Page 11 - Mississippi 811 Magazine 2019 Issue 2

And it aliu create» a pmblem for the excavators wlm

aren't trying to short.cut the system. Here's‘ how; The

locators are working a route or tickets, but when they get

an emergency request, they typically have a short time to

respond. Because they are pulled away from the routine

or normal locate request, it can well be two to tour hours

out of their day (depending on how tar they must drive).

That puts them further behind their §‘Cl12d|.llE.~‘ for the

ones who try to do it right

so you can see the trustration of the excavator who now

has workers and equipment waiting tor paint or ilags on

the ground At this point, it is easy to become trustrated

at the locator, and sometimes rightly so. However, when N .

a locator gets pulled ott their regular route of routine

ticket requests by ,ust a couple ot talse emergency

requests, it trustrates a lot of people. l assure you that niunnnslnhl.

most or the locators I've talked to over the past twenty hluuulfi.

years are as trustraterl as is the excavator waiting tor the

marks In one 01 In uvnrgorxy

What is the solution? ls there something that can be °" °°°"°“35‘

done to reduce the number or talse emergencies being

called m7

some say there ought to be civil penalties associated with \

talse emergencies. Entorcement is certainly a possibility. \

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VIVAX

Already, there are slates‘ looking tn implement fines‘ tn

those who short cut the system. NIETHCUTECH

others still believe there needs to be a bigger push tor Damage Protection, Fast, Easy, and Atccumtel
educatilm and face-tn-face discussiuna to find cummnn

ground between the excavators who call these in, ' °'“" ‘‘°'‘‘'''‘ °'“‘ W‘ "“"""°" "‘°"‘

the locatozs whu are impacled and the utility owners ' |"‘¢"‘3' '°I9l'|9 Wm‘ '-‘MW “"1 BM‘:/5'!

thEmdElVEfl- .in.. time dlslanlan Alerts

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l m tolrl that emergency requests (valirl anrl invalid)

make up approximately 10% ot the total volume of locate

tickets on a daily basis and that there is a pattern to false

emergency requests Much ot the time, talse emergencies iaoa. bmott ullllllrs. marker balk. iaatoo
are predictably trom the same entity or region. lts }usl and camnusyftnm: Mm finvLL7c3»Pm
mostly the way they've learned to do business. “=°""' “M 5'‘"''‘ ‘E"""""

I further believe that most everybody wakes up every

day and intends to do a good lab. [don't believe they

want to create problems tor everybody around them. It

that's true, then maybe we do need to and ways to talk

to another about the impact we all have on each other.

Let's work together to solve this problem.

Ami ., we and ,..,.,m. Wt... ,.,,. aim,“ W, ,.. SQ. lmpldlhltaniovmwss barn [ram 2' to .« Lozaln wastnnsmlsslmv and
along with anybndy, one who doesn't about the ;-;;;;;g"'-C-_~;_';~gy:;;;~ '~- WW *;';{1y”*l";:£" WWW
diiticulties they create for everybody else, let's work

wszthw *0 enfm a behavivml «ham
That's why they still entorce speeding laws... it's the yi,,_,_.,,.,,..,,. c.,,,,,.,,-,,,. ..........i.. I a
my Way you can get same Pearle ID alvw down I 3151 Olmll Sllul. rm Fm: Wn4AaJ1i1 Emlll aiheotrat mm

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2019 Issue? Mlsslssuwlfill . 9