Projects | CIS Projects | Digital Lodgement

1. Access to data electronically
   
   Land Surveyors want to be able to access Surveyor-General's Office data and this includes survey records. Survey records are being scanned and these should be available on the CSG website. This should be advertised that, as a result of digital lodgment, the Surveyor-General's Office would be able to supply electronic data a lot quicker.
   
   
2. Cost Benefits
   
   With the present trend of price cutting, the profit margin of survey firms is being eroded all the time.
   
   Time is saved by the Surveyor-General's Office because it does not have to enter digitally lodged data. This has a two fold effect, the first being that the cost saving should be passed onto the firms that lodge digitally. The second is that staff can be used to scan records and these could be passed onto the same practitioners at a reduced rate.
   
   
   1. Examination and office fees
      
      The Surveyor-General cannot waive exam fees but the increase in fees could possibly be made subject to those practitioners who lodge digitally being charged on the previous scale of fees. The examination fee for a 500 erf general plan is R600 plus R 35 x 500 which ends at R18,100. An increase in fees will probably become a basic of R700 and R40 per erf which will then cost R20,700 or and increase of R2,600.
      
      If a sheet has to be reframed, the cost at present is R165 per sheet but that does not include the cost of printing and film and this would probably rise to R200 per sheet.
      
      Assuming a sheet has to be reframed then the proposed increase will be R2,635 or R5,27 per erf. This might not be much individually but it could mean getting a job and making a profit or getting the job and breaking even.
      
      
   2. Drafting Costs
      
      No consideration has been given to the cost of materials. A sheet of A0 film is at least R30. If a practitioner does not have to use film, it becomes a saving. The need for a large printer is obviated. So what started out as a saving of R5,37 per erf is growing and with it is the profit margin.
      
3. The Deeds Office
   
   Registration of DDA type towns will soon be done electronically by the legal profession. This is being done with due care for the security of registration and is not going to happen overnight but it should eventually merge with ours if we combine ideas regularly. This will be a further cost saver as no hard copy will be required for lodging and the savings can be passed onto those practitioners whose records are lodged in a compatible manner.
   
   
4. Ease of Lodgement
   
   Practitioners must be made aware of the ease of preparing the records for lodging. It is no longer necessary to go to great lengths to print neat copies and then be affected by postal unreliability. Even the acknowledgement by e-mail means that they are advised earlier and thus get paid quicker.
   
   
5. Reduced Examination Time
   
   Coupled with the reduction in the time to prepare records is the time saved because there is no longer a need to capture the data and hence the time a job spends in the Surveyor-General's Office is reduced.
   
   
6. Verification of Data
   
   It is anticipated that there will some form of data verification so that if a document has to be amended, only the amendments will be re-examined to save time.
   
   
7. Standardised Software Package
   
   The supply of a standardised software package would make the practitioner feel a lot more confident that his or her survey would be acceptable when lodged digitally. A subsidised package would make it even more attractive.
   
   
8. Lien
   
   The assurance must be given that a land surveyor's lien will still be respected. Perhaps the land surveyor could be assured that no copies of his registration documents will be made until he or she has authorised it.
   
   
9. Education
   
   The land surveyors will need to be advised on the practical requirements and this must be done in regular workshops and demonstrations at venues suitable to the practitioners.