Technical Service Center

TSC Billing Information

Since the formation of the Technical Service Center in FY95, TSC has charged for its services on an as-requested, job-by-job basis through individual service agreements. TSC operates like a business and uses both a billable labor rate and fee structure to fully recover its operating costs. The billable rate charged to a customer is the same for both regular and overtime hours worked. The table below provides the FY 2008 basic billable rates for the TSC.

Table 1.— TSC FY2008 Billable Rates

*Skill Level*	*Grades*	*Hourly Rate*	*Daily Rate*
1	1 - 10	$74	$592
2	11 - 12	$96	$768
3	13 - 15	$116	$928

What rates are projected for FY 2009 & 2010?
What components contribute to the billable rates?

Beginning in FY2001, TSC implemented supplemental fees for certain laboratory, field, and computing services. In addition, a few of the TSC groups have adopted a higher billable labor rate to cover the costs of their broad-based higher rate services. These premium rates and service fees are summarized below, in table 3.

Table 2.—TSC Premium Rates and Service Fees

ORG CODE	PREMIUM SERVICE OR OTHER ADDED COST	FEE OR SURCHARGE
86-68110	Use of HP system, ABAQUS, CAE for structural analyses	$110/day
86-68160	Construction tracking/scheduling to cover software & equipment	Small job, $50/yr Avg. job, $100/yr Large job, $250/yr
86-68170	VE or PASS studies—Costs of supplies, equipment, space, and admin	$300/day
	Contractor cost-estimating services	$15/hr
	Contractor specification services	$15/hr
86-68180	Partial costs of materials lab supplies, equipment, space, & maintenance (surcharge within billable rate)	$15/hr
	5-Million-Pound Test Machine	$500–1,000/day
	Use of Vibration Lab	$500–1,000/day
	Specialized equipment use—Laboratory	$500–1,000/day
	Specialized equipment use—Field	$500–1,000/day
	Specialized soil and rock testing—Costs of supplies, equipment, and space	Contact group manager*
	Storage fees—Space and handling costs of storing project materials left after testing	Contact group manager*
	Materials training	Contact group manager*
	DPR (drill hole parameter recorder)	$1,000/site
	Coatings work	$160/day
	Sample storage	$2/ft²/month
	Structural testing and analysis field trips	$2,000/trip
86-68210	GIS development of area-capacity info from hydrographic data collection—UNIX system costs	Contact group manager*
	Partial costs of land suitability/water quality lab supplies, equipment, maintenance, and space	See soil and sediment lab price list
	Mobilization and use of drill rigs—Equipment and storage costs	$0.20/mile + $125/hr
86-68211	GIS supplies, equipment, space, and computer system admin (surcharge added to billable rate)	$9/hr
86-68220	Use of boats and related equipment	Contact group manager*
	Use of environmental chambers, and associated space and special utilities	$600/month/unit
	Use of greenhouse	$700–1,400/month
	Use of greenhouse ponds	$400/month
86-68230	Labor-based surcharge fee on R&D & demonstration activities directly utilizing or benefiting from the mobile plant, pilot plant lab, bench scale lab, wet lab, or chemistry lab	$96/day
86-68240	Use of large survey boat, instruments, equipment, software licenses for HYPACK, Trimble, and UNIX computer	$240/day
	Use of small survey boat, instruments, equipment, software licenses for HYPACK and Trimble	$210/day
	Use of GPS survey equipment, depth sounder, and software licenses for Trimble	$160/day
86-68290	Field supplies, equipment, lab space, storage, and other services associated with fish collection, retention, and analyses	Contact group manager*
86-68320	Cone penetrometer vehicle	$600/day
	Trimbel GPS system	$250/day
	PLGRs	$50/day
86-68330	Partial costs of geophysical and seismological equipment, storage, and maintenance (surcharge within billable rate)	$12/hr
	Class V: GPS, X-hole truck, White logger	$250/day
	Class IV: Crawler Cams	$200/day
	Class III: Trim2d and Promax	$150/day
	Class II: Seismograph, Intergraph, Gray logger, MGX logger	$100/day
	Class I: UNIX, Intergraph II, Borehole cams, misc geophys equipment, temp microseismic nets	$50/day
	Temporary microseismic network	$3,000/sensor
	Surcharge on in-house contractors to recover office and special services costs	Contact group manager*
86-68350	Use of INTERGRAPH system for high-end geotechnical analyses— Space, equipment, software, & systems admin. costs	Contact group manager*
86-68410 86-68420 86-68430 86-68440	Partial costs of hydroelectric lab supplies, equipment, and space (surcharge added to billable rate)	$5/hr
86-68410 86-68440	Mobilization costs, for calibration and storage of hydroelectric field supplies and equipment	$300/person/trip
86-68460	Hydraulic lab infrastructure surcharge—Space, equipment, and storage costs for hydraulic studies (surcharge within billable rate)	$15/hr
	Hydraulic lab infrastructure fee—Space, equipment, and storage costs based on hydraulic model "footprint." Charged while model is in use by groups other than 86-68560.	$1/sq ft/month
	Hydraulic lab equipment/instrumentation surcharge for specialized equipment used to analyze hydraulic conditions	Contact group manager*
	Partial costs of lab shops supplies, equipment, and space (surcharge within billable rate)	$15/hr

*Prices are variable for some services. Group managers can provide current pricing information for these services.

TSC billable rates for outyears are conservatively estimated to cover anticipated inflation and cost of living increases in employee salaries. The rate for an upcoming year is then adjusted immediately prior to the start of a new fiscal year (normally in early September) based on better information about prior year performance and future year operating costs. Table 3 below provides a summary of the current preliminary estimate of outyear rates for the TSC.

Table 3.—Preliminary Outyear TSC Billable Rates

*Fiscal Year*	*Skill Level*	*Hourly Rate*	*Daily Rate*
FY2009	1	$78	$624
	2	$101	$808
	3	$122	$976
FY2010	1	$82	$656
	2	$106	$848
	3	$128	$1,024

Please contact a client liaison (303) 445-2561 to help you get the most efficient services for your needs.