3 EASY STEPS TO WORKING WITH A GPS MACHINE CONTROL DATA PROVIDER

So, you’ve invested in some GPS machine control technology. You’ve weighed the option of training or hiring an in-house person versus hiring an external service provider to handle the data prep. Based on your research, you’ve decided to partner with an external company that specializes in data prep and want to know what the next steps are. We’ll tell you what the steps are from our experience.

Contractor makes a call to his GPS modeler

STEP 1 – Make A Call

Reach out to the external service provider to begin building a relationship with them by letting them know about the types of earthwork jobs that your company typically does. You’ll also need to let them know which technology you’ve bought and which brand(s) of heavy equipment are in your fleet. This initial conversation is also a great time to ask any questions you may still have about their services, process, or anything else you weren’t able to easily find through your research. Although reaching out by email or some other means besides a phone call is fine too, we highly recommend making the call for that first conversation. Nothing can truly replace hearing each other’s voices and tones like having a conversation.

Sending CAD & PDF project files to the service provider is a critical step in the process

STEP 2 – Send the Project Files

When you have a project that you’re bidding on or have already won the bid on and you are ready to get started then you’ll want to send an email to your service provider which includes the project name, scope, timeline, project CAD files, and PDF files of the project planset. Sometimes, only one file type is available at the onset which is ok but it’s always best if you’re able to forward both CADs and PDFs of the project site so that the engineers can cross-reference them and produce very precise data files/models for you.

Being responsive results in better models

STEP 3 – Be Responsive

When the engineer is working with the files to create linework, 3d models, takeoffs, as-builts, or anything else you may have requested they might have some questions. They’ll reach out to you either by phone or by email to get clarification. The sooner you can get back to them the sooner they can continue working on the project and get you what you need.

When you work with us, it’s that simple. We run an average of a two-week turnaround time for your complete project needs which includes a quality assurance/quality control review. There are many times when we’re asked by our clients if we can at least get them some linework so they can begin working on-site. Depending on the size, we can usually turn that around within a few days to a week. Projects get delayed for many different reasons throughout their lifecycle but it won’t ever be because you’re waiting on us. If you’re ready to improve your earthwork efficiency, call us!