Guest Post by Bryant Ficek, PE, PTOE, Vice President at Spack Consulting
Besides offering an unconditional guarantee for our work because we believe in our processes and abilities, we also believe in transparency. As regular readers know, we routinely share information about how we operate, research we’ve undertaken, and tips/tricks we use in our studies.
For that reason, we are proud to present our guide for pricing traffic studies. Every traffic study has common elements like intersections to collect base data, analysis during one or more peak hours, forecasting, documentation, and meetings. Our guide takes these elements and provides a matrix that is scalable to any size project. In addition to these common elements, our 2016 pricing reflects new items that will be standard with every project:
- 48-hour Turning Movement Counts. More data allows us to even out potential high or low traffic flows.
- Vistro Software. This software package has increased our efficiency by allowing quick scenario planning and mitigation testing as well as rapidly producing graphics for reports.
- Separate Meeting Prices by Time. Night meetings require more time and effort. Keeping your meetings within the normal work hours now has pricing to reflect it.
- Standard Schedule. Our typical study takes four to six weeks, although we are able to expedite our services in some cases.
Please download our 2016 pricing guide to provide an initial idea of a study’s costs or compare against a quote you have received. And always follow-up with a call to us for an official proposal which can account for other circumstances based on our experience in completing traffic studies for more than 750 developments and over 350 clients.
Mr. Facik:
My concern about a consultant publishing their pricing is that it may contribute to our services being treated as a commodity, instead of as a professional service. Also, in many states it is not ethical for engineers to be selected based on price, so this could also possibly be an ethical issue.
Transparency is a part of our company culture and we have been providing our price guide since at least 2010. People are free to use or ignore as they see fit, but we believe our transparency in all aspects of our traffic engineering can help move the industry forward.
We also have merit based selections in Minnesota and other surrounding states depending upon the specific project and agency involved. Since this guide is not a part of any individual project proposal, there are no ethical issues of which I’m aware.
BJF