New website matches subbies to contractors

A new website aimed at matching subbies to main contractors will be launched in the next few days – in direct competition with another online service set up last year for the same purpose.

Known as subconpages.com, the search engine will be launched initially only in south-west and central England.

But the website’s marketing manager, Michael Tate, told CJ: “We intend to go national very soon, but we can’t register all the subbies who may be interested at once.”

The database will feature labour-only and domestic subbies and cover five work disciplines, 130 trades and professions
and more than 350 trade-related packages.

The new website works by searching its database for all subbies whose work catchment areas include the location of a particular project and aims to allow main contractors to scan these profiles and match suitable subbies with specific projects.

The site also features an optional facility that can produce customised enquiry letters to send to selected subbies.
And for what the website’s managers call “a nominal fee”, subbies can also post their own company profile, with optional links to company e-mail and website addresses.

The website claims that more than 2,000 subbies in the South West region have already signed up.

Tate said: “When the website is fully operational, our hope is that at least 80% of subbies across all trades will want to register.”

He claimed that online services “significantly reduce the many thousands of working hours lost each year in the industry through trying to locate the right subbie for the job”.

Subbiesworld.co.uk, which  was set up last year, also aims to match subbies with potential employers.

The site works through potential employers entering their site postcode and then selecting the required trades. They then get access to the subbies willing to work in that area.

Subbies themselves can list up to four trades per registration and stipulate the postal areas they are willing to work in.
The service costs “less than £1 per week for a year”, proclaims the website.

Roger Banks, who runs the website, told CJ: “Since we set it up, around 100 people across all trades have registered, but the number of hits recorded averages out at around 1,000 a month.”

Interestingly, neither of these rivals website claims to see the other as a threat.