Hello all,
I'm hoping to receive some input from all of you experienced surveyors out there. My background is in geophysics/geology, but have worked as an independent contractor for licensed land surveyors providing ground control points for lidar/photogrammetry.
I am branching out and starting my own consulting operation in Colorado. I want to offer survey-grade geophysical mapping and drone services including GCPs, etc. (<2cm). I am not licensed and have no easy path that I'm aware of to become licensed, however I intend to hire a RPLS in time.
I have worked quite extensively on large-scale Federal projects with strict survey-grade deliverables (sub-centimeter) and am quite capable of performing the simple survey-related services mentioned above. I am considering the option of hiring a RPLS as needed to review my work and sign any necessary reports.
I'm using the Trimble ecosystem - TBC, Access, UASmaster, RTK Networks
Is this a bad idea? Or something that RPLS would even consider?
If this isn't such a bad idea, what would an acceptable payment rate be for such an arrangement?
Thank you for reading my post and I look forward to reading your responses!
In Idaho you could be charged with unlicensed practice, and the surveyor with aiding and abetting. You could contract with a surveyor to do the control work with no issue.
Keep in mind that's Idaho ymmv...
hahaha, well, if you need a guy who won't ask many questions (strangely, as he's way active in raising hell with various state boards) and who'll stamp just about any piece of paper you put in front of him, lemme know. i know of a guy in the denver area who fits the bill.
Even a 10' pole won't help
I'm licensed in CO and the company I work for has an office in Denver. You can just sub the work to me? Or just have a local surveyor near your projects do it. Only real option is to hire a PLS full time of just sub it out.
@stlsurveyor this is a good idea. I think maybe my post was a little vague, but ideally I would be looking at the PLS as more of a partner on the projects where a professional geologist and PLS overlap. We both handle our areas of expertise and are involved from bidding to report. I can obviously do the easy part of simply subbing out the PLS side, but I was hoping to form more of a long-lasting working relationship. Maybe this just complicates things to the point where its just not worth the hassle. Its funny because surveyors don't need geophysics, but geophysics without positioning is almost worthless. So, with that in mind most field geophysicists have the basics of surveying down simply as a necessity to collect to geo data.
Interesting story, I was part of the first electromagnetic survey in wooded areas where we utilized two robotic total stations, both streaming pseudo nmea data to our geo data logger for 100% coverage with 3cm accuracies on targets. Now THAT was a challenge! A good geophysicist cares just as much about positioning quality as a PLS because trust me, if the geo data is off it creates nightmare scenarios in post-processing!
Anyway, thanks for your reply. I appreciate all of you who took the time to reply.
@geojmitch Yes, forming a business partnership is no issue for any of us. You handle the geo-stuff, PLS handles the Survey aspects. Panties get wadded up quickly if the PLS does not direct the control network; which is probably all you really need for your work. a PLS to establish control network and produce a report stating quit clearly what the PLS did and did not do. And likewise your report cover the same.
Let me know if I can be of any assistance - I looked at getting a geophysicists certificate from UC Boulder back in the day - but they do not offer it as a free standing certificate outside of a MS.
Techtonic plate movements, monitoring and geodesy really are some overlapping gray areas. I would love to get my feet wet in that department.
