Don’t you hate it when you call the cable company to do an install and they tell you they will be there between 9:00 and 5:00? Seriously, can’t they narrow it down any more than that?

When you try to schedule a time with a surveyor, it is even worse. You will likely get, “We will be there sometime this week, weather permitting.” Ever wonder why?

Well, let me tell you…

A survey is never straight forward. There is no way to know ahead of time, how much time it will take. What would appear to be a simple, no-nonsense survey – something that should take about an hour in the field – can take a whole day, or more. When we plan surveys, the only one that has a fairly certain start date and time is first thing Monday. Even this isn’t that certain, because we don’t know what happened the week before. Perhaps we had 7 jobs scheduled for week 1 but only got 5 done. Now these spill over into the next week, delaying the jobs that were supposed to start that week.

Then there is weather. There are certain elements we can’t work in, safely. If it is raining, it is difficult to get the jobs done. Not only do we have to worry about the functionality of the electronic equipment, but optics don’t function well with water all over them. Then there is the safety factor. That $450 job just went to crap when someone slips on a wet log and breaks a leg.

Other weather events that affect our ability to work is snow, temperature, and wind. Snow isn’t always a matter of getting to the job, but seeing the ground when you are on the site. Extreme temperatures can cause many issues. Too cold, and the equipment freezes (not to mention it is hard to work when you are looking like the Michelin Tire Man); too hot, and the batteries die very quick. And then there is wind. When it is too windy, one cannot stand vertical easily to hold the rod plumb. When it is windy, you cannot work under trees as things tend to fall on your head.

All of these affect our ability to stay on a schedule. So when you want an ETA for the completion of your survey, just know that often, it is out of our control and we are just plodding along as best we can.

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