Chosen by name, and counted from the choice.
Before a job, a person on the crew picks whose way of working runs, by name, and writes their own name on the choice. Nothing moves without that act, and the hours are counted from it. The person whose way of working it is sees the count as it is written, and the owner paying sees the same count.
The unit in an armoured vehicle's cab · The group's own render
One person, one name, one choice.
Somebody on the crew chooses whose way of working is in the machine.
The basics it came with, the way the owner's own operator taught it, or a specialist licensed by name. They choose by name, because a name is what was asked for and a name is what appears on the record.
Then they write their own name on the choice. The record now carries two names: the person whose way of working runs, and the person who chose it. Neither entry can be made by the machine, and neither is made on anybody else's behalf.
The clearance and the count begin together.
The act that authorizes the machine to move is the act that starts the hours. Nothing is typed in later and nothing is copied across from somewhere else.
Chosen
A person on the crew picks whose way of working runs, by name, and puts their own name on the choice.
Cleared
That choice is the human authorization the machine may not move without. Loaded is not cleared. A person's word, given on the day, is.
Counted
The hours are written from that moment, in sessions, on the record that already carries the name of the person who chose.
Seen
The person whose way of working it is sees the count as it is written. The owner paying for it sees the same count.
Paid
The person is paid for the hours in use. The people doing the counting are the people who owe the money, so the accounting comes with it.
No default, no last-used, and a refusal is a fair answer.
A machine that starts the day on yesterday's choice has moved on nobody's authority. So there is no default and nothing carries over. Each job begins with a person choosing again, even when they choose the same name as yesterday.
No default
Nothing runs because nobody said otherwise. A way of working that is loaded is a way of working that is waiting to be chosen, and it can wait all day.
No last-used
Yesterday's choice ended with yesterday's job. Today's choice is made today, by a person, with today's name on it.
A refusal is fair
Sometimes no way of working on offer suits the ground, the machine or the job. Then the person chooses nothing, no count starts, and the machine works as it always has, with a person in the seat.
Choosing is an act, not a setting. A setting is something a machine remembers. An act is something a person does, on the day, with their name on it.
Nothing runs until somebody says whose way of working it is.
Chosen by name, on the day, with the chooser's name on it.
A skid steer in the yard · The group's own photograph
The count is kept in sessions.
The count is kept in sessions. A session is one recording, with its own identifier and its own signature, so it counts itself rather than being counted for you. The hours are attributed to the sessions in use, and a session is what you take back when you end it.
What is counted is hours in use: the time a licensed way of working is actually running, taken from the record that shows who cleared the work. There is no second ledger kept somewhere else to reconcile it against, because the record is the ledger.
- What is counted
- Hours a way of working is actually in use
- In what unit
- Sessions, each with its own identifier and signature
- Where it is written
- The record that shows who chose and who cleared
- Who keeps it
- The party that owes the money, so an accounting is owed with it
- What starts it
- A person's choice, by name, with their own name on it
- What ends it
- A different choice, the job finishing, or notice given
The same count, read from both ends of the money.
A count that only one party can see is an invoice. This one is read by the person being paid and by the person paying, and it is the same record for each.
If it is your way of working
You see the count as it is written, session by session, and you see whose name cleared each job it ran on. The people doing the counting are the people who owe you the money, so you get an accounting and a right to audit it. You are never asked to take a total on trust.
If you own the machines
You see the same count, the same hours, on the same record, and it is what you are charged for. Your person's name is on every choice, so when somebody later asks who cleared a job and whose way of working it ran, the count is the answer.
The clearance and the invoice come from the same record.
The name of the person who cleared the work and the hours billed for it are written in the same place at the same moment. Neither can be quietly adjusted without the other.
Move the hours, and the clearance moves
An hour added to the count is an hour somebody's name says was cleared. There is no column where hours go without a name beside them.
Move the clearance, and the count moves
A choice struck out or shifted takes its hours with it. The count cannot outlast the authority it came from.
Nobody counts alone
The party counting owes the money, the party paid can audit it, and the party paying reads the same record. A quiet change would have to get past all of them at once.
A count ends the way it began, with an act.
Nothing runs on until somebody decides it should, and nothing is counted past the point they decide it should stop.
- 01A different choiceSomebody on the crew chooses another name, the basics the machine came with, or nothing. The hours under the earlier choice stop where the new one is written.
- 02The job finishingWhen the job the choice was made for is done, the count under it is done. The next job begins with a fresh choice, or with none.
- 03Notice givenThe person whose way of working it is gives notice, and nothing new starts under it. The job already running finishes, and its hours are counted and paid like any other.
The rate is written once, on the covenant.
What an hour is worth to the person whose way of working it is, and the most it costs the owner running it, are set out on the covenant page and nowhere else. One place to read them, and one place to check they have not moved.
Talk to us.
Write to us if you run a crew and want to see what the count looks like before it runs on your iron, or if it is your way of working and you want to know what you would see.