Why Smaller Surveying Subcontractors Work Best for Clients

There are advantages and disadvantages to both large and small surveying subcontractors in terms of the service they can provide to construction contractors. However, a strong case can be made that boutique surveying companies offer the best results in terms of the motivation, accountability and experience which they can offer. This translates into a much higher quality of service overall, with less risk and stress for contractors and project management staff.

First let us mention the advantages of a big company. They have greater resources, such as CAD drafters in their head office, who can provide remote support to sites if required. They may also be able to rapidly mobilise more surveyors, if needed to supplement the site team or replace individual surveyors. In theory, greater financial resources enable them to buy better equipment, though this is often not the case and some large surveying companies are instead doing the opposite, reducing costs across their operations by purchasing inferior survey equipment (Septentrio, anyone?), or not updating old equipment.

However, big companies also have many disadvantages. They suffer from diseconomies of scale, having to spend money on large director salaries, overheads such as offices, admin staff, underproductive or unprofitable departments within their organisation, administrative staff and advertising. Take a look a the flashy branding of large surveying companies: this has come at the expense of value-adding costs such as surveyors’ wages, preventing them from hiring the best staff).  Compare this to the owner-operator, who probably doesn’t even have an office, uses the surveying equipment themselves so wants the best stuff, and often has 5 or fewer employees (all of whom are surveyors, and alongside whom they work). Consequently, their only costs are directly related to their core competency and the quality of service they are able to offer. This allows them to spend money on things which benefit the contractor.

As any supervisor will tell you (maybe less politely), surveyors themselves are quite an eclectic bunch, and currently in ever-shorter supply in the Western Australian construction industry as more projects are starting to ramp up and the boom is back on. This situation has been exacerbated by covid, when flights from over East can’t be relied upon to bring interstate workers. The effectiveness of a project’s surveying subcontractor is highly leveraged to the experience, ability and personality of their personnel. Large companies, scraping around for staff, will often send whoever they can muster to a site, while paying them the minimum rate they can get away with in order to maximise their profit.

On the other hand, exceptions notwithstanding, most people who go into business for themselves are experienced and capable enough to perform effectively in the role of senior surveyor, and certainly have the motivation to do so. They will stay with the project from start to finish instead of leaving partway through for a better rate elsewhere, they are acutely aware that their reputation and livelihood are tied to the satisfaction of the client, they will even prioritise the project over their personal lives. They want to hire reliable and capable surveyors to work alongside, and provide on-the-job training and career development to junior surveyors instead of throwing them in the deep end. With very little overheads, they can afford to pass on more of their charge-out rate to employees in order to attract better talent, assessing performance and providing training on the job.

As long as a small survey company has sufficient insurance and the right equipment, they can be far more competitive than larger companies in terms of the quality of service they can provide to contractors and clients on construction projects.