Central Darling Shire Council recently purchased the Tiny Surveyor from Position Partners for a range of road works projects including an initial seal works project, helping the council save time and money and improve worksite safety.
“Central Darling Shire is the largest council in NSW but it’s got the least population, we cover about 53,000kms² and we have a fairly vast unsealed road network so a lot of the roadworks we do, not only for our own councils but also under contract with Transport NSW, are initial seal works,” Reece Wilson, Director of Shire Services, said.
“The Tiny Surveyor comes in handy for those capital works projects with roads. They’re normally 5-10km sections at a time and we need to line mark those sections firstly for the sealing works to be laid and then afterwards for the white lining works.”
Why the Tiny Surveyor?
Mr Wilson made the choice to purchase the Tiny Surveyor after doing some research and then sending the Trainee Technical Officer, who currently is the main operator of the Tiny Surveyor, to Sydney to attend the Tiny Surveyor Roadshow that Position Partners held.
“It’s met all expectations that I’ve had for the machine,” Mr Wilson said.
“We currently use it for three things: marking out centre lines and offset lines for the road works, on our sporting ovals to mark out our sporting fields, and I’ve used it on the airstrips. We’ve got six airstrips to maintain as well.”
Tiny Surveyor reduces costs and saves time
Implementing the Tiny Surveyor has meant that jobs that used to take two surveyors, now only take one. On top of this, these jobs are also completed in almost a fourth of the time it previously would have taken.
“Based on an average project of 5km, it’d take two people, because you need to have a spotter as well, probably 20 hours to mark out everything on site and with the Tiny Surveyor, it’s a one-person job which takes about six hours,” Mr Wilson said.
Tiny Surveyor has work health and safety benefits
Not only has the Tiny Surveyor managed to reduce costs and save time for Mr Wilson and his team, it also has work health and safety benefits by removing team members from the road and the risk of live traffic when setting out and line marking.
“It’s got work health and safety benefits, which reflects well on our company and provides a safer workplace for our people,” Mr Wilson said.
“You can drive in the car next to the machine, so you provide protection there as you don’t walk on the road to mark it out, you just drive behind the machine and do everything from in your car.”
The importance of service and support
Mr Wilson was impressed with the access to technical support and training that Position Partners provides.
“Position Partners has got technical support there on the phone all the time. The initial set up and delivery was very good. One of the reps came out who is an experienced surveyor, and he trained our staff on the ground in the use of it. It’s good to have people there that can talk you through it over the phone as well as login remotely,” Mr Wilson said.
“We’re pretty happy with it and it’s made our job a lot easier, especially with road construction.”
This sponsored editorial was brought to you by Position Partners. For more information, visit www.positionpartners.com.au.
