In this guide 6 sections
Before a crew travels, confirm five things. Power and water are live. The lift or gate is open to you. Plaster and tiling are dry. Every item is physically on site. Someone with authority will be present. One call the day before catches most failed trips.
A wasted trip costs more than the call that prevents it
A crew of three drives forty minutes, finds a locked flat, and drives back. The day’s wages are paid. The next job slips. The customer is annoyed.
Most of these trips are predictable. The plaster was still wet, the cupboards had not arrived, or the watchman had no instructions. Someone knew. Nobody asked.
A readiness check turns that knowledge into a habit. It takes five minutes and belongs to the person who books the crew.
Check the site itself
Start with services. A drilling crew needs a working socket within reach, and a painter needs light to judge the surface. A picture of the meter board and the nearest socket settles it.
Then access. Does the building allow trades after a certain hour? Is the goods lift booked? Is there a parking slot for the van? Gated societies often demand a gate pass in advance.
Finally the surface. Wet trades must be finished. Screed, plaster, waterproofing and floor tiling all need curing time before fitters or painters touch them.
- Working power point and water tap
- Lift booking, gate pass and parking
- Plaster, screed and tiles cured
- Floor covered or free of debris
- Walls and openings measured to final size
Check material and the job pack
Material on the truck is not material on site. Confirm that the frames, glass panes, paint tins or hardware have been delivered and counted against the order. Look at the delivery slip, not the dispatch promise.
Match tints and finishes to the job card. A painter who opens a tin of the wrong shade has already lost the morning.
Send the crew lead a job pack: drawings, measurement sheet, fixing notes and the customer’s phone number. Paper in the van beats a message thread.
- Items delivered and counted
- Colours, finishes and sizes match the order
- Fixings, sealant and consumables loaded
- Drawings and measurement sheet in the van
Check the people and the decision maker
Someone must be at the site who can open the door and approve small changes, because a tenant cannot always move a wardrobe or accept a different socket position. The owner or designer may need to attend.
Confirm the time by voice, not by text alone. A short call gets a real answer. A message often gets a thumbs up and nothing else.
Also check your own side. Is the crew lead free, the right tools loaded, and is the second visit already planned if the work spills over?
Make it a gate, not a suggestion
Put the check on the booking form, and let no crew leave until each line is ticked or the exception is written down with a reason.
Review failed trips at the end of the month. Count them by cause. If wet trades keep overrunning, you will see it in a week.
Tomorrow, pick the three crews going out and make the readiness call for each. Note what you learn.
Crew dispatch readiness sheet
A single page form with blocks for site, material, people and paperwork. Each block holds yes or no tick boxes, a column for the person who confirmed and the time of the call. At the bottom sit a hold reason, a rebooking date and a line for the manager’s approval to send the crew anyway.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
When should the readiness call be made?
Make it the day before, and repeat it briefly on the morning of the visit if the job is large or the crew is travelling far.
Who should own the check?
Whoever books the crew. If the coordinator and the site supervisor are different people, name one of them on the sheet.
What if the customer says the site is ready and it is not?
Request a picture of the specific item, such as the cured wall or the delivered frames. That is quicker than an argument and keeps a record.
Can a crew start with partial readiness?
Sometimes. If surfaces are ready but one delivery is late, it may be worth starting. Write down what was missing and who agreed.