Tristan Wilson analyzed DOT contract data across 20+ states and found contractors leave about 9% of potential profit on the table, roughly $6 billion yearly. The problem: aggressive pricing to win bids undercuts the profit they could actually make.
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— which can be really big. And the average contractor that we found actually leaves around 9% on the table on, you know, the 20+ states of DOT data that we analyzed. And it's one thing to say that, like, it's $67 billion and it's, you know, over $6 billion was, you know, left on the table. But like having kind of been in that seat, it's also really hard from the contractor's perspective. Like there's a reason why there are these gaps. And part of it is because there's a ton of pressure to win work. So that's kind of the balance that you're feeling when you're pricing these jobs is like, okay, how do I win the job to secure the backlog for my team? You can't build a job that you haven't won. And while I'm doing that, how do I also, you know, not give a bunch of money back to the market and leave a bunch of money on the table? Because every dollar that I leave on the table could be additional profit for my company.