For dock and gangway builders

AI quoting for dock and gangway manufacturers.

Give it the whole bid package: the specification, the drawings and the addenda. It lists every requirement that changes the price, each with its page number, shows where the drawings and the specification disagree, and drafts the first quote in your own pricing logic. Your estimator checks it and decides the number.

Book a DemoHow we test it →
From a public 179-page waterfront package
  • p.102The specification names one product for the gangway deck.
  • p.117The drawing, sheet CM-5.01, calls for grooved timber on the same gangway.
  • 1 sheetThe gangway length, 46 feet, is on exactly one sheet, in the corner of a side view. The specification only says to see the plans.

Pages 102 and 117 cannot both be right about the deck. Only the engineer can say which one was meant, so it reaches your estimator as a question, not as a guess.

What our software found in one package

On a custom dock, most of the quote is reading.

The Town of Cape Vincent, New York posted its waterfront improvements bid package on its website. It is 179 pages, with floating docks and a gangway. We read it page by page, and then we ran it through our own software.

179
Pages read
44 sec
Reading time
214
Statements, each cited to its page
7
Places the drawings and the specification disagree

Eighty-two of the 179 pages mention a gangway, a dock or a float. About forty carry the requirements that set the price: the specification around pages 86 to 104, and the drawings around pages 110 to 117. The seven disagreements include two decking materials for the same structure, and two deflection limits on the same page.

The software did the reading. It did not decide the deck material, choose the deflection limit, or set a price the estimator had not reviewed. We also publish where it has been wrong. It once read a dock as sitting on plastic tubs when the specification meant encapsulated foam, and quoted that job more than 40 percent low.

Video: AI Estimating Software Demo: A 179-Page Bid Package to a Draft Quote (4:07)
The nine decisions a dock quote has to make →Our scorecard, including the mistakes →
The whole package, not only the dock section

Every document in the request settles a different part of the price.

Mavlon reads all of it together, because the answers are not in one place and not in one form. The first four examples are from the public Cape Vincent package, with their pages.

The specification section

Strength, materials, deflection, freeboard, hardware and finish.

The deflection limit is stated twice on the same page. One paragraph says L over 360 and another says L over 180. One is twice as strict as the other, and it drives the framing.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages
The drawings

Length, widths and the number of units. Quantity is most of the price.

The specification says to see the plans for the gangway length. The real number, 46 feet, sits on exactly one sheet, in the corner of a side view.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages
Drawing against specification

Which material you buy, and what it weighs.

Section 35 50 20 on page 102 names one product for the gangway deck. Sheet CM-5.01 on page 117 calls for grooved timber. The weight feeds straight into the float sizing.

Town of Cape Vincent, New York, 179 pages
Piles and anchoring

Whose scope the piles are, and how many pile guides you supply.

On nearly every public package the piles are by others. The fabricator supplies the pile guides, so the quote carries a guide count that is assumed for budgetary purposes.

Our guide to quoting docks
Loads and water levels

The float count, the freeboard and the length of the gangway.

An accessible gangway may be no steeper than 1 in 12 at the worst water level, unless it is at least 80 feet long. Freeboard is measured to the top of the deck, not to the top of the float.

Our guide to quoting docks
The addenda

What changed since you last priced it.

An addendum can change the decking material after you have priced the first version. The quote has to follow the latest one, and say which one it followed.

Our guide to marine structures
What your estimator gets

AI quoting for docks and gangways, as a reading you can check line by line.

Four kinds of line come back. The examples are from the public Cape Vincent package, which you can download from the town's website.

01

Every requirement that changes the price

Each one carries the page it came from, so checking it takes seconds instead of a search.

p.102The product named for the gangway deck in section 35 50 20.
02

Whose it is

Yours, the marine contractor's or the owner's. A dock is held by piles, and the piles are rarely yours.

PilesPiles by others. Pile guide count assumed for budgetary purposes.
03

Questions for the engineer

Where the documents disagree, both readings are stated. Nothing is averaged and nothing is quietly chosen.

p.102, p.117The product named in the specification, or the grooved timber shown on sheet CM-5.01?
04

Quantities from the drawings

Lengths, widths and counts, each with the sheet it was read from, so your estimator can confirm them.

1 sheetGangway length 46 feet, from the side view.
Then the quote

A first draft, priced from your own rules: your rates, your formulas and your past quotes, exported in your own quote format. The clarifications list carries every judgement into the quotation, and the margin stays with you.

What it does not do

It does not create drawings, and it does not fill in the customer's forms. When the documents disagree it does not choose the deck material or the deflection limit. It reads lengths and counts from the drawings and shows the sheet for each, and your estimator confirms them. It does not decide your margin, and it does not decide whether you bid.

