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Cost control

Standby and idle time: recording it so it can be recovered

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

At 7:10 the excavator operator calls: the utility locates the general contractor requested for the new trench have not been marked, and its superintendent has told everyone to wait. You have a crew of four and a 20-tonne excavator on the clock. By 11:00 the locator has not arrived.

A yellow excavator sits idle on a gravel bed with its bucket lowered and the cab empty, forest and snowy mountains behind.
Photo: Gerold Hinzen on Unsplash

Idle time, when workers, equipment or both do no useful work, still costs money: wages continue, and a machine's ownership or rental costs run while it sits. Whether any of it comes back depends on the contract and on proof: who caused the wait, who told the crew to hold, what stood idle, for how long, and when notice was given. A note written days later from memory is easy to dispute.

  1. Log the start as soon as work stops: time, place, cause, and who told you to wait or hold the equipment.
  2. List what is standing: each worker by name and classification, each machine by unit number and size, and whether its operator is idle too.
  3. Reduce the cost where you can — move workers to other tasks, release rented equipment — and note what moved and when.
  4. Give written notice the same day to the person your contract names: the cause, what is standing, and that you are recording the cost.
  5. Log the end, with total hours for each person and machine.
  6. Get the record acknowledged: a standby or time and material (T&M) ticket signed by the representative of the general contractor (GC), with photos of the idle equipment and the unmarked ground.

Common mistakes

  • Writing "waited for locates" with no times, names or unit numbers.
  • Sending notice at month-end instead of the same day.
  • Keeping the whole crew standing when some could work elsewhere.
  • Booking standby hours to the base-work code, where they disappear.

Checklist

The standby record, same day

  • Start time, place and cause
  • Who told the crew or equipment to wait
  • Workers by name and classification, machines by unit number
  • What moved to other work, and when
  • Written notice: to whom, when and how
  • End time and hours for each person and machine
  • Photos and the GC representative's signature

Check your understanding

The GC's superintendent says your crew could have worked elsewhere. What in your record answers that?

Show the answer
The entry showing the labourers moved to backfill at 9:00 shows you reduced the cost where you could, and the note that the operator and pipelayer stayed to dig the moment the marks went down explains the rest. Without those lines, it is your word against theirs.

Sources

  1. Recommended Practice 10S-90: Cost Engineering TerminologyAACE International · accessed
  2. Additional Guidance on 23 CFR 635 A: Contract Administration, Construction (equipment rental rates and standby)Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation · United States, federal-aid highway projects (federal guidance, shown as one public example) · accessed

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