Wow, I sure wish licensing was actually enforced here. The only people enforcing license and permit requirements are the general contractors on the job site. Forget about the little jobs where there is no GC. Sometimes I feel like an idiot for pulling a permit on a small job, but hey, it's the law and I have to do it. I frequently lose sales due to the permit cost that affects my company's sale price.
We have a boatload of local license requirements for every town, city or state that we service in this area. We are required to post license numbers on our vehicles and proposals, but most of our competition does not meet these requirements.
I can honestly say that I have never seen a competitor's vehicle or proposal that has their license number(s) posted. On vehicles, 2" letters are required, but none have them. I'll be the dumb aXX doing a job without a permit that gets busted because of the license numbers posted on the van. I can't do anything about this situation since when calling the appropriate agencies, all that I ever get is a receptionist who is more interested in fighting with her baby's daddy on the other line.
The reality is that all of our local jurisdictions care about is the revenue from license and permit fees. I have even received phone calls from inspectors asking me if they really need to come by to check our work or if they can trust me. It's all about money in these parts.
