photographer

inspector

field technician

surveyor

route driver

Reliable Reports, Inc.

I've read all the reviews of this company. I currently work as a field reporting specialist with Reliable Reports and find it to be a terrific job. I enjoy the work and find it to be a great opportunity make decent money for those willing to put the work in. Did I take this job thinking I'd immediately be making six figures? No, I did not.
The hiring/training curve is fairly straight forward. Interview, background check, drug check, offer of employment and online training took me about 6 weeks all told. After that, field training with a manager of 4-5 days and your off.
I did not have experience with this type of work and my expectations were realistic. The commercial inspections are involved, and specific to the type of business being inspected. Residential inspections vary from standard exterior only types that require very little effort up to high value inspections, which require appointments, interior access and diagramming of the home ( physical measurement and creation of a line drawing using the companies drawing software). You do the field work, take it back to your home office and compile the reports and send the reports to the home office via the internet. From there your reports go through quality control, if anything in the report is not kosher, it comes back with notes on corrections that need to be made. You correct and re-submit. It gets easier the more you do, as you develop your system and memory of each particular inspections requirements. 
Pay scale is dependent on population density zones. City areas (zone 1) thru rural areas (zone 4) vary, but standard rates for exterior photo only inspections range from $6-10 dollars per. depending on zone. High Value inspections pay $114.00. Commercial Inspections fall between $15-$45 dollar range, there are quite a few different types of commercial inspections that will be ordered. I've inspected large hotels that have payed $120, and will admit that this part of the job (commercial) is the hardest, but again, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. After your 5th garage or Dr.'s office, you'll have those types down.
Management, at least to me seems solid...If you produce and do your job you will not be hassled. If you're slack, expect daily calls. The 3 managers that I've worked for/with have all been helpful and I've not had any problems. But again, you have to go get it! There is no hand holding. You are assigned a territory to work and it is up to you to, ummmm, you know...actually WORK IT. No one holds your hand at this job. If you don't produce you don't eat. I average net about $600 a week plus gas. (They pay 56.5 cents per mile) I've had $1K dollar weeks, I've had $300 dollar weeks. Pay is every 2 weeks, with mileage not taxed. The mileage pay is from your 1st stop to your last stop. Commute to and from these stops is not payed unless it's more than 2 hrs. one way. I make money on the mileage allowance, but not much. It basically covers my (monthly) oil change and insurance on the work car. Get a beater car that gets good mileage to maximize this benefit. The car is just a tool in this job. I get about 30 m.p.g. in mine. Full time employees enjoy 8 paid days off per year and after your 1st year you are eligible for 10 days paid vacation. Blue Cross Blue Shield, dental, vision, life insurance and employee matching 401K programs are also available to full time employees. 
All in all, I like this job and would recommend it to anyone in search of work, but again, be warned...if you live in a remote/rural area have realistic expectations! If you don't need a telephone call to wake you every day and get your butt out there and get it, it's awesome!

