A Construction Managers Guide to Crew Housing

Navigating Crew Housing and Expenses in the Ever-Changing Travel Landscape

Have you been perplexed by changes to government regulations regarding crew housing? Do you lack knowledge on how to comply with international laws and regulations?

We'll lead you through every step of organizing your crew's travel in this extensive guide, from locating a home away from home with necessary facilities to properly managing spending.

Join us as we tackle these essential questions:

• How do I keep my crew safe and comfortable within budget?

• What legal considerations should I be aware of when managing crew housing?

• How can I streamline the expense process and maximize profitability?

Although this is excellent news for the industry, travel managers now have additional obstacles to deal with when housing their personnel.

Government laws, international constraints, and other legislation have changed throughout time, making it sometimes impractical to handle details in the same way as before.

In the event that you manage construction sites, these recent modifications may benefit your company's travel policy.

This guide covers all the bases for you. We'll guide you through every stage, from arranging for comfortable housing to taking care of bills and organizing the travel of your team.

Be Aware of Updated Safety Regulations

The majority of OSHA rules are designed to increase worker safety. It is your responsibility, though, to ensure that your crew's work vacation is safe in every way. This is particularly valid if your team is sharing transit or temporary housing.

Regularly review OSHA standards to ensure that your operations are compliant with the most recent guidelines.

Finding Lodging

Even while your workforce is traveling, you are still accountable for them.

In addition to having to stay within your budget, you also need to ensure that they are happy, safe, and healthy.

Using Experts to Book Your Crew’s Housing

One aspect of your work is to ensure the comfort and safety of your crew. This implies that you ought to be aware of the cities to which you are dispatching them.

• Duration of stay (look for lodging options with costs for weekly or monthly stays)

• Best deals on corporate housing or comparisons of per diem rates

• The distance between the building site and

• Suites to reduce costs (kitchens and many rooms reduce room taxes and food costs)

• Hotel security procedures

• Free Wi-Fi, access to laundry facilities, and further facilities

• In the same wing, several rooms for staff accommodations

• Large construction equipment and truck parking lots nearby

Handling Expenses

Managing housing costs requires more than just finding a place to stay; you also need to have a system in place that allows you to separate necessary overhead from the overall cost of the project.

To safely place a bid that won't end up costing you more than it will earn you, this is among the first things you should do.

Make a budget for the costs of the job first in order to do this. After defining your consistent costs in a spreadsheet, include any expenditures unique to this job. Add your planned profit to the amount and factor that into your bid.

Here’s an example of overhead and indirect costs to include in your budget:

• Rent/mortgage of office space

• Salaries for the crew, day workers, and other staff

• Office utilities, phone, and other essential bills

• Cost of vehicles

• Equipment financing

• Transportation costs and expenses for housing solutions for each crew member

• Per diem

• Cleaning costs for linens, uniforms, etc.

You’ll also need to account for job-specific costs, such as fees for permits for working in a shipyard.

Simplifying the Expense Process

Your work is significant and intricate. It makes sense to try to keep things as simple as possible so that you can concentrate on the specifics.

Here are a few ideas:

Keep Accurate and Timely Data

Maintaining real-time spending tracking for the task is another time-saving approach. Connect your CRM applications so that you receive daily updates on all expenses incurred.

It's better than waiting till the end of the month, even if you can't balance it until later that week. By keeping an eye on your expenditures, you may monitor your progress toward the budgeted amount and adjust as needed.

Shop Around

You may need to make impulsive purchases at times. However, if you put in a little research time, you may locate the best deals on your materials and other costs.

Add the contact and ordering details, your preferred vendors, and the best rates on regular purchases to a spreadsheet. This page is easily editable as prices change and you establish new vendor relationships.

Include a column listing any discounts that apply to purchases made from a certain supplier.

It's simpler to maximize your profit margin and stick to your budget when you shop around.

Set Up Your Team With Direct Billing

With the help of our direct billing tool, your staff can charge their stay to a credit line that is given to your business. All charges are billed back to your firm at the end of each month, which greatly simplifies charge reconciliation for all parties.

You don't have to go through a pile of separate credit card bills!

Managing Transportation

A logistical must is getting your personnel to the construction site. Working in a large metropolis makes things simple, but if you're in a distant location, you might need to fly your team to the job site and rent the necessary tools.

It might be economical depending on the profit, but what happens when everyone arrives? Then, how are you going to handle transportation?

Take into account the travel time for your workers from their place of accommodation. Which would be more economical: renting a car, using a rideshare, or using one of the more recent applications, Turo?

Another option is to drive company cars to the location. This is an economically sound move if you have a sizable enough fleet of vehicles and the destination is not too far away.

Remember that parking those cars will be necessary, and many locations will charge more for parking larger cars. You can include this cost in your bid if you put in the preparation work in advance.

Tying Up the Loose Ends

The important tasks are completed. It's time to finish up any unfinished business, such as ensuring that all of your team members can interact with each other without involving you.

Your company's communication style will be distinct from everyone else's on the site. Still, there are a ton of helpful mobile apps available.

Starting With Your CRM

Real-time messaging, calling, and video chat capabilities should be available on your CRM system and should be compatible with WiFi.

Your team is being deployed to locations where cell phone connection can be erratic at best. They'll need to find alternative means to communicate with each other and you for their own safety.

Important papers like your expenditure reports and travel policies are stored in your CRM software. Show the team how to obtain frequently asked questions and frequently used documents from the cloud so they can stop coming to you with questions all the time.

Both minor, unforeseen purchases and more significant, urgent requests can benefit from this.

Perhaps the specifics of the yacht project you sent your staff to in Palm Beach have them lodging at uncomfortable hostels. You're not on the clock, and they need permission to relocate that evening to a safer location.

The answer?

They may securely relocate to their new accommodation, complete an urgent expense report, and ask the crew manager to pay the bills with the corporate card.

Construction-Specific Apps for Real-Time Organization

Some applications, such as TSheets Crew, are targeted toward the construction sector and track personnel positions via GPS integration. Construction managers use an app called Field Recon to monitor the project's overall status.

The crew manager can update the daily progress documents without waiting for them to return to their housing base.

You'll have to deal with loose ends whether your profession requires you to travel to the Dakotas or has you and your team building towers in the midst of the metropolis. Everyone's ability to concentrate on their work will improve with greater integration with mobile software.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I keep my crew safe and comfortable within budget?

Consider utilizing professionals to arrange your crew's lodging, give top priority to safety procedures, reserve suites to save costs, and choose amenities that improve their well-being in order to keep them safe and happy while remaining within your budget.

What legal considerations should I be aware of when managing crew housing?

To keep your workforce safe, it's imperative to stay up to date on OSHA laws and assure compliance. It's also critical to stay informed about any modifications to international laws, governmental policies, and other rules that could affect crew housing arrangements.

How can I streamline the expense process and maximize profitability?

Consider making a budget that details your expenses and accounts for projected profit margins in order to optimize profitability and expedite the expenditure process. To make charge reconciliation easier, implement facilities for direct billing. Store current and accurate data, compare costs, and use apps for instantaneous communication and management. You'll be able to control costs more effectively and boost your profit margin by taking these steps.

Conclusion

Understanding crew lodging and costs is essential in a constantly evolving travel environment. You can guarantee the welfare of your staff while staying within your budget by maintaining up to date on government requirements, placing a high priority on crew safety, and using the industry knowledge of booking specialists.

Recall that you can optimize profitability by optimizing the expense process through precise data, economical solutions, and instantaneous communication. Adopt these tactics to successfully manage crew housing and costs as the industry changes to ensure the success of your construction projects and the well-being of your crew.