Surveyors – The Latest Generation of “Button Pushers”

Surveying has gradually slipped from being a Professional Service to little more than a commodity and, the industry is to blame. We have allowed our profession to be relegated to the back of the pack, an afterthought, nothing more than a line item on a bid form. When did survey become a bid form commodity? Well, it is hard to pinpoint exactly, but it seems to have started swinging in that direction when the majority of surveying became semi-automated, when robotic total stations and RTK GPS systems became mainstream. We took the surveyor out of the field and replaced him or her with someone who could be taught to push the correct button or series of buttons on this state-of-the-art equipment.

I started surveying with my Father in the summer of ’79 as a tail chainman, with a Link Chain. Yes, the old Gunter Links, 66/100 of a foot, 100 links…thankfully, we did not use the link chain for long, in fact I think my Dad used it as a teaching tool to get me to understand the process and how to engage my brain. We moved to a standard steel chain where I was introduced to tension gauge and iodine thermometer, right angle prism and my first plumb bob. He taught me how to use the Schonstedt, and if I found the corner or monument, I got to setup the instrument, a Wild T2. I was the rodman when we ran level loops and he taught me how to setup that old 4-screw dumpy level before begrudgingly upgrading to a Wild NA2. With a few tripods, range poles, Philly Rod, chain, plumb bob, T2, NA2, a Schonstedt, a shovel and a 1967 Ford F100, we surveyed a few hundred properties or more, when you had to figure it out…sure, my Dad had a HP calculator by sometime in the early 80’s, but he still had to run those calcs by hand, we had to make sure our traverses closed and he did his level best to teach me how to do it. But it seems to me that was back when surveying was looked upon differently, it was more professional and the practice was somewhat revered. 

Not long after that, we got our first total station, a Geodimeter 140, I think around 1985-ish along with a Geodat electronic field book. If I had to pinpoint a time when the survey profession began to transition, this would probably be the neighborhood…I think I could call this time frame the “Dawn of the Button Pusher’. I think the Geodat and the electronic field book started the process dumbing down the field work. Don’t get me wrong, the technology is fantastic and at the time, to me, was really cool. Within a short period of time, we upgraded to a Topcon GTS3 and then a GTS-6, and so on. With each upgrade and iteration of instrument, the field work became easier, simpler. Everything was calc’d in the office and given to the crew, they just had to go out and occupy the correct point and turn the angles and distances provided by the office, record the shots and make a sketch in the field book, no more intense calculations, no more worrying if the traverse closed. Then came GPS…

I don’t remember exactly when, but we acquired the newest Sokkia GPS system. A base station, rover and data collector…accelerating towards button pusher. The field work got simpler. Now we could setup the base station and topo or stakeout for hours without having to traverse around the site, no back sights, just a check shot first thing, again before and after lunch and one more before packing up. Simple and accurate, and then came the Virtual Reference Stations (VRS) and the base station gets converted to a rover, we shrink the crew to two men and now both are “surveying”…well, pushing the buttons on the data collector… and there it is. Sometime in the middle 90’s seems to be where we transitioned from “Surveyor” to “Button Pusher”, when surveying went from revered profession to commodity. We let it happen, we quit teaching, we stopped training chainmen to become rodmen, instrument operators, and party chiefs. Now we just train a guy what buttons to push when…

Personally, I think we need to go back to teaching, demonstrating why we do the things we do, why we push the button and what the button does. We need to get the younger folks interested in what we do and how we do it. This is obviously far easier said than done. How do you justify the additional time and cost associated with teaching someone how to survey? There is virtually no chance of covering the costs associated with training someone to survey, our margins are too tight and the competition for every dollar is intense. There are few college programs teaching survey, most programs are found at the community college level, but are sporadic and often scheduled at times difficult to attend and work a demanding schedule. Our industry needs to rethink how we train and develop the next generation of surveyors. If we allow the current trajectory to continue, the profession will be overtaken by the technology to the point where licensure will be meaningless, and “button pushing” will become a profession.