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Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 19:47:21 -0800
From: <1a..._at_netscape.com>
To: <TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [TSCM-L] Safety Issue
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--- jm..._at_tscm.com wrote:
From: "James M. Atkinson" <jm..._at_tscm.com>
To: TSCM-L <TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com>
Subject: [TSCM-L] Safety Issue
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:46:04 -0500
Re Safty Issue
Well put.
Clients: Please remember to add Vehicle rental,Dinner, Lunch, Hotel,Gas automatically to cross state line
sweeps.
I accept only those conditions as well as upfront funds in my paypal account before any action on my side.
So be prepaired to pay expences upfront and follow my instructions to the tee, otherwise I will not be available.
10% in cash on arrival 90% deposited in paypal account on day of service no acceptions pre sweep.
Two week notice of acceptence of contract which allows to reserve transportation and hotel.
Reasonable don't you think!
Andre C Holmes
https://www.nes-ets-usa.com
As list moderator I would like take a moment and mention a serious
safety issue that sweep professionals need to remember.
Due to the highly specialized nature of what we do sweepers tend to
travel a lot, and while many may rarely travel no more then an two
hours in any direction there are others you regularly pick up sweep
work that is hundreds, or even thousands of miles away from their
office. This safety issue applies to both the sweeper that is only 30
miles away from the sweep site, but it is just as applicable to the
sweeper who drives 1000 miles for a sweep.
In the case of a local sweep (less then 150 miles) where you are
sleeping in your own bed, drive out in the morning, do the sweep, and
then drive back to your house to sleep in your own bed that evening
you need to be aware of the fatigue that will set in after being up
for 18 hours straight. Lets look at this for a moment... you get up
at 5 AM, shave/shower/etc and get on the road at 6 AM, arriving at
the client site at 7:30 or 8:00 AM. You then work at the job site for
8 to 10 hours (if your lucky), and arrive home at 8 or 9 PM (again,
if your lucky).
In reality, it is a very rare situation where the sweep "only" takes
8 to 10 hours on site, and 70% of the time you have 8 hours of work
planned that end up taking 12 to 14 hours due to either an overly
talkative client, equipment that flakes out at rude times, furniture
that is uncooperative, ceilings that are taller then your ladder, or
a Bluetooth headset that is in someone's locked desk in the next
room. Add to this the travel time of 2 to 3 hours in each direction
so you get 4 to 6 hours of travel time, plus the actual duration of
the sweep for a fairly long, and dangerous day(s) of work.
During longer duration sweeps where your client is paying for you to
be on-site for 3 to 4 days this tends not to be a problem as you can
pace your work better, but the shorter duration sweeps where you are
running on a tight budget invariably result in longer hours, and are
thus much more dangerous to you.
Now, let use look at sweeps where you are driving longer distances,
lets say from Minneapolis, WI to Chicago, IL. This is around a 350
mile trip, which should (traffic permitting) take about 7 hours, take
but is more likely to take closer to 10 hours. Of course no sweeper
in their right mind would drive such a distance, perform a sweep, and
then drive back all in that same day. But how many of us have set out
from Mobile, AL to perform a sweep in Pensacola, FL (a distance of
only 60 miles) with no hotel reservations, only to have the 8 hour
sweep turn into a 14 hour nightmare, and then at 10 PM to find that
there are zero hotel rooms available at that hour (or more commonly
the local no-tell motel just off the Interstate wants $400 for a
mildew laden room).
I recommend that if you are performing a sweep that is more then 90
minutes or 70 miles from home (or office) that you just go ahead and
reserve a hotel. Then, if it looks like you will not be needing the
room as you are finishing the sweep you can call the hotel and cancel
the reservation (do this at least an hour before the cut off time,
usually 6 or 7 PM check-in). Also, when you make or break a
reservation you should always get the name of the person you spoke
to, and get a reservation/cancellation number and document with the
date and time. Try to only stay at major brand name hotels when you
travel and abide by the old wisdom of only traveling during daylight
hours, and checking into your hotel room 2 hours before sunset. Don't
be bashful about staying overnight in a hotel room when you are out
on a sweep, the $63 you spend on a hotel roof is a lot cheaper then
the cost of embalming your corpse, a casket, and a funeral service.
So now we have a sweep that is going to require 3 days on site at
your full, and the sweep is 900-1100 miles away so there is two
(billable at half rate) travel days in each direction. You drive for
8-10 hours, take a hotel room for an evening, then the next day
drive to the hotel near the job site (8-10 hours of more driving),
check in, and prepare to start the job the next morning, or met the
client for a late afternoon walk through. The key here is not to
drive like a mad man for 20 hour straight, but to pace yourself in a
safe manner while driving.
For those of who cross state lines to perform sweeps, or who use
vehicles which weigh over 10,000 pounds loaded there is also some
stringent restriction of how much driving you can do each day. There
are also restriction as to how long you can work if you will be
driving, so you can run afoul of the law if you drive for 2 hours,
work on site for 11 hours, and then spend 2 hours driving home. The
rule of thumb is that you should not be "on duty" for more then 14
hours in any 24 hour period (including driving), and not more then 10
hours of this should be done behind the wheel with evenly spaced breaks.
If I have a sweep in at a clients site in Holmdel, NJ we have roughly
a 300-325 mile drive depending on the route. If I drive like a mad
man, don't stop for coffee or bathroom break I can, and have made it
in just under 5.25 hours from door to door, but this assumes that I
leave Gloucester at 1AM, and arrive in Holmdel at 6 AM. Now, if I hit
some slow traffic this will slow me down by a couple of hours. If I
stop for coffee at Starbucks in CT, and stop for fuel on the NJ
Expressway you can add an hour to the trip. A better option is for me
to leave Gloucester at 4:30 or 5 AM so that it is still dark when I
leave, which will get me down to Orange, CT around 7:30 where I can
refuel, have breakfast, check my email, and get back on the road
around 9:30 which gets me into Holmdel 3-4 hours later (with minimal
traffic congestion). I can now go to the client site, do my drive-by,
get some lunch, check in to the hotel, check my E-Mail, and get ready
to start the sweep the next morning at 7 AM, have an early dinner,
etc. This also gives me the capability of swinging by the clients
site in the late afternoon and stowing an OSCOR or spectrum analyzer
in the ceiling of their office or in a nearby electrical closet to
run over night.
Slow down, take the time to safely drive to the client site, don't
plan to work or drive more then 12 hours a day, break your driving
segments into 100 mile/2.5 hour blocks, and preplan your stops well
in advance. Refuel often so that you never have less then a half tank
of fuel at all times. Check into your hotel early in the afternoon,
and please be safe. Don't plan to drive more then 500 miles a day,
and assume that you might need a hotel on any sweep that is more
then 90 minutes away.
-jma
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World Class, Professional, Ethical, and Competent Bug Sweeps, and
Wiretap Detection using Sophisticated Laboratory Grade Test Equipment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803
Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467
127 Eastern Avenue #291 Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 E-mail: mailto:jm..._at_tscm.com
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We perform bug sweeps like it's a full contact sport, we take no prisoners,
and we give no quarter. Our goal is to simply, and completely stop the spy.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:19 CST