Become a Rapidpatch contractor — steady, pre-quoted asphalt jobs across NZ
We're opening applications to vetted asphalt contractors who want steady, pre-quoted jobs. The full Specified Contractor agreement (drafted by NZ employment counsel) will be issued during your onboarding call. While that's being finalised, we're collecting expressions of interest from operators who'd like to be in the first cohort.
We bring you the customer, the address, the photo quote, and the fixed price. You bring the crew, the gear, and the 12-month workmanship warranty. Get paid within 5 business days of job completion. No tyre-kickers, no haggling, no quote-write-ups.
Why partner with Rapidpatch
If you run a 1-10 person asphalt or pothole repair crew anywhere in New Zealand, you already know the bottlenecks: chasing leads, quoting jobs that don't book, weather rescheduling, slow-paying clients. Rapidpatch is built to remove all four.
We've been doing pothole repair in Auckland since 2004 and we've spent the last year building a national content moat that ranks for almost every "pothole repair [NZ city]" query out there. The leads are coming in faster than our own crew can service. So we're opening the network.
When a job lands in your region, you get an SMS or email with the address, photo, recommended mix type, customer's preferred timing, and the fixed price you'll be paid. Accept inside 15 minutes or it goes to the next contractor on the list. Decline is fine — your acceptance rate is tracked but not punished if you're booked out.
What you get
Pre-quoted, pre-accepted jobs. No quoting from your end. The customer has already seen the price, agreed to it, and committed. You're booked in.
Steady volume during winter. Our SEO traffic is highest in May–August when potholes are surfacing and homeowners + property managers are scrambling. You stay busy when your direct work would normally slow down.
Fixed prices, no scope creep. Our quotes are fixed-price-from-photo. If you arrive on site and there's more work than the photo suggested, you tell us and we re-quote with the customer separately — you don't argue with the customer.
Photo report is auto-generated. You upload the before-and-after photos at job completion. We generate the Rapidpatch-branded PDF report and send it to the customer. You don't write reports.
Payment in 5 business days. We invoice the customer. You invoice us. We pay you on the 5th business day after job completion, regardless of whether the customer has paid us yet — that's our risk to manage, not yours.
Warranty backstop. The customer-facing 12-month workmanship warranty is in Rapidpatch's name. If a repair fails inside 12 months from your work, we'll ask you to come back and remediate at no charge — but we deal with the customer, not you. You're not on the phone explaining anything.
Your own crew, your own brand. This isn't a franchise. You stay your own business, keep your own clients, run your own books. Rapidpatch jobs are extra capacity, not your only work.
What we expect
Insurance. Public liability ($1m minimum) and Professional Indemnity ($500k minimum). We need a copy of the certificates with your application and a fresh copy each year on renewal.
Quality. Hot-mix where the spec calls for it. Cold-mix where rain-day flexibility matters. Compaction to industry standard. Surface flush with surrounding pavement (no humps, no settling). If you wouldn't be happy with the patch on your own driveway, don't lay it.
On-time. Within 48 hours of job acceptance for Auckland jobs, within 5 business days for non-Auckland regions (matching our customer-facing SLAs). We track on-time rate. Two no-shows in a 30-day window pauses your account for review.
Photo report. Before-and-after photos uploaded at completion. GPS check-in when you arrive (so we know the work happened where the customer expected). Job marked complete in your dashboard before you leave site.
Compliance. Worksafe-compliant traffic management on public-frontage jobs. Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 obligations. We provide the framework; you execute.
What we pay
Standard pay-out per job size (paid to you, GST-exclusive — you add GST if registered):
Job size | Customer pays | You receive |
Single small repair (≤10 min on site) | $450 | $340 |
Standard 2–4 patches (30–60 min) | $880 | $640 |
Major 5+ patches (half-day) | $1,650 | $1,180 |
Larger / overnight / fleet yards | quoted per job | typically 70–75% |
That's roughly a 25% take by Rapidpatch — covering customer acquisition, quoting, scheduling, photo report, warranty backstop, and payment processing. Higher than NoCowboys' lead fees over the long run for serious volume; lower than Builderscrack's effective conversion-cost.
Per-call-out costs. A $150 callout fee gets paid to you on confirmed customer cancellations after dispatch. Weather reschedules are free both ways.
Surcharges in your favour: overnight work (10pm–5am) gets a 30% premium. Same-day urgent gets a 25% premium. We negotiate the customer surcharge upfront and pass through proportionally.
Who we're looking for
Tier 3 contractors — small operators (1–10 staff) with a paver, compactor, or hot-box, transport, and a service area of one major city or region
Regional specialists — single-city contractors looking for steady fill-in work outside their direct lead pipeline
Newer crews — recently independent operators with the skills but not yet the lead-gen budget
Coverage in any of: Auckland (extra capacity), Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Napier-Hastings, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Whangārei, Nelson, Invercargill, Queenstown
We're not looking for: large civil contractors with NZTA contracts (the fit is wrong); contractors without insurance or active GST registration; anyone whose Companies Office filings show repeated company strikes-off.
How the application works
1. Register your interest below. Use the form linked at the bottom of this page or email partners@rapidpatch.co.nz with company details, service regions, services offered, crew/equipment, insurance, references, and two photos of your previous work.
2. We review within 5 business days. Steve and the team check your insurance, ring your references, and may ask you to do one paid pilot job at the standard rate.
3. Onboarding call — 30 minutes on Zoom or phone. We walk through how dispatches work, the photo report standard, payment flow, and answer questions. The full Specified Contractor agreement is issued at this step.
4. You're live. First dispatch usually within 1–2 weeks. Volume builds as your acceptance rate and on-time rate prove themselves.
FAQ
Q: Do I have to be available 24/7?
No. You toggle "accepting new jobs" on or off in your dashboard. When it's off, you don't get dispatched. Use it for holidays, when you're booked solid, or when the kids are sick.
Q: What if I disagree with the quoted price for a job?
You can decline. If a particular job's price seems wrong (e.g. the photo doesn't show the full scale of damage), tell us and we'll re-quote the customer.
Q: Do I have to use Rapidpatch-branded vehicles or uniforms?
No. You stay your own business. We do ask you to leave a Rapidpatch business card with the customer at job completion — that's it.
Q: What about repeat work — can the customer book me directly next time?
We ask that direct re-engagements within 12 months go through Rapidpatch (which is fair given we delivered the lead). After 12 months, the customer relationship is theirs to win and yours to keep.
Q: How does the warranty actually work?
If a customer claims warranty within 12 months, we contact you to schedule a remediation visit. You do the repair at no charge to the customer. We don't charge you anything either — you absorb the labour cost, we absorb the customer service overhead. Both of us have an incentive to do the job right the first time.
Q: GST and tax — how does it flow?
You invoice us GST-inclusive (assuming you're registered). We pay you GST-inclusive. We invoice the customer GST-inclusive. Standard NZ contractor tax flow — your accountant handles it like any other client.
Q: What if I want to leave the network?
14 days written notice. Any in-progress jobs get completed first. No exit fees, no non-competes.
Register your interest
Applications for the first cohort are open. Click below to send us your details — Steve replies within 5 business days.
Or email partners@rapidpatch.co.nz with: company name, region, services offered, crew size, and your insurance certificates. Steve replies within 5 business days.
Questions before you apply? Text 027 737 2858 with the message "contractor application — [your region]".
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