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Low-Bidder RouletteBy Donna Speidel
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Have you ever played roulette in a casino? It's the table game where they spin the wheel and the little ball bounces around until it comes to rest in one of the numbered slots. You can probably tell I'm not much of a gambler, but based on how you play you can win and lose a lot quickly!
It made me consider that putting a bid out on the street can be like "low-bidder roulette". But in this game, we do not want excitement or action! We want the mundane, the boring, and the safe play. But how do you go about playing it safe? Usually, when an airport marking contractor is hired, the airport or its consultant or general contractor hopes the company will be competent, knowledgeable, and will do a good job, making them look good. But all too often it turns into a chancy game of low-bidder roulette. First, there are no qualifications required to bid airport projects. Second, for the awarded contractor, there is no training required to apply markings on airfields. Third, bid documents are generally not written well enough to define expectations for its marking projects. These issues, among others, decrease your odds of "winning" and increase the number of variables represented by risk. So how can you reduce your risk and increase your odds of getting great results from a qualified contractor? Some contracts are not slave to price being the only variable considered in bid submittals. Other factors have equal weight including résumé, testimonials, etc., increasing the chances of getting a quality project. However, selecting the contractor who has airport experience doesn't always yield good results either. The inspection component as the work is being performed is missing far too often. Resident/Consulting Engineers are often responsible for the performance of multiple subcontractors on any given project, and the markings can be considered incidental in comparison. Having a specialty inspector on site to manage the markings component has awesome results, as evidenced in the picture below.
This particular contractor had lots of experience on airports, but admittedly learned a lot from our involvement. It's amazing what happens when all parties agree on the expectations for quality, and the goal is to provide the airport with excellent results that will last for years to come. Stop gambling on whether your striping subcontractor is going to make you look bad and protect your investment. Whoever you hire - Hire Sightline. |
I don't know all of the rules to roulette, but I do know that betting on "red" or "black" gives you nearly 50:50 odds to double your
bet. Conversely, betting on a single number like "34" makes your potential payout extremely high but makes your probability of winning very low.
It can be a really exciting game with a lot of action!
