too many times to not see the silliness.
So many other professions and trades require scheduling well in advance, but for some reason, there is this expectation (both by clients and many surveyors) to be available on short notice.
