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Labour and productivity

The real cost of pulling a crew off and bringing it back

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

At 7:40 your waterproofing foreman calls from the podium deck of a mixed-use building: the drains are not set, and shoring still covers half the deck. The general contractor's superintendent asks whether your crew can leave and come back "in a couple of weeks". Your estimate carried one mobilization.

An angle grinder is packed beside other tools inside an aluminium-edged portable case.
Photo: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Each time a crew leaves and returns, you pay for two moves the estimate did not price, out and back, and for the slower first days back. Count them in hours and dollars before you decide to go, because keeping the crew on other work for a few days is sometimes cheaper. If another party caused the move, the same count supports a claim, but only if it was recorded and notice was given at the time. Waiting on site is a different cost: standby and idle time.

  1. Get the reason and return conditions in writing from whoever asked you to leave, with the expected date.
  2. Count the demobilization: hours to clean, pack and secure what stays, travel, and every truck, trailer or lift.
  3. Count the remobilization: travel back, set-up, surfaces to clean or prepare again, and new orientations or bookings.
  4. Count the lost pace: output in the first days back against the rate the crew had reached, turned into hours.
  5. Compare with staying, waiting or working elsewhere on site until the area is ready. For a short wait, staying can cost less than two moves.
  6. Give notice the same day to the person the contract names, and book the moves to a cost code of their own.
  7. Check the area before you return, with a readiness check the day before.

Common mistakes

  • Leaving on a verbal "come back in two weeks", with no written conditions.
  • Counting the trips and forgetting the slow first days back.
  • Booking the moves to the base-work cost code, where they disappear.

Checklist

Before your crew leaves

  • Reason, conditions and return date in writing
  • Demobilization hours and trips counted
  • Remobilization and re-preparation estimated
  • First days back to be measured
  • Staying priced against leaving
  • Notice sent, cost code opened

Check your understanding

The general contractor now says three days. Two moves would cost about $4,700; keeping the crew on other work loses about $900 a day. Do you leave?

Show the answer
Probably not: three days at $900 is about $2,700, less than two moves, and the crew keeps its pace. Get the date in writing, record the lost productivity, give notice, and decide now on which day you will leave if the deck is still not ready.

Sources

  1. FAR 52.242-14 Suspension of WorkAcquisition.gov (U.S. General Services Administration) · United States federal government construction contracts (shown as one public example) · accessed

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