Introduction
Nothing makes a surveyor feel quite as foolish as realizing he’s paid two crews to be in the same place… but only after one of them has driven across half the county to get there. It’s the ultimate lesson in wasted drive time.
The Long Drive to Nowhere
Here’s how it went down. Crew 1 starts their morning project, about 45 minutes from Crew 2’s site. They finish around lunch, pile into the truck, and head to their second assignment. After 45 minutes of windshield time and gas guzzling, they roll up to the site…
And there, just a mile down the road, is Crew 2, wrapping up their job. Yep. Two crews, practically within shouting distance, scheduled like they lived in different states. The only thing they accomplished was a 90-minute round trip for absolutely nothing.
The True Cost of Poor Crew Coordination
This isn't just an awkward radio conversation—it’s a direct hit to your bottom line. When you rely on memory or paper notes for surveying crew coordination, you’re incurring costs far beyond the mileage:
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Wasted Payroll: You pay for nearly two hours of unproductive drive time per trip (Crew 1's drive + Crew 2's planned drive time).
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Fuel Expenses: Unnecessary truck rolls burn through your operational budget.
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Client Confidence: The client is left wondering why you can’t efficiently manage your own people when you’re supposed to be managing their project.
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Grumpy Crews: Frustrated crews lead to lower morale and potential overtime headaches.
How Kudurru Stone Solves It
This entire saga could have been avoided with a visual field crew scheduling tool.
With Kudurru Stone’s schedule mapping and anticipated time entries, I’d have seen that geographic overlap instantly. One drag-and-drop on the map and Crew 2 would’ve been assigned that second project while Crew 1 headed to a different area (or home).
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No wasted 45-minute trip for Crew 1.
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No wasted paycheck paying crews for windshield time.
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No awkward "hey, what are you doing here?" radio chatter.
For anyone running a surveying company, this is the kind of efficiency that keeps payroll clean and margins healthy.
Reflection
Surveying office management isn’t just about tracking jobs—it’s about keeping people and resources in the right place at the right time. Without the right tools, you end up with redundant trips, burned budgets, and frustrated crews. With Kudurru Stone, your map shows you exactly where the puzzle pieces fit before the truck keys ever leave the desk.
Conclusion
If your crews are waving at each other from opposite ends of the same road after driving across the county to get there, it’s past time to rethink your surveying project management tools.
“If two crews can share a lunch stop, they don’t need separate schedules.”
