Five people is a common paving crew for driveways and light commercial lots: a paver operator, a screed operator or raker, a second raker or lute, a roller operator, and one more for hand work, trucks and traffic. Every company splits it a little differently. What matters is that everyone knows their job before the first truck backs up.
Who does what
Settle it before the crew gets to the lot, so nobody's deciding at the hopper:
- Paver operator: runs the machine, sets the pace to match the trucks, and talks to the trucks.
- Screed operator: sets and holds the mat thickness and crown, and watches the joints. On some crews the foreman runs the screed.
- Rakers and lute: joints, edges, hand work around drains and curbs, and cleaning up spills in front of the paver.
- Roller operator: breakdown and finish rolling in a pattern that fits the mix and the lift, inside the temperature window.
- Hand work, trucks and traffic: spots the trucks backing in, keeps cones and people where they belong, tacks, and fills in wherever the crew needs a hand.
The foreman runs the day: the plant, the trucks, the customer, the quality, and the paperwork.
The call the night before
Send the plan the night before, not at 6 a.m. at the yard:
- The address, and where to park the trailer
- Start time and first truck time
- Tons ordered, the mix and the plant
- The trucks and who's running them
- The equipment going
- What's special: a tight entrance, a customer who needs the garage open by noon, a low wire, a lot that has to stay half open
- The weather call: when you'll decide if it's a go
Morning surprises cost the most expensive hour of the day, with the crew and the trucks on the clock.
Hours
Track the crew's hours to the job, every day. The job's hours against the estimate is the number that tells you whether your production rates are real.
Watch the time between clock-in and the first truck, and between the last truck and leaving. Waiting on trucks and slow cleanup show up there first.
The daily log
Before the crew leaves the lot, the foreman writes down the day. Five minutes, every day:
- Hours worked and who was there
- Tons placed and the mix, from the plant tickets
- Area paved and where
- Weather, and the mat temperature if the spec cares
- Problems: soft base, a utility, a late truck, a breakdown, a customer change
- Photos: the finished work, and anything that might become an argument later, with a tape measure in the frame when size matters
Count the plant tickets and keep them with the job. They're your proof of what was delivered, and you'll need them for billing and for any quantity dispute.
Compare the day to the estimate. If the estimate said the crew would lay a certain number of tons today and it laid far fewer, find out why that evening, not at the end of the job. Plant delays, trucks, hand work and breakdowns all have different fixes.
Closing out the lot
At the end of the job, walk it with the customer if you can. Make the punch list together: low spots, a rough joint, a missed edge, cleanup. Fix it, photograph it, and get the customer to agree it's done before the final invoice.
Related articles
- Rain days: when to call off the pour or the paving, and what to tell the customer
- Managing subs: COIs, W-9s and payment terms
- Building a paving estimating team: from the owner's estimates to someone else's
Pavr is job software for paving, sealcoating, striping and concrete contractors. The crew clocks in on their phones, the foreman can clock in the whole crew at once, and the daily log takes the hours, weather, notes, material used, mat temperature and photos for the job. All of it saves on the phone when the lot has no signal and sends when it does. Try it free →