OCA Survey Shows Prompt Payment #1 Issue for Trade Contractors
This is the summary of results from a survey done by the Ottawa Construction Association.
(Information provided to us by Prompt Payments Ontario)
What is interesting to see is that for Trade Contractors the number one issue is Payment & Promptness and below are some of the quotes on this topic in the article noted above.
“I can’t stress enough that payment terms need to improve,” said one.
“We must have early release of hold back for trades on the early stages of projects. Creates a cash flow nightmare for sub trades,” said another.
“A 10 percent holdback combined with waiting two years to get your money. The general contractor should pay 45 days after your substantial completion or statutory declaration,” said a third.
The number one issue for General Contractors and Buyers was the quality of documents.
Survey Results
In February OCA conducted a survey about the issues that frustrated members the most. The survey asked members to rank seven commonly cited issues of frustration in order of MOST FRUSTRATING to Least.
The 7 issues were:
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Obtaining Security Clearances
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Availability of skilled workers
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Competency of the project team
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Scheduling
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Change orders
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Quality of construction documents
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Payment Terms and promptness of payment
A total of 177 individuals representing general contractors, trade contractors, manufacturers and suppliers, design consultants and buyers of construction services responded to the survey.
Particularly interesting is the fact that the overall response rate tells one tale, while the responses when seperated by group tell different ones.
The # 1 issue OVERALL is payment terms and promptness of payment with the quality of construction documents a close 2nd.
However broken down by individual groupings the # 1 frustration changes. For instance:
- General contractors– 51 responses – # 1 is Quality of Documents
- Trade contractors– 77 responses – # 1 is Payment & Promptness
- Suppliers– 17 responses – # 1 is Scheduling
- Design Consultants– 16 responses – # 1 is Scheduling
- Buyers– 14 responses – # 1 is Quality of Documents
(To read in more detail here is the link to the full article: http://www.oca.ca/docs/SurveyArticle2015.pdf)