Survey Fees – Hourly Rate or Value

In a discussion with one of my peers the other day, we came upon the topic of cut rate surveyors. We agreed that some will always do the work for less. But that brief discussion got me to thinking about value.

How do you establish the fee for your work? Do you account for the competence of your crew? The type of instrumentation you possess? Many variables must be evaluated to establish an hourly fee for your work. It seems much more reasonable to me to charge by ?value?. What is the value of the work to your client. If you can establish ?value? and base your quote on that amount, your hourly fee will fluctuate with the experience and skillful use of your available equipment.

I have had competitors who charged clients for errors and delays caused by their employees. Stake a house or a curb in the wrong place, then charge hourly to correct it? Is this practice common? What about charging your client extra when the work takes longer than estimated because of weather? Is the rain that was predicted the fault of your client? That is one of the problems of ?hourly fees?.

Might that also be one reason that the other guy is sometimes thought to be a price cutter. His hourly rate might be lower because his work is actually worth less. Then again he may be able to do the job for less because he is more efficient, more experienced, and better trained..

This is intended to make you think and perhaps add those thoughts to this discussion.