How Contractors Can Use Measured Mile Analysis to Prove Claims

A measured mile is a method construction contractors can use to demonstrate lost productivity during a project in hopes of getting some of the additional costs back from project owners.

Construction projects always aim to stick to their originally established budget and timelines. Unfortunately, in most cases, issues arise that get in the way of those goals. In many cases, contractors can recoup those costs by proving that the lost productivity on a project wasn’t their fault and receiving a payout from the project owners. The measured mile method is intended to help build out that proof.

This article will explain how the measured mile method works, what contractors need to be successful using it and some tips for presenting the best case to recoup lost income.

How Does Measured Mile Work?

The measured mile is a term used to describe comparing a normal day’s productivity to the productivity on a day affected by delays. It’s a way of putting numbers to lost efficiency, which can be a pretty elusive metric. Although the concept of measured mile is simple, putting it into practice requires a lot of data.

The measured mile creates a control period from when things were going well to when delays started to occur. The contractor can then compare a typical day when things were going well to a day when the project was being affected by delays or disruptions to show how much the contractor was being affected by the slowdown. If contractors can effectively argue that their costs went up because of a delay, they may be able to negotiate compensation from the owner.

Contractors may need an expert to come in and compare the numbers to pin down the actual effects of a slowdown. Those experts may have to testify to their findings in arbitration or court.

In order to use the measured mile, contractors need copious and detailed records about their activities on both normal and affected days. Technology — especially mobile-accessible and cloud-based project management platforms — can help set up standard, easy processes for teams to document their activities, notes and communications on the fly, providing a thorough progress record for the future.

When applied to hard numbers, measured mile analysis may be able to clearly demonstrate the effects of disruptions, helping to settle disputes and offer solid negotiating points for contractors to get fair compensation for their work.

Steps to the Measured Mile Method

While applying the measured mile analysis isn’t always easy, the concept follows a relatively simple set of steps.

1. Define when and where work was impacted.

First, the contractor has to identify the type of work and the days that were impacted by delays. To do this, they pick a time that’s representative of general productivity numbers, and then a time that was impacted by delays, noting the date and location of all the records for apples-to-apples comparison.

2. Create a before/after comparison.

Number by number, contractors compare typical production numbers to those from the impacted days — including labor hours, job cost numbers, equipment used and any other applicable metrics. The difficulty in proving standard productivity can be that efficiency levels may change from one period to another, so no particular day or time period can be “representative” of all the rest. Contractors applying the method should try to pick days that are as alike as possible aside from the delays.

3. Apply productivity losses to the impacted time period.

The measured mile method can either be applied to units (as in, impact per foot of highway built) or per hour. If a section that was impacted by delays took seven days to complete, but another similar section took only five days, all the cost of work on those two days could be claimed as extra costs.

Once the method has been applied to calculate losses, multiply those losses by the number of units to come up with a dollar amount.

Best Practices for Measured Mile Analysis

When done well, measured mile analyses may prove persuasive, resulting in contractor compensation. Following some best practices may help improve the results of the analysis.

Full and Accurate Record Keeping

To make a solid case for productivity losses, contractors need to present detailed records of the representative days. On any given day in the field, workers must be keeping clear and full records of what’s happening. Record keeping should be an ingrained process for field workers to create this bank of information.

Careful Selection of Representative Days

The days used in measured mile analyses should be closely comparable in the type of work being completed, the location of the work and any other metrics. Possibly the biggest challenge to the measured mile analysis will be that the days were not alike enough for fair comparison or that the representative day was somehow atypical.

Software for Data Collection

Project management software can help field workers follow a set process to take down detailed notes and numbers. By setting up standard procedures, the notes from representative days may be more closely comparable for a strong case.

Call for Expertise

Complex or nuanced situations may call for an expert to perform a measured mile analysis. Comparing two days sounds simple, but there can be many factors at play, including weather, labor availability or materials used. Using experts may help if calls for compensation undergo arbitration or legal cases.

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Data Drives a Credible Measured Mile Analysis

A measured mile analysis can be effective in helping contractors seek adequate compensation for the work they’ve done by attempting to compare their normal productivity levels with those during a disrupted period. The trickiest part of completing a measured mile analysis may be indirectly quantifying the additional costs that should be applied, but a solid bank of data about the work that happened during representative days can help prove the point.

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