D 1.0
What a crew day costs, and what it contains
Field work is bought by the crew day. Publishing the rate structure tells you more about how a bid was built than a services list ever will — and it lets you check whether the number you were given by anyone else is made of the same things.
Almost nobody in this trade publishes a rate. There is one defensible reason for that and two that are not.
The indefensible ones first. A published rate invites comparison, and comparison is uncomfortable when you cannot control what the other bid contains. It also removes the chance to find out a budget before naming a figure. Neither is a good reason to make a construction manager spend two weeks of a procurement cycle establishing a range.
The real reason is that a day rate on its own is genuinely misleading. Two contractors can quote the same crew day and mean completely different things by it: one includes the truck, the rigging, the test gear and the reporting, the other bills consumables, equipment hire, travel time and close-out separately and arrives thirty per cent higher at invoice.
So the answer is not to withhold the figure. It is to publish the figure and the list of what is inside it and what is not, which is what this page does. Every line below says which.
D 2.0 Crew day rates
Three crew types
What moves the number is the certification and size of the crew, and the equipment it has to bring. The name of the task is almost irrelevant by comparison.
Two-man crew
C2$2,400–$3,200 / day
Two certified climbers with a truck, standard rigging, fall protection and test gear. The standard unit for inspection, lighting, minor line work and maintenance visits.
Structural and lighting inspection, plumb and tension, antenna swaps, sweep and PIM testing, generator and HVAC service visits.
Four-man crew
C4$4,100–$5,600 / day
Four climbers with a foreman, gin pole and full rigging. The unit for anything lifting significant steel or working to an engineered rigging plan.
Structural modification, mount installation, heavy line work, erection, and any scope with a stamped rigging plan behind it.
Ground & power
GP$1,450–$2,300 / day
Compound work with no climb: generator service and commissioning, transfer switches, shelter HVAC, fuel systems, grounding and fencing.
Standby power, load-bank testing, HVAC replacement, grounding remediation, and everything at grade.
Inside the day rate
- Crew wages, burden and per diem
- The truck, fuel and standard tooling
- Standard rigging and fall-protection equipment
- Standard test equipment for the scope
- Daily reporting and field photography
- Supervision and project coordination
- General liability and workers’ compensation insurance
Quoted separately
- Mobilisation and demobilisation
- Crane, man-lift and specialist equipment hire
- Structural engineering and analysis
- Permitting and regulatory fees
- Materials, steel and consumables
- Travel and lodging outside the base market
- Close-out package preparation, where a bespoke format is required
Rates are USD, exclude engineering, permitting, materials, crane and specialist equipment hire, travel outside the base market and any applicable tax, and are planning ranges for scoping a project rather than an offer or a quotation. Reviewed September 2026. A figure for your site list comes from a written proposal against a defined scope of work. See the disclaimer.
D 3.0 Mobilisation
Getting there is most of the cost of a remote site
On a one-day scope at a site four hours away, mobilisation is frequently larger than the labour. This is the single strongest argument for combining scopes into one visit.
| Distance from Sanford | Two-man | Four-man | Ground & power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Within 75 miles Central Florida, day return | $350–$600 | $600–$950 | $300–$500 |
| 75–250 miles Florida, overnight likely | $900–$1,600 | $1,500–$2,600 | $800–$1,400 |
| 250–600 miles South-east, multi-night | $1,800–$3,200 | $3,000–$5,200 | $1,600–$2,800 |
| Beyond 600 miles Priced against the actual route | by proposal | by proposal | by proposal |
| Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Air, freight and equipment logistics | by proposal | by proposal | by proposal |
On a multi-site award, mobilisation is charged once for the routing rather than once per site. That is usually the biggest single saving available on a site list, and it is the reason a list of twelve structures is priced very differently from twelve separate jobs.
D 4.0 Unit rates
Repeating work, priced per site
Scopes that repeat across a portfolio are easier to budget as a unit than as a crew day. These assume a routed site list rather than single visits, and include the deliverable.
| Scope | Per site | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Structural inspection Climb, photo-documented, severity-coded | $1,900–$3,400 | Photo-documented report with punch list |
| Lighting inspection Lamps, photocell, monitoring, alarm path | $650–$1,400 | Lighting condition record |
| Guy tension and plumb Measured against design, temperature recorded | $1,600–$2,900 | Plumb and tension record |
| Antenna and line mapping What is actually installed, verified | $1,200–$2,400 | Mapping sheet and photo record |
| Sweep testing Return loss and DTF, per line | $180–$340 per line | Test files in your submission format |
| PIM testing Against threshold, per sector | $420–$780 per sector | PIM results against threshold |
| Generator service visit Exercise, inspect, fluids, fuel | $480–$900 | Service record |
| Load-bank test Under load, to rating | $1,300–$2,600 | Load-bank results, timed and recorded |
| Shelter HVAC service Filters, coils, refrigerant, controls | $380–$720 | Service record and condition note |
| Post-event assessment After a named storm | $1,400–$3,200 | Per-site assessment report |
Unit rates assume a routed list and normal access. A single site in isolation is priced as a crew day plus mobilisation, which is usually higher.
D 5.0 Standby, weather and overtime
The lines that decide what a job actually invoices at
Every one of these is where a bid and an invoice usually part company. They are published here for the same reason the day rate is.
| Condition | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Weather stand-down Lightning in range, wind above the threshold at height, or a named storm | Charged at 50% of the crew day where the crew is mobilised and on site. Not charged where the stand-down is called before mobilisation. |
| Client-caused standby Site access denied, outage not approved, escort unavailable | Charged at 100% of the crew day, because the crew is committed and cannot be redeployed. |
| Night work Where an outage window requires it | 1.35× the day rate, agreed in the proposal rather than discovered on the invoice. |
| Weekend and holiday Scheduled in advance | 1.5× the day rate. |
| Emergency response Outside a planned programme | Priced per call-out against availability at the time. Nothing on this site claims guaranteed response times, because that is a promise to be made in a contract with a named service level, not on a web page. |
| Short-notice cancellation Inside 48 hours of mobilisation | Charged at 50% of the first crew day plus any non-recoverable equipment hire. |
Our crews stand down for lightning within range and for wind above the threshold at working height. That costs a day. Working through it costs considerably more, and no schedule pressure from any party changes that call — see standards and stop-work.
Rates are USD, exclude engineering, permitting, materials, crane and specialist equipment hire, travel outside the base market and any applicable tax, and are planning ranges for scoping a project rather than an offer or a quotation. Reviewed September 2026. Everything on this page assumes normal site access and no undisclosed site conditions. A figure for your site list comes from a written proposal against a defined scope of work. See the disclaimer.
A proposal prices your list, not a range
Telephone with the structures, the scope at each, the outage rules and the date. We will turn it into crew type and day count per site, mobilisation for the routing, and a named deliverable — so that what you approve and what you are invoiced are the same document.
Atlantic Tower Services, Inc. · 5301 Pen Ave, Suite 1001, Sanford, FL 32773