Coordinating the owner's vendors on your site: the people who answer to the client
The car-dealership owner has booked audiovisual, signage and vehicle-lift vendors for the same week. They report to the client rather than your project manager. Some areas are not ready, and the superintendent needs an agreed way to coordinate visits and resolve questions.
Agree one owner-side booking contact and a site coordination contact, then check each vendor's scope, area readiness and access requirements before arrival. Put confirmed visits on the board and make unresolved approvals visible. Owner appointment does not make a vendor visit self-coordinating or determine your authority over it. Establish the actual site and contractual arrangements with the project team rather than relying on an informal promise that the owner will sort everything out.
Make vendor visits part of the working site plan
- Confirm contacts and responsibilities. Identify the owner representative, vendor supervisor and site decision route. Clarify what each appointment covers and who supplies prerequisites, instructions and support. Obtain appropriate advice on authority and interfaces instead of treating the vendor as your subcontractor by default.
- Check readiness before booking. Review the vendor's actual needs with responsible people: area release, access, receiving arrangements and necessary services or reviews. Record incomplete conditions and their owners. A scheduled date should not conceal that another crew still has the workface or a prerequisite is unconfirmed.
- Arrange site access and briefing. Use the applicable orientation, safety, security and permit processes with their designated owners. Confirm the vendor has understood the relevant arrangements. A signature on an attendance sheet alone is not evidence that every required briefing, qualification or permission is complete.
- Coordinate the visit with affected trades. Confirm areas, dates, deliveries and shared resources through the owner contact and site process. Communicate changes directly. Do not authorize equipment startup, shutdown or a technical alternative just because the vendor is available for a short window.
- Record the actual visit and unresolved effects. Note what occurred, locations, work status and any observed disruption or damage, with permitted supporting evidence. Route responsibility and commercial questions to the authorized team. The record supports investigation; it does not automatically assign fault to the owner or vendor.
Common mistakes
- Treating an owner booking as proof of area readiness.
- Assuming an orientation signature covers every permission.
- Labelling an observed disruption as established liability.
Checklist
The owner-vendor visit record
- Owner, vendor and site contacts.
- Scope and authority interfaces.
- Checked readiness and pending owners.
- Applicable access and briefing arrangements.
- Confirmed bookings communicated.
- Factual activity and review questions.
Check your understanding
The owner tells a vendor to arrive tomorrow, but the area preparation is incomplete. What should you confirm?
