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  • Author Author: rscasny
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The New Members Blog Series HOW MUCH DO ROADTESTS COST?

rscasny

The New Members Blog Series is a collection of blogs for new members to help them better understand the element14 roadtest program.

Roadtesters do not pay anything to be a roadtester. Even when we ship products to the roadtester, element14 pays for shipping costs and customs fees

Now, there have been a couple of times since 2016 when some fees were "attempted" to be collected from the roadtester, but once the roadtester informed me, I had my assistant get on the phone with the shipper to figure out what was going on. element14 paid for the outstanding fees. The roadtester should never pay anything regarding the product being roadtested.

But the roadtester is required to have the resources and equipment to conduct a roadtest. Examples include test equipment, soldering equipment & solder, hook up wire, etc. element14 would not supply these sorts of things unless they were something the sponsor specified and wanted to include in the kit. 

Even though roadtesters do not pay anything to be a roadtester, there are costs associated with a roadtest that the sponsor of the roadtest incurs. The sponsor pays for the products (element14 pays for shipping to the roadtesters.) The sponsor also pays what amounts to an "administration fee" for the program. Roadtests require office/admin support, web designer support, and social media time to promote the roadtests.

Since our suppliers finance the roadtest program, the program depends on roadtesters completing their reviews. This is why sponsors are involved in the roadtest program: they want to get your feedback about the product. Sometimes this feedback is on the most practical level: something is not right with the documentation or something is not working properly. The other big reason sponsors participate in the roadtest program is the hope that you will help spread the word about their products.

element14 has to report to sponsor a bunch of metrics on a roadtest. The completion rate of the reviews per roadtest is closely watched. This is why you will receive follow up emails from my assistant asking for a mid-roadtest progress report. We don't mean to bug you or bother you. But I can ensure you that if we are asking you someone from the sponsor is asking me about your progress!

For everyone completes their review, I'd like to personally thank you. Your efforts keep the roadtest program viable and a great way to learn about new products for the hobbyist, maker and engineer.

Randall Scasny

RoadTest Program  Manager

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  • Thanks for sharing your views and details about the road tests. Being someone who has done several road tests I still may find creating impressive visuals for the road test. It would be nice for me to know which kind of HQ Images, videos, etc, and tools such as cameras, software are being used by other road testers to create impressive documents.

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  • Thanks for sharing your views and details about the road tests. Being someone who has done several road tests I still may find creating impressive visuals for the road test. It would be nice for me to know which kind of HQ Images, videos, etc, and tools such as cameras, software are being used by other road testers to create impressive documents.

Children