I once scheduled the same crew to the same site three times. That’s right. Three. Times. If you’re wondering if I’m exaggerating, well… maybe just a smidge. But let me tell you, it felt like living through Groundhog Day: Surveyor Edition.
The first trip went fine. The crew went out, shot the points, came back, and dropped the data on my desk. Problem is, my desk was about as organized as a possum rummaging through a dumpster. Nothing got logged, nothing got tracked.
A week and a half later, I’m sitting there thinking, “Didn’t we need that site wrapped up?” So I schedule the crew again. Off they go, burning gas and good moods, only to bump into the client. The poor guy asks, “Weren’t you just here?”
My crew chief, bless him, made up something about missing a monument. The client looked at him like he’d just grown a third eyeball. That look wasn't just confusion; it was the start of a serious client trust problem. He had every right to wonder if we were competent enough to handle his site.
Fast forward another week. Guess who forgot—again—that the job was already done twice? Yep. Yours truly. Third trip, same crew, same site. At this point the guys were calling it “our second home.” That third trip, though embarrassing, made one thing crystal clear: my lack of a proper system was costing me.
When you’re running a land surveying business off scraps of paper, random whiteboard notes, or sheer memory, you’re begging for this kind of circus. It’s not just embarrassing—it’s:
Wasted Hours: The crew isn't on a paying job; they're stuck in transit.
Wasted Fuel: Unnecessary truck rolls burn through your budget.
Wasted Client Trust: You look disorganized, which damages your reputation.
With surveying project management software like Kudurru Stone, this whole saga wouldn’t have happened:
The first trip’s data would’ve been recorded, timestamped, and visible in the system.
Drafting would’ve been underway before I could even dream of sending the crew back out.
The digital schedule would’ve shown the project as complete, saving me from looking like I ran a survey merry-go-round.
Instead of spending three trips on one job, the project would’ve been wrapped and billed before I ever thought to “check on it again.”
The lesson? Crew scheduling without proper tools is like trying to shoot a boundary line with a bent plumb bob—you’re guaranteed to miss the mark. Kudurru Stone doesn’t just keep you from double-scheduling, it speeds up the whole operation so your crews are moving on to the next paying job, not revisiting the last one.
Would this mix-up really happen three times? Probably not. Twice? Oh, you bet your tripod it could. But with Kudurru Stone, it never needs to happen once.
“If I’m sending a crew to the same site more than once, it better be for the Christmas party.”