Managing site waste on construction sites is a big problem for the main contractor with sub-contractors often not taking ownership of their own waste. The cost of clear up is then passed onto the main contractor, who manages the process of recouping the costs by proving the sub-contractor was negligible – a slow time consuming process.
By utilising mobile and web based technologies, the process for issuing notices for clearance and issuing contra charges for failure to clear up can be significantly improved, turning a once slow, laborious error prone job into a lean, mostly automated process to ensure the costs are not passed onto the main contractor.
Problem
Ownership for clearing waste on construction sites has long been a problem for the main contractor. Sub contractors arrive on site, carry out their work and then leave – they should always leave the site area they’ve worked on clear of all rubbish as they’ve found it. However, this doesn’t always happen with rubbish often left for the main contractor to dispose of.
The main contractor then absorbs the cost to clear up the site and then tries to recharge the sub-contractor for the costs of labour and any associated costs such as skip hire. A time consuming process when the foreman in charge has to take a picture, retrieve the picture or pictures from the camera or phone, write an email, create a contra charge invoice and pursue the offending sub contractor.
With no central system to manage the process, costs were more often than not never recouped, leaving the main contractor out of pocket and with no way of reporting on which sub contractors were the main offenders they were allowed to carry on leaving waste for others to clear up.
Solution
Sapere were tasked with developing a solution that would allow the main contractor to issue clearance notices to sub-contractors working on their project with the ability to issue contra charges should the sub-contractor not clear up their waste within the specified timeframe.
A web application was written to manage main contractors, the projects they ran and the sub-contractors they chose to work on the projects. The web application was complimented by a mobile app, running on iOS and Android.
The mobile apps allow the main contractor to take a picture of potential clearance, issue this to offending sub-contractor with a time frame to clear their waste. The sub-contractor has access to the same tools so they can see the pictures taken by the main contractor and any charges issued against them. If they clear their waste in the time frame they too can take pictures of the cleared site to avoid any contra charges.
Should the sub-contractor not clear the waste it is responsible for then the main contractor can issue a contra charge for the costs to clear up the site or equipment hire in the event that the site needs it. All the notices to clear and contra charges are held in one central system so the main contractor can see how much money has been recouped and which sub-contractors are the worst offenders for the next job.