Not a configurator

A configurator starts from your catalogue. Mavlon starts from the customer's package.

Custom work

Mavlon is the right tool when

  • The request is a bid package from a town, a port or a marina's engineer, and the docks are a few sections inside it.
  • The drawings and the specification disagree, and you have to ask before you can price.
  • The lengths and the counts are on the drawings and nowhere in the text.
  • The piles, the abutment or the utilities are somebody else's scope.
  • Loads, water levels and the accessible slope decide the float count and the gangway length.
Standard docks

A price list or a configurator is the right tool when

  • The customer picks a standard dock from your range, by length and width.
  • There is no engineer's specification, only a site and a budget.
  • You sell the same residential systems again and again.
  • What you are short of is speed on repeat work.

We make Mavlon, so weigh this sort with that in mind. If most of your quotes are standard docks from a range, a price list will serve you better than we will, and we would rather say so now. Corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co.

Do not take our word for it

Test it on a package you can download.

The Cape Vincent package is public. Hand it to any vendor, including us, and see whether the software finds these without being told where to look.

  1. The two decking materials for the same gangway: page 102 of the specification against sheet CM-5.01 on page 117.
  2. The two deflection limits on the same page, L over 360 and L over 180.
  3. The gangway length of 46 feet, which is on one sheet only.
  4. That the piles are by others, and what that does to the pile guide count.
  5. All seven places where the drawings and the specification disagree.

Score it the way you would score a new hire. Did it find the item? Did it cite the page? Did it show you the conflict, or quietly pick a side?

Download the same package →Our pilot protocol and pass bar →
What we have published so far
  • The Cape Vincent package on this page: 179 pages read in 44 seconds, 214 statements each cited to its page, and 7 places where the drawings and the specification disagree.
  • A 668-page treatment plant specification book: the 14 sections relevant to the equipment, found without being told where to look.
  • These are reading results. The pricing column on our pilot page is nearly empty, and the page explains why.
  • The fair test is a quote of your own that you have already priced.
The pass bar: seven of ten totals within 15 percent, agreed in writing first.
We did the reading first

Three guides and two tools for people who quote docks.

GuideQuoting custom gangways and docksThe nine decisions, read from a public 179-page package.GuideAI for quoting complex marine structuresFour jobs, seven steps, and where software stops.GuideAI quoting for gangways and docks: how it worksWhat the software does with a package, step by step.ToolDock float calculatorFreeboard under each load, and how many floats you need.ToolADA gangway slope calculatorThe length you need for 1 in 12, and which exception applies.GuideReading bid packagesWhat five real public packages taught us.
What does AI quoting for docks and gangways look like in practice?

The software reads the whole package your customer sent: the specification, the drawings and the addenda. It lists every requirement that changes the price with the page it came from, sorts whose scope each one is, shows where the drawings and the specification disagree, and drafts a first quote from your own pricing rules. Your estimator reviews it and decides the price.

Is Mavlon a dock configurator, or takeoff software?

Neither. A configurator starts from a model of your docks and prices the options somebody selects. Takeoff software measures quantities from drawings. Mavlon starts from the customer's documents and works out what is being asked for, which on a custom dock is the part nobody has a model for.

Does it read the drawings, or only the specification?

It reads the drawings in the package alongside the specification and reports where the two disagree, with both pages cited. In the public Cape Vincent package it found seven such places. It reads lengths and counts from the drawings and shows the sheet for each, and your estimator confirms them.

Does it work out flotation and freeboard?

It reads the loads, the freeboard requirement and the water levels from the documents and shows the page for each. The float count in the draft comes from your own sizing rules, and your engineer's check stays where it is. We also publish a dock float calculator that anyone can use. Open the dock float calculator.

How do we find out whether it works on our quotes?

Bring a quote you have already priced. The pilot is a blind test on your own past quotes, scored against a pass bar that is agreed in writing before anything runs. The whole protocol is published on our pilot page. Read the pilot protocol.

Who sees our customers' documents?

An NDA is signed before any document of yours moves. Deployment options, encryption and the controls that keep your documents out of model training are set out on our security page. Read the security page.

Questions dock builders ask

Asked plainly, answered in writing.

Bring one dock package you have already priced.

We read it together on a call. Compare what it finds against what your team found. If you would rather not share a document on day one, we can read the public Cape Vincent package together instead. An NDA is signed before anything of yours moves.

Book a Demo

The newsletter

Field Notes

The numbers that change your next quote. Once a month.

  • 01A material price that shifted this month, with the number.
  • 02What contracts in one segment actually closed for.
  • 03A real bid package taken apart page by page.

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