Putting your project into the hands of a contractor can be tough, especially if their job is to blast part of it away. A drilling and blasting contractor is often a necessary part of many projects within sectors such as construction, urban quarrying and road construction. If your boss has tasked you with finding the right firm for the job, what can you do to make sure that you select the team with the correct qualifications, experience, business understanding and aptitude to get the job done and maintain the management team's trust in you?

Tap into your network

While at the beginning of your search you may be unsure of where to start looking, you're probably just a few calls away from finding a great drilling and blasting contractor. Anyone who has been in the industry for more than a few years will have an invaluable network of past colleagues, current co-workers and 'friends of friends' who have worked with, or hired, a drilling and blasting contractor in the past. 

Make sure to harness the power of the internet and use your professional network on sites like LinkedIn to post asking if anyone can point you in the direction of a drilling and blasting contractor. Additionally, with the growth of highly-targeted email marketing, it is likely that your work email inbox actually has several emails from contractors looking to speak to you; you didn't want to speak to them at the time, but now is the perfect time to hit reply.

Do you trust the people

The team you hire will have access to highly valuable business assets—often related to oil or mining. It is therefore vital that you only hire people you trust to get the job done correctly, and that you are sure that you will be able to leave them on site without the need to waste your valuable time micro-managing them. When you hear proposals from a drilling and blasting contractor, always ask who will be on site and ensure that they won't hand off the work to junior or inexperienced members of the team.

Do they make safety a priority?

While industries which require a drilling and blasting contractor will always carry a higher degree of risk than others, it is nevertheless important that the company you chose has a good record in safety. The staff on your site should be highly trained, with a no-nonsense attitude to health, and the equipment they use must be top of the line and regularly maintained.