How it works?

1. Sign Up

Are you an individual surveyor? Or are you part of a survey company? You can both sign up to iMarS platform and start conducting surveys.

If you are an individual surveyor, after sign up, you will verify your email and phone number, and will upload your ID. Once your account is verified by iMarS, you will have full access to iMarS menu and functions.

If you have a survey company with one or more surveyors, you sign up as a “Survey Company” to iMarS platform. The very first person to sign up from your company is the “Designated Person” for your company. After signing up and logging in, Designated Person will need to verify his email and phone number, and will have to upload certain documents related to your company to verify your company account. It is important that the very first person to sign up has access to your company’s records. Once the account is verified, the “Designated Person” will have full access to iMarS menus and functions.

2. Set up your team of Surveyors (Only for Survey Companies)

This step is for survey companies only. As the Designated Person for your company, once your account is approved by iMarS, you can add surveyors that work with you in your company in “Surveyors” menu by adding their email addresses. The added surveyors will receive an email notification and need to verify their email address and phone number. They will then be automatically added to your account and will have access to certain menus of iMarS. Added surveyors will have access to the survey details that are assigned to them by the Designated Person, and they will be able to manage their own calendar availability.

Only the Designated Person of the Survey Company:

  • Can add or remove surveyors from your company
  • Assigns a survey to a surveyor of the company or change the assigned surveyor to another surveyor of the company
  • Can access the company’s account balance and access the earning manager
  • Create port and survey type portfolio of the company
  • See the calendars of all the surveyors of the company

 

3. Your Survey Types

In “My Survey Types” menu, add the survey types that you want to conduct and enter the price for each type you add. For Survey Companies, only the Designated person will add the survey types to create the company’s survey portfolio.

Some survey types have a fixed price. Some are daily priced, which you enter the price per day, so that the total cost of the survey is number of days the survey took place times the price per day. For daily priced surveys, you enter the number of days when you upload the survey report.

And lastly, in “My Survey Types” page, you may select the check mark “I want to conduct Custom Occasional Surveys”. This means you may get a Custom Occasional Survey request with specific survey instructions other than already listed survey types. For Custom Occasional Surveys, the operator can select up to five surveyors, and each surveyor has 24 hours to submit a quote for the custom request. At the end of the bidding process, you may be chosen by the operator for the custom survey request.

4. Your Ports

In “Ports” menu, add the ports that you want to conduct surveys at and enter the transportation cost for the port if there is any. For Survey Companies, only the Designated person will add ports that the survey company operates at.

Transportation cost is the additional cost that will be charged to the operator company in addition to the survey cost. For the ports that are close to you, you may have zero transportation cost, and for ports that are away from you that you provide services, you may have an additional transportation cost.  

The total invoiced amount to the operator company for a survey is the sum of survey cost for that survey type and the transportation cost for the port that the survey is conducted.

5. Accepting a Survey Request

You will receive a notification when a you are sent a new survey request from the operator company. You have 8 hours to accept or decline the request. If you do not respond within 8 hours, the request may be sent to another surveyor. The new survey requests are listed under the “Pending” surveys tab. You will be able to see the instructions and other details of the survey. If you accept the request, survey is listed in your “Upcoming” Surveys tab, and will be shown in your calendar. If the embarkation day of the survey changes, you can edit the start date of the survey, and your calendar will be updated accordingly.

For Survey Companies, the Designated Person receives the survey request, and will accept or decline the request initially. The Designated Person can then assign the survey to a surveyor in his company and once he assigns the survey, the survey will be listed in that surveyor’s account.

If the request is for a Custom Occasional Survey, you can take a look at the survey instructions and enter a bid for the survey within 24 hours.

6. Your Calendar

You can manage your own calendar, make yourself available or unavailable for a date. If you make yourself unavailable for a date, you will not be listed as a surveyor in the search results of the operator company if the survey start date is the date you are unavailable.

This way, you can manage your off days and the days you want to conduct surveys.

For Survey Companies, the Designated Person can see the calendar of each surveyor in the company, and the aggregated calendar of all surveyors. The survey company will not be listed in the search results for a date if all of the surveyors are unavailable on that date. Otherwise, the Survey Company will be listed in the operator’s search results.

7. Submit Your Report

Survey report is uploaded in iMarS after the survey is conducted and finished. The operator has three days to accept the report, or it will automatically be accepted three days after you submit the report.

After the report is accepted (or 3 days go by), the operator will be able to rate your service and write a review. This way you will be able to build reputation and confidence for future survey opportunities.  

8. Invoicing 

Once the report is accepted, an automatic invoice is generated and sent to the operator company. The invoice is due one month after the report is accepted. On behalf of you, iMarS will collect the funds for all the invoices for the surveys you or your company has conducted. Once iMarS receives the funds for the surveys you conducted, your account balance will updated by iMarS to reflect the received funds. A 20% fee is deducted from the actual received amount from the Operator Company and the remaining 80% is added to your account balance. You can request the available funds in your account anytime by hitting ”Request Payment” in the “Earning” menu. If you are in the USA, or using PayPal, you iMarS will transfer you the full amount in your account balance. If you select to receive your balance via wire transfer, there is an early withdrawal fee for account balances less than $2000, and no transfer fee for balances greater than or equal to $2000.

This makes it so much easier on your side for creating invoices, monitoring activity in your account with operators, and iMarS will be able to take actions such as deactivating operator companies that are too late paying the invoices to protect you.

For Survey Companies, only the Designated Person has access to account balance of the company and will be able to request for payment. 

9. Survey’s Life Cycle

The survey life cycle begins when the operators submit a survey request, and it is listed in your “Pending” surveys tab.

If you accept the request, the survey is moved to “Upcoming” surveys tab and displayed in your calendar. You can chat with the operator and change the start date of a survey if vessel’s arrival or the embarkation changes. For survey companies, the Designated person can assign the upcoming survey to one of the surveyors in the company.  

When you upload and submit a report, the survey will be listed in “Report Submitted” surveys tab.

Once the report is accepted by the operator (or three days go by), the invoice is generated to be paid within 30 days, and the survey is listed under “Pending Payment” surveys tab.

Once iMarS receives the payment from the operator for the survey, the survey is listed under “Payment Received” tab and your account balance is updated due to the received fund. The surveys in the “Payment Received” tab make up your account balance.

When you hit “Request Payment” in the “Earning” menu, iMarS will receive the request and the amount in your account balance will be transferred to you with the payment method you selected. Once the transfer is initiated, the surveys become “Paid” and your account balance goes to zero. For survey companies, only the Designated Person has access to the “Earning” menu and can request payment.

If a survey is cancelled by the operator or a surveyor when it is in upcoming status, or all surveyors you selected decline your survey request, the survey is cancelled and listed under “Cancelled” surveys tab.

By clicking on each tab, you will easily see the list of all the surveys in separate tabs based on their status, and for survey companies, the Designated Person can filter by the surveyor to see the surveys assigned to a certain surveyor in the company.