Dry_Diver
Contributor
I had a few questions for gastronomy so I shot him an email. Here are my questions and his answers. I hope he does not mind me sharing the information here. Gastronomy, if you do let me know and I will remove it. Hope this helps someone.
Email starts as follows,
Good evening Dan,
Allow me to go through your questions and answer them the best that I can.
1. As a diver would I go to a coarse alone? You mentioned something about a dive team. Is that to say that there would be more than one diver at a coarse at a time. Or when you say team do you mean the group of divers that is working for you/themselves during this season. As for a team, I have numerous divers that work for me, hence team. In regards to diving alone, I do not send new divers out alone. I do this for multiple reasons. First, too often new divers flake and or no show all together. Also by being paired initially, this gives a mentoring opportunity for the new diver to fully grasp how operations take place. So yes, there are frequently times there are multiple divers on a course at one time, but only when team want to work together or if the volume justifies it.
2. Are the divers assigned specific courses that they are responsible for all the time. We have only been working the North East / Mid Atlantic as a single entity for the past 2 years, but most of the divers either work their region (close to where they live) or have requested to go back to courses they have worked before. The benefit of repeat servicing by the same diver is familiarity as well as rapport with the courses.
3. You say that we would start diving full time the first week in April, does this mean 40 hours a week or do you mean April through the end of the season. I am meaning that we service April October, but as we continue to acquire more and more courses, there are areas that justify 40+ hour weeks of diving.
4. I did look on the website and was curious as to where we would go to ship out the balls and if we were responsible for the shipping cost or if a prepaid label would be supplied. Shipping is at no cost to the diver. Depending on the divers location a local shipping center is used. The balls are taken to the facility, but they do need to be stacked and plastic wrapped the pallet of balls. For some divers they can drop the balls off locally, for others, I have some people that will come and pick them up from the divers.
5. What is the cost to start out doing this? Is there an upfront cost to get going? For the most part, start up costs, is ensuring you have dive gear, mesh bags (laundry style or lobster bags i.e.). I will provide the bags the balls get shipped in. You will need to have a means to secure the bags, wire tie, zip tie, etc.. Also part of being able to go out on the course yourself, you will need to have general liability insurance. By being paired up with another diver initially, allows you on the courses with their insurance and you can earn enough money to cover the costs of the insurance. On average the insurance is about $600-700 annually.
6. On the web site it says you meaning us the diver provide everything necessary in the way of tools of the trade. What are the tools of the trade? Are you referring to standard dive gear? This is simply a catch all meaning that you as an independent contract are require to have your own tools to be able to accomplish the task. I can make recommendations, I can list what I and other use, but ultimately it is your responsibility to be prepared for the job at hand. Of course you need the typical dive gear, thermal protection suit, mask, gloves, air, regulator, catch bag, etc
These are great questions and feel free to ask more if anything else comes to mind.
Best regards,
Email starts as follows,
Good evening Dan,
Allow me to go through your questions and answer them the best that I can.
1. As a diver would I go to a coarse alone? You mentioned something about a dive team. Is that to say that there would be more than one diver at a coarse at a time. Or when you say team do you mean the group of divers that is working for you/themselves during this season. As for a team, I have numerous divers that work for me, hence team. In regards to diving alone, I do not send new divers out alone. I do this for multiple reasons. First, too often new divers flake and or no show all together. Also by being paired initially, this gives a mentoring opportunity for the new diver to fully grasp how operations take place. So yes, there are frequently times there are multiple divers on a course at one time, but only when team want to work together or if the volume justifies it.
2. Are the divers assigned specific courses that they are responsible for all the time. We have only been working the North East / Mid Atlantic as a single entity for the past 2 years, but most of the divers either work their region (close to where they live) or have requested to go back to courses they have worked before. The benefit of repeat servicing by the same diver is familiarity as well as rapport with the courses.
3. You say that we would start diving full time the first week in April, does this mean 40 hours a week or do you mean April through the end of the season. I am meaning that we service April October, but as we continue to acquire more and more courses, there are areas that justify 40+ hour weeks of diving.
4. I did look on the website and was curious as to where we would go to ship out the balls and if we were responsible for the shipping cost or if a prepaid label would be supplied. Shipping is at no cost to the diver. Depending on the divers location a local shipping center is used. The balls are taken to the facility, but they do need to be stacked and plastic wrapped the pallet of balls. For some divers they can drop the balls off locally, for others, I have some people that will come and pick them up from the divers.
5. What is the cost to start out doing this? Is there an upfront cost to get going? For the most part, start up costs, is ensuring you have dive gear, mesh bags (laundry style or lobster bags i.e.). I will provide the bags the balls get shipped in. You will need to have a means to secure the bags, wire tie, zip tie, etc.. Also part of being able to go out on the course yourself, you will need to have general liability insurance. By being paired up with another diver initially, allows you on the courses with their insurance and you can earn enough money to cover the costs of the insurance. On average the insurance is about $600-700 annually.
6. On the web site it says you meaning us the diver provide everything necessary in the way of tools of the trade. What are the tools of the trade? Are you referring to standard dive gear? This is simply a catch all meaning that you as an independent contract are require to have your own tools to be able to accomplish the task. I can make recommendations, I can list what I and other use, but ultimately it is your responsibility to be prepared for the job at hand. Of course you need the typical dive gear, thermal protection suit, mask, gloves, air, regulator, catch bag, etc
These are great questions and feel free to ask more if anything else comes to mind.
Best regards,
