Comment by annzabelle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by annzabelle | Hacker News Reader

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Tangentially related, but I work for a New Zealand company that does civil engineering work, including some in the US. There's a lot of localization that we have to do around roads being much wider and different materials being used, but the main idiosyncrasy is that in New Zealand we can just call people up on the phone or via email and arrange contracts, but for large jurisdictions in the US there is a competitive bidding process that we (as a foreign company) can't just circumvent.

My boss wanted to investigate some sinkholes on the runway at LaGuardia to calibrate a device, and was confused that I (the token American) couldn't just call up the Port Authority of New York and get our truck of equipment onto a runway the same week. I tried to explain to a coworker that American airports and the Port Authority in particular are very sensitive about what they allow airside, and he said "oh, so we don't get hit by a plane." I had to explain the last 25 years of American history to him.

> the main idiosyncrasy is that in New Zealand we can just call people up on the phone or via email and arrange contracts,

That sounds pretty corrupt. I've recently commented that countries with lower corruption perceptions probably have more corruption, and New Zealand is one of the lowest.

Unless you're some kind of competitively approved supplier that's chosen by default because you consistently do good work.

Why are you randomly wanting to go to an airport to measure sinkholes to calibrate a device? Why can't you make an artificial calibration sinkhole for your sinkhole meter, why do US airports have sinkholes, and why do you expect the airport to pay you for calibrating your sinkhole meter?

We have a lot of long term connections in the industry in NZ. I'm simplifying a little, but the process for a district council to hire us to do the same thing the next district council over paid us to do last year is relatively straightforward.

The sinkhole thing is a really long story, and a lot of it is that my boss is an old, eccentric, PhD who has zeroed in on this.

LaGuardia has sinkholes because it's built on a crazy substructure of rotting wooden pilings and metal framework.

We don't expect them to pay us, my boss (remember, 70 year old Kiwi) thinks you can just call airports up and get on the runway. To be entirely fair, if a sinkhole opened up at Invercargill airport, we could be on the runway tomorrow, and probably next week at Christchurch. He just doesn't realize that NYC is not the South Island.

That sounds more like a local airport kinda thing. I'm sure any kind of bush airport this is no problem. But not one of the busiest federal airports... thats just an entirely different scenario.

I think part of it is that even at the busiest airport on the South Island (Christchurch) this would be a doable ask for us. My boss just has no concept of what life is like in a large country, let alone a large city. He's thinking of LaGuardia Airport as just Christchurch Airport but larger.

411,000: Population of Christchurch

8,600,000: Population of New York City (where LaGuardia is)

1,250,000: Population of New Zealand's South Island (where Christchurch is)

5,400,000: Population of New Zealand

> That sounds pretty corrupt.

I live in Australia and Australia is not New Zealand... but this sounds exactly like what would happen in rural Australia - people in small towns still do handshake deals because you know and trust most people in town.

Not related to business deals but a family member was flying rurally in Australia maybe 15 years ago and joked about stabbing the pilot with a 4cm nail file. The airport security guy had a good laugh too.

I met someone who told me they flew domestically with a licensed hunting rifle in NZ about 10 years ago and they were told to open carry the rifle onto the plane where the flight attendant locked it up.

Unrelated but Finnair's requirements for flying with doctoral swords are wonderful.

I'd believe it. In Australia, gun silencers (home made or otherwise) are absolutely illegal. In New Zealand no such limitations. A family member went to New Zealand maybe 15 years ago to somewhere suburban and found a few guys shooting animals in the distance - using silencers (I assume to not make too much noise for anyone nearby).

You can do it in the usa too. You need a special briefcase to lock your weapons and declare them at the counter. it’s a complicated, but possible

Big difference between specially locked checked briefcase and open carried rifle through the airport.

Big city or small town flight? Like anywhere, density changes everything. Certainly Auckland and Christchurch and Wellington have proper security procedures and facilities.

Late on this, but small town. Turboprop I think. Jets have security but prop planes don't here. It was still large enough to have a waiting area and flight attendants.

So what happens if a new startup in the airport runway sinkhole calibration industry wants to bid on these deals?

Rightly or wrongly, you'll probably want to be local to have any chance of winning.

Similarly, a friend who works in engineering went to tender to a country council. Working for a big city firm they had no expectation of getting the job because they were up against a company from another nearby country town. Got to try and tender in case the shoe-in company really blows it, but no expectation of actually getting the job.

How the hell else do you arrange a contract? Lawyers at 10 paces? What's so corrupt about directly communicating with someone gain agreement? This is confusing.

What's so corrupt a politician calling a friend to order him a new plane using taxpayers money?

Pretty sure that can be done with a paper contract too, but sure.

A competitive bidding process, which the government is usually required to do because everything else is corruption.

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