Survey company proposals tend to say the same things: accurate, experienced, modern equipment. The questions below are the screening step we would use before an independent check, and they separate firms far better than the claims in a capability statement do.
Quick Answer
Ask ten questions before the quotes arrive: who does the work and who checks it, who takes professional responsibility, what control the work is tied to, how the result is tested, what is handed over, what is excluded, what similar work has been done, what happens when the drawing and the ground disagree, what the firm needs from you, and who owns the data. For each one, the answer that should worry you is printed in the table below.
This is the screening step before you ask for prices. Comparing quotations once they arrive is covered in our article on survey quotation requirements.
Ten questions to ask a survey company
Each question below is paired with the answer that should make you look harder, because the weak answer is usually more revealing than the strong one.
| Question | The answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| 1. Who will do the work on site, and who checks it? | "Our team." No names, no roles, no checker |
| 2. Who registered takes professional responsibility? | A firm name, but no person |
| 3. What control will the work be tied to? | "We use GPS, so control is not an issue." |
| 4. How will you test the result before we receive it? | An instrument specification instead of a check |
| 5. What will you hand over with the drawings? | Drawings only |
| 6. What will you exclude, and how will we know? | "Nothing. We cover everything." |
| 7. What similar work have you done, and who can confirm it? | Client names with no scope |
| 8. What happens when the drawing and the ground disagree? | "We will sort it out on site." |
| 9. What do you need from us before the first visit? | Nothing |
| 10. Who owns the data, and in what format? | "We will send whatever we normally send." |
None of the weak answers proves a firm is poor. Each one shows where you need to ask a second question.
Key point
Screen on how a firm checks and records its work, not on how it describes itself. The checks are what you will rely on when a result is questioned.
Why the weak answers matter
The weak answers share one pattern: each describes the firm's tools or intentions rather than the evidence you will receive.
Instrument specification is not a result
An instrument specification describes what the equipment can do under test conditions. It does not describe what a survey achieved on your site. Question 4 asks for the check, because the check is what connects the two.
Names show how quality is controlled
Questions 1 and 2 are about people, and the answers tell you how the firm controls its own work. A survey company that names the surveyor, the checker and the person who takes professional responsibility has thought about who signs what. A firm that answers with "our team" may still do good work, but you will find out who is accountable only when something goes wrong.
Control decides whether results agree
Question 3 matters because every result is only as good as the reference it is tied to. Satellite positioning is a method, not a reference. Ask which control points the work will start from, who owns them, and how the firm will confirm they have not moved. Two surveys on different control can both be correct and still disagree.
Evidence should arrive with the drawings
Questions 5 and 6 decide what you can prove later. The four items in our survey handover checklist are what a careful survey company sends with the drawings, without being asked twice.
Disagreements need an owner
Question 8 matters most on construction and engineering projects, where the drawing and the ground can disagree. A firm that names who decides is describing a process. A firm that promises to sort it out is describing a person.
Screening survey providers now?
Send us your shortlist questions. We will answer all ten in writing.
Ask us the ten questionsFitting the questions to your work
The ten questions apply to every survey type, but the follow-up questions should change with the work you are buying.
On volumetric surveys, ask how repeat surveys will be made comparable from one month to the next. Underground, ask how the firm will work within the mine's access windows and whose control it will use on the mining levels. Where the work may later be contested, ask whether the firm has acted as an independent auditor, and read our article on when a survey audit is warranted.
On construction work, ask how the firm handles drawing revisions and who on your side it will take instructions from. On any long contract, ask how the firm keeps the same people on the job, or how it hands over between them when it cannot. Write the answers down. They become the starting point for the appointment, and for the conversation if the work later falls short of them.
Key point
The same ten questions work for every survey company. The follow-up questions are where your own project shows through.
Ready for a price?
Send us the scope. We will quote it with the evidence we will hand over listed.
Get a survey quoteWhere survey cannot help you
Careful screening improves the odds of a good appointment, but some risks sit outside what any choice of survey company can remove.
No screening question can guarantee a result on a site nobody has visited. A firm cannot survey ground it is not given access to, and it cannot fix a design that has not been issued. Registration shows who takes responsibility. In South Africa, the South African Geomatics Council regulates the geomatics profession, and it is reasonable to ask who on the team is registered.
What the questions do is make the firm describe its method before you rely on it. That description becomes the standard you can hold the work to.
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