Like many others, was told that the pay was hourly, but shortly got an email afterwards indicating that I was being be paid per "piece".  I was hired to work a certain territory, but was routinely given assignments outside of that area.  The repeated outside territory was 80 miles away (30-40 miles beyond my agreed upon radius).  They do not pay when you leave your home to the first house or the time home from the last house.  This is simply wrong, and here is an example why.  I had a single appointment on a Saturday, that was 60 miles each way, an hour each way, it was the only house I had that day, as such,  I only got paid for 15 minutes of my time (the time I actually was there).  The two hour commute each way and miles were on me to eat.   As a result of continually being sent to locations that were not my territory,  I was unable to finish the workload for a particular week. Called my immediate manager to let him know, he puts me on three way call with his supervisor and her tone and attitude made it very apparent that this employer is unprofessional and needing in serious management overhaul.  This was on a Friday and her conversation irritated me all weekend long.  I had never been spoken to like that by a manager.  I explained that I was unable to finish the work due to being given work I had not agreed to.  Somehow, I was expected to still finish all the work.  By Sunday, I knew I could not work for her or this company after that, it would always be in my mind.  Her condescending tone and demeanor grated on me all weekend.  My immediate team leader quit the week after I started.  On a training day, the previous week, He relayed to me that he spent 10-12 hours a day driving and pretty much all weekend online uploading cases.  To be fair he did say much of this was due to staff shortage, but that it had become the norm for him.  He was upset that he has literally no time for a personal life.  I asked why he still worked with the company.  He indicated that he had never had health insurance (He was in his 20's) and since he was full time, he wanted to take advantage of the health insurance benefit to see a doctor and dentist and get his health on track.  He had done that and was appreciative.  He was nice, but it was apparent he was miserable and it did not surprise me when I heard he quit.  This was before my call with the managers that made me want to quit.   Be clear with this job, you will drive your car into the ground.  The training was alright.  I had previous experience in this field, so I pretty much knew what I was doing already, but if I had not had that experience, I would have been screwed learning this job.  Again, not sure if the lack of training was due to them knowing I already knew what I was doing or if the manager skimped on the training.  I am really trying to be fair with this review, but they made it very difficult to say anything positive about the experience I had.  All I know is when I resigned, I felt nothing but relief, absolutely no second thoughts or feelings of guilt or remorse.    They do provide you with a measuring wheel, digital camera, camera stick and walking snow treads upon start, but they do want them back when you stop working for them.  They have extreme staff shortages in the state I worked, but I see why if this is how they conduct themselves.  The only positive is that you do work alone, you used to make your own schedule, but they are starting a new program that will lay out your cases for you for the day, so the independence to work your day is gone as well.

I am a part-time field inspector and I have been with Reliable for little less than a year . A typical week will have me in the field 2 full days a week and at my computer for a few hours on one or two mornings.

Reliable has a very complicated wage system. The field inspectors are paid a flat rate per inspection and then a mileage reimbursement is added to that. My mileage pay is just enough to cover fuel costs. It's nowhere near the federal rate.

Even though I live in a high population area of my state I am sent to an area 4 counties away and I often report 200 miles or more per day, which does not include the 60-90 miles required to get to and from the work area.

Inspections are often spaced out far enough that it would only be possible to do one per hour. Since most inspections pay 7 to 9 dollars apiece I am making a little more than minimum wage and not getting any compensation for wear and tear to my vehicle.

Most inspections consist of a walk around the outside of a home to check and photograph construction details and any negative conditions. It normally takes about 5-10 minutes unless the home has many problems or is a farm. Inspections are unscheduled which sometimes causes problems with the homeowner. Dogs, locked gates and cautious homeowners can cause another visit or at least a delay.

Some home inspections require a walk on the roof. Some inspections are commercial in nature and require an in-person interview with the business owner. These are not normal inspections and they do pay more.

At first, this job was pretty good. I was able to schedule the inspection days around my other work. I am self-employed and must be able to schedule my own time, which drew me to this position at Reliable in the first place.

Recently, however, the manager has been nit-picking my routes and has even tried to map my routes and tell me which days I am supposed to do them. The comment posted above about being treated "like a child" is spot-on but, in my case, this treatment didn't start until about 6 months into the job. I have a hunch that the management is also being paid for the inspections that I complete.

I also lost an area that I was working that is much closer to home. This move made no sense to me since my manager is always stressing "efficiency".

_________

The pay for the last two months has been approx. $9.50/hr average.
But keep in mind that this did not include the ridiculously long drive times to get to and from my assigned areas. The mileage reimbursement paid just enough to cover fuel (Fuel has been costing around .$3.20 to $3.50 a gallon).

This job requires proficiency in computer use. Inspectors are required to download and install some of Reliable's proprietary programs and learning to use them quickly is required.
Inspectors are also required to have an adequate vehicle w/insurance, a printer, paper and ink to print maps and work assignments, DSL or better internet access, a good digital camera and a cell phone. Inspectors are also required to access roofs and interact professionally with homeowners and business owners.

