Count every mobilisation before pricing a staged construction job
Calculate repeat mobilisation costs for staged site access instead of estimating labour from continuous installation time alone.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
The installation hours are not the whole visit
A job can look profitable when the estimate counts only the time tools are working. Staged site access changes that picture. Loading, travelling, unloading and setting up may happen repeatedly. If your price assumes one continuous run but the programme requires several visits, the difference needs to be identified before you agree to the work.
Ask which areas will be ready together and who controls that decision. Map each expected attendance against the work it enables. Include the crew and equipment required for that visit. Do not assume the same access will be available merely because all the work belongs to one purchase order or appears on one set of drawings.
Business.gov.au's pricing guidance includes relevant labour and overhead costs. For a staged job, use that starting point to include repeated preparation and attendance activities in the estimate. Check your own time records where available. An allowance based on actual previous visits is more defensible than guessing that travel and setup will somehow be absorbed by the margin.
Imagine a hypothetical crew needing two hours to load, travel and establish each attendance. One visit uses two such hours; five separate visits use ten. The additional eight hours arise even if installation time stays identical. Apply the business's own costing basis consistently, and check equipment transport separately rather than assuming it follows the same calculation.
State the access pattern used to prepare the offer and discuss it with the customer. Make sure any agreed position is reflected appropriately in the actual contract documents. A note buried in an internal estimate does not communicate the assumption to the builder. Obtain advice about how changed access would be handled under the proposed terms.
Compare the latest site programme with the estimate one more time before committing. If the pattern has changed, revisit the cost and conversation. Where a contract is already signed, seek advice before demanding extra payment or withholding attendance. The practical gain is spotting repeated mobilisation while you still have a clear opportunity to price and discuss it.
