Best measuring wheel!?!?!

I like my potential customer to see me give their parking lot my Personal Attention. When that potential customer tells me "the last guy didn't even get out of his truck" that's when I make my "move". I have messured as much as 20,000+ feet of cracks with a wheel for a single job so I can give the customer an accurate bid. A competitors bid will not include the amount of footage and their price is usually quite out of wack from mine. The competion can't tell them how many feet because they didn't get out of the truck but they saw me put a wheel to it. Who are they going to believe. No matter what size the lot is I walk it. It gives me time to see the condition of the pavement surface etc. that otherwise I might overlook. When that potential customer tells me............"the other Co didn't bring that area to my attention" I would respond with........."they likely didn't get out of the truck to see it". Just little ways to work on selling your professionalism.

I'm with sdstriper and asphaltman. Why walk when you can ride. I have seen my share of parking lots and I can get a pretty good look from my front seat to get a feel of the project. I just plain don't have time to walk. When measuring up a parking lot I turn on the headlights and flashers, open the door, stick out the rolatape and away I go. And you do get the looks. If the area needs some precise measurements like for crack filling where the cracks are all over the place, I will get out. My only problem is when their are only a few stalls, it is hard to back into and out of the stalls to get an accurate measurement. To each his own.

In response to the earlier post. The DigiRoller has an extra extendable handle for the purpose of measuring "out the window" comfortably. However you need to keep it down to about 10 mph, they aren't designed for high speeds. But when you have to measure lots of feet of "running stripe" it sure is easier than walking. I agree with the last post up until that point. I will get out for anything that might look like it needs special attention but most all striping bids can be done "through the windshield" and it takes WAY too long to measure a shopping center on foot. Now sealcoating, patching, etc. is an entirely different story, the pavement needs looking over more closely for sure. And being a multi-service provider I always keep an eye out for potholes or other work that I might "pick up" while doing a striping bid. We also have opposite philosophies on including footage because mine changed several years ago. Of course I always have it if the customer asks but I quit putting it in bids years ago because I found many customers would then take my proposal and simply call other companies for "quotes" for 10,000 ft of whatever, 300 ft of this, and 10 arrows and 5 handicaps (or whatever) using my details to price shop. I always used to include it and felt that it was a real selling point (and it seemed in the 80s and up to about the mid 90s it was, just as you described) but then I started seeing this happening more and more until I finally stopped putting them in the proposal unless I knew I was the only bidder (or else I inserted "exact measurements available on request"). Never had a problem, only a couple of times did anyone question me and I just told them straight out why I no longer included that information... because too many people used it to get a lower price over the phone and any contractor needed to inspect the job as I had done to be able to quote them an exact price. And to ware-ever on those I just measure 1 stall, and multiply by how many there are. Of course I do the same on large jobs with "banks" of spaces that are all equal. Measure 1 "bank" and multiply by the number of banks (and it does seem they will always throw at least 1 or 2 oddballs into any large lot just to make you have to measure that separately).

Just to clarify the way I messure. I never messure for striping. If the the stripes are 20' I just use the windshield meathod. When I come to a X-Hatch area I look at it a group of 20' stripes. The line that separates a double row of stall lines..........I just count every two stall widths as a stripe. Even if two stalls are only 18' wide it's not enough difference to loose a job. Old school.............If you loose a job by $25 you deserved it. I do meassure every sealcoat job out side of the truck except roadways in a subdivision. There I use the wheel out the window meathod. Not going to walk 4 miles etc. When I messure cracks in a subdivsion or city streets I use the windshield meathod. If the road is 20' wide I count the cracks going up one side and then down the other. Reasonably accurate considering my competion will do the same. I do agree about including or not including the footage. It can be used against you. I use it on my competion all the time. The only way to win a war is know your enemy better than they know you "so to speak". The only thing is I NEVER trust my competions ability to messure accurately. They are regularly off or WAY off. At that point with numbers to compare I will offer the property owner to walk it with me to prove my point. I always like to know my competions measurements. I always ask for it and almost they are willing to give it. I don't ask to see their bid to reveal there price just the footage. Good chance to disqualify them as a bidder when the property owners sees your numbers are correct. ........So you'd better know your stuff or be made a fool! It is also nice to find out sometimes that my competition has messured way over. I will use that to my advantage. If he measures 50,000' and I come up with 40,000'sh feet I know I can raise my footage rate and still come in lower.