This is much to ask from someone that is getting less than $10 per hour.

This job seems to be exploitative in nature. I get the feeling that Reliable would rather replace inspectors instead of listening to and working with the inspectors they already have.

I'm used to driving everyday from previous jobs but this takes the cake 100+ In your own vehicle with only 30% in reimbursement.  

They don't tell you about the paperwork which is a lot to do. You print everything at home everyday/night map it out and your on your way. 

You can choose to take notes or not which saves a little time.. the customers at times don't even know your coming because you have rental properties so they aren'tt notified but they're cool and the home owners are once they find out who your are and what your doing. It's a little nerve racking just going into people's yard without anyone coming to door when even though we're authorized supposedly and I say that because a good chunk of them don't even know. Only one bad experience so far is a chick didn't know I was coming and never even answered the door so I could tell her who I was but called the police. Thankfully I was legit not sure if this blame  should go on the company or the insurance agency because only one of them notifies they're customers of our arrival but they also have a6 day window so the customer won't forget.

. Now I'm told on average we're to do 18-20 houses a day with 10-15 minutes being standard. When starting out I'm only giving 10-13 it's almost impossible to do that many within a six hour time frame and still get back to the house which has been over a hour drive at times and use two more hours for paperwork because we don't get paid to go to or home only if 1.5hrs away. It's takes at least that amount to get those 10 done.i can only imagine how long it takes for the other 8-10 when my normal drive time from house to house is normally in the range of 15-30 minutes, with 15 being the average. If my stops were more concentrated for instance one area/county or another one or two next to them that I could see it being more plausible. 5-10 minute wouldn't be so bad. 

Every report is different and it takes time I understand as my manager says but I still don't see how it's possible only time will tell. As of now I get paid an average of 14 an hour and the field price is more then what most people are saying by a few dollars. The paperwork wouldn't be so bad as to when I upload pictures I have to input what I said/saw then basically go into another program do the exact same thing but now I'm adding the description once more into it's own separate box. 

For instance #1 roof rating goes on the photo tag. Then in the website the whole roof is #1 but yet I have to say it once more and say what type of shingle, damage, siding,etc even though it's in the freaking picture. If they update the process on how it classifies the pictures I wouldn't waist precious minutes saying the same thing over. For instance when I hit the #1 add the pictures, siding if it's required hit stucco, brick, vinyl add the picture. Tree touching the roof add the picture. The system is pretty redundant and I don't know why we have to add a comment to the picture of what were just going to say in the description.
.
 So also if it's a mix # 2 add the picture and select which one is greater 2 or one. And  can be done by 10%-20% increments and have a custom field if that doesn't match the need of the percentage. That would streamline the process by idk how much. And you would get the same format without any actual typing whatsoever just clicking

Be cautious of their recruiting pitch. I was told that I could expect to earn up to $60 per inspection. Multiple inspections can be done in an hour. You must also drive your personal vehicle and they pay mileage at the IRS approved rate or a maximum 30% of your production, I was told "don't worry, you will make a very generous mileage reimbursement".

I worked for them for 4 weeks. The first week was training which was actually pretty good and I felt I was ready to go into the field. Your first 16 weeks you receive a "training wage" mine was $13.32 an hour and I was hired as a part time employee at 30 hours per week. The hourly rate is a minimum you will make, you make whichever is greater, hourly rate or per inspection. After a 16 week probationary period, your hourly rate drops to the then current minimum wage.

Inspection payments. They promise you can earn up to $60.00 per inspection. ALL but one of the inspections I conducted paid $8.50. The system allows customer's to request various levels of inspection, each level an additional cost, I only had one additional level inspection and it totaled $31.50. While earning $60 for an inspection is possible, it is a very rare exception. I believe I was mislead regarding this during my recruitment. Unfortunately this only gets worse because your mileage is based off of your production.

