black.jordan•7d agoTop Commenter

Just found out my crew is losing $50 a job because of bad ladder setup

I was reading through our company's monthly stats yesterday and saw we average 12 minutes per job just moving and adjusting ladders. That doesn't sound like much but when you run 20 jobs a week it adds up to 4 hours of wasted time. At our shop rate that's basically $50 down the drain every single day. Has anyone else actually tracked how much time they lose on ladder placement?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_barnes7d ago

My old boss always told me ladder setup time was just part of the job and you couldn't cut it down. I bought that for years. Then I ran the numbers one quarter and saw we were losing almost $600 a month on a crew of three just from climbing up and down to move the extension ladder six inches. We started doing pre-job walkthroughs to plan the best spot for the ladder before we even unload it. That one change saved us about 10 minutes per job.

emmap167d ago

The betty_barnes comment about "ladder setup time was just part of the job" is exactly the kind of thinking that kills a crew's bottom line. I've seen guys waste 20 minutes on a single job just because they didn't stop to think before setting up. Doing a quick walk around the building before you even grab the ladder saves way more time than people think. That 10 minutes per job adds up fast, like you said.