I did inspections for three weeks. I was assigned a 12 county rural area to cover. Due to the distances involved getting to the first inspection, and the distances between sites, I was only able to average 2 inspections per hour. Each days route typically exceeded 400 miles, they don't pay mileage from home to the first inspection or from the last inspection to home. That is considered your commute to and from work. My commute over 3 weeks averaged more than 150 miles per day and was not reimbursed. One route was 283 miles non reimbursable, 314 reimbursable. When I was paid, I averaged 2 inspections per hour or $17.00 an hour which sounds good. But here's the catch, my daily production was $17 x 8hrs. = $136.00 x mileage cap of 30% = $40.80 per day. Total days wages and expenses = $176.80, (before taxes) miles driven averaged more than 400. The IRS mileage rate is 400 x $.55 = $220.00. A net loss of $43.00. Additional miles just mean a greater loss for you. You will wear out your vehicle working for Reliable Reports at your expense.

I was hired in July 2017, and I am still employed. It is fun work. Only light activity. I do a lot of sitting. You use your own vehicle with good mileage reimbursement.  After training, pay switches to piece work, which is a complicated system between home insurance companies and “zones” and you will never know if you got paid right. The rate of pay document is about 13 pages long.

 When I interviewed, I asked if there was any slow time. The manger answered “we have not had a slow time in 8 years.  There is plenty of work and lots of over time.”

Then in March 2018, I was taken from full time to part time due to a loss of a major contract in the state of Ohio and I was told at this point, in early spring is their slow season that happens every year.  It was only supposed to be for  a couple of months at most.  It is now July and I have been part time for 4 months.  Two weeks ago, Reliable Reports posted a Help Wanted ad for part time in the Youngstown, Ohio market (which is the market that I work in). Why they will not take me back to full time is beyond me and they will not answer me when I ask them. Then this morning, an email went out saying that there is a lot of work in the Northeast market of Ohio and other service technicians might be asked to go there from other markets to cover the over-abundance of work.  This is work that they will not give to me.  When they do assign me work, it is usually several days overdue.
When I asked where I would be working, I was told the majority of the work, about 75%, would be in Trumbull and Mahoning Counties. This being geographically near where I live is good, however, this is not true. About 50% of the work given to me has been in Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga, Summit, Portage, Stark, Columbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison and Belmont Counties. I do see more of Trumbull and Mahoning now that I'm part time, but when I was full time, I only got Trumbull and Mahoning County jobs about once every week or two.

I have worked out of state in Georgia and West Virginia and asked to pay for my own hotels, tools, food, and gas with reimbursement, but both times I have submitted my receipts and information for reimbursement, it takes months to get paid back.

I left a comfortable job of 7 years for Reliable a little over a year ago. I'm very happy with the decision. Had I read these reviews I may have skipped the opportunity. I felt compelled to write a review due to some of the unfair things written in other reviews here.

One of the reviewers stated he worked an 80 hour week and earned $400 dollars. That's bogus. First, they would never approve that much overtime. Second, if production does not equal minimum wage, they will compensate you the difference to at least minimum wage.

One of the reviews mentioned something about his supervisor making his routes for him. My understanding is that if a rep is struggling with efficiency upper management will require your supervisor to route your day for you. Read between the lines – they think you are failing at your job and have assigned your supervisor to do some of it for you as a last resort.

There was some mention of the compensation being complicated. Yeah, a little. But it's not that complicated. Basically, reports that take a lot of time pay more, reports that are quick and easy don't pay as much. You will know how much you are paid before doing the job.

A couple of the reviews mentioned issues regarding location. They are largely correct, your location and local work load determines whether or not you will be happy. If you have a lot of work available in your home county and nearby, you can make fair money. If you live in a rural area and have to drive a lot, it may not be worth it. I average between $15 and $19 per hour when close to home. If I drive a county or two away, it is somewhere between $12 and $15.

It's not a bad job, but sure, somethings could be better. It will all come down to where you live and whether you can convince your supervisor you are competent. This job pays you based on how hard you work. If you drag around, you won't make much. If you bust your butt, you can make fair money. I find it so much better than sitting at a desk watching a clock.

Typical day starts at 8am - till finished although everyday is a new experience, paid by piece. In the field take photos of residential Home exteriors and rooftops. A big hang up on inspected exteriors is that over 90% of home owners were unaware that you were hired to take photos of the front and back of home. Which leads a real interesting position when you are explaining to a home owner (sometimes hostile, upset, and armed) standing on there property. Rooftop portion can be physical and tiring after inspecting over 15+ a day. Measuring exteriors with measuring wheel for square footage and replacement cost values are also part of the day. The company offers online training for all job details. Once all field information and photos are complete there is still work to be done at home. Uploading photos and redrawing diagrams are a little time consuming and really take time to become efficient at. Some frustrations about the uploading portion of the day is that the IT department seems to deal with a lot of server crashing and maintenance issues. Which affects your time sensitive reports being turned in on time. After reports are complete time keeping and mileage are logged in (you are responsible for keeping your own mileage and time sheets info). And either in am or pm route stops for the next day. Overall Pay/Benefits was average with the rainy seasons you can't work, there are seasons that can be slower as well. Management in my experience was only needed to distribute work. You are virtually responsible for everything, so keep that in mind. Schedule is great work M-F and Sat if needed 40 hours overtime need approval from mgmt.

a normal work day has you drive to the home of an insured client who in theory knows you are coming, take about 10 to 15 photos of the outside of their home, before moving on to the next location that will hopefully be close by.
if you get good at this part of the job you start getting appointment driven work, requiring you to schedule a time in advance with the insured to take a few photos inside their home. or in some cases you might go to a business to do the same for there
reliable reports is NOT the agent or the carrier for the insurance the insured gets, we are a third party company that is sent by the agent to take the photos required for the insurance polices the carrier provides.

management wise I could not ask for anything better, if you try hard, do your best, and strive to learn how to do better my manager is one of the best when it comes to fairness and making sure effort pays off.

once you get your equipment most of your work day will be in your car or at a insured's home, and if your doing well you can go multiple days without getting a call from your boss.

now there is an important note that well the insurance companies try to reach the homeowners to inform them of the situation, sometimes there is a lack of proper notice prior to you that leads to friction when you arrive at someone's home to take these photos. but if you can handle yourself well, most people can actually be delightful to talk with.

I have been a field representative with Reliable for 1 year, and 6 months, and I cannot imagine a better company to work for. As a field rep, my job consists of photographing the exterior and roofs of homes for new and renewal of home insurance policies. I also am responsible for the on-site inspections of commercial properties and businesses which includes measuring the structures, and verifying important equipment. 

If you like to travel, Reliable is nationwide in almost all states, and there are always areas needing additional help. So far I have accepted work in 7 other states, as well as other areas of my home state. When traveling, Reliable pays for all hotel, flight, car rental, fuel costs, and a daily per-dium for meals. 

Every single one of the senior staff members is open about showing you their consideration and appreciation of you, and offering their support in any way possible. As a mom, one of the greatest things is hearing "SURE! ANYTHING YOU NEED" in response when time off is requested for a day or more. Oh, and get this, they match up to 6% of your 401K earnings, AS A PART TIME EMPLOYEE. I dare you to try and find another corporation that even offers 401K to their part time staff, much less match it. 

All in all, the only reason I can think of that one wouldn't enjoy or at least be content with working here is if they're scared of heights or don't enjoy being outside. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Photographer 117 salaries reported	$21.14 per hour
Inspector 351 salaries reported	$19.96 per hour
Field technician 36 salaries reported	$19.32 per hour
Surveyor 18 salaries reported	$19.33 per hour
Route driver 108 salaries reported	$20.83 per hour

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