Damage Prevention Virginia Pilot Project & Legislative Update

Damage Prevention Virginia Pilot Project & Legislative Update

Basic Notification Process in Virginia EXCAVATOR requests locate for planned excavation C.A.R.E. EXCAVATOR OK to Dig With CARE VUPS ONE-CALL CENTER identifies and notifies affected operators VUPS ONE-CALL CENTER provides positive response confirmation to excavator via E-mail or fax OPERATOR / LOCATOR locates facilities and provides positive response to VUPS

Problem The Common Ground Alliance One Call Systems International (OCSI) statistical data collected from 25 states across the country shows a total of over 15 million locate requests to one-call centers in 2004 Depending on the location, one may assume that as many 5 outgoing locate ticket notifications might be sent to individual utility operators Depending on the nature of the individual utility operators’ facilities 40%60% of those tickets may be over-notification The data also indicates that there were vague or incorrect excavation location descriptions on approximately 2% of the total outgoing tickets

Phase I Metrics – Tickets Pilot study conducted with over 2,000 electronically white-lined tickets submitted Type Total Requests Control Area Percentag e 77,022 Test Area Percentag e Reduction 1,911 3Hour Notices 3,948 5.13% 42 2.20% 57.12% Cancellations 502 0.65% 8 0.42% 35.77%

Vettro 360 for Damage Prevention Vettro 360 application customized to leverage on-board GPS chip-set of handheld, Vettro ESRI mapping infrastructure, and support of peripheral GPS devices via Bluetooth

Replace Address/Description with GPS Stamps End-user walks the area of planned excavation – Line, Polygon, Multi-line Segment, Bulls Eye – while recording GPS coordinates Coordinates and relevant descriptive data is submitted to One Call Centers for processing and notification of affected utilities Ticket can be suspended for completion at a later time

Phase I: Electronic White Line

Phase I Metrics - Responses Code 60: Locator and excavator agreed and documented marking schedule Code 91: Incorrect address information Code 93: Scope of work to large Code 94: Marking instructions are unclear Type Control Area Percentag e Test Area Percentag e Reduction Code 60 20,849 27.07% 173 9.05% 66.56% Code 91 3,836 4.98% 62 3.24% 34.86% Code 93 31 0.04% 0 0.00% 100.00% Code 94 464 0.60% 1 0.05% 91.31%

Phase I Metrics - Notification Control Area averaged 7.96 members per locate request Test Area averaged 7.32 members per locate request—a 8.04% reduction Control Area averaged 768,527 square feet polygon size Test Area averaged 81,341 square feet polygon size—a 89.4% reduction

Benefits Improved safety and reliability of underground utilities Improved accuracy of locate ticket information Ability to see excavation area mapped on handheld device Fewer field visits to gather locate ticket information Fewer return calls from locator asking for more specific information Reduced time from submission of a locate request to being cleared to work Reduced risk of downtime, enforcement actions and litigation resulting from damage incidents . Reduced risk of downtime, enforcement actions and litigation resulting from damage incidents Reduced time required to process locate requests Reduced ticket processing costs through automated ticket input/output Improved quality of service from one-call center Reduced over-notification Reduced numbers of incorrect tickets Reduced footprint for locate areas for grids and polygons

In Summary

Current One Call Ticket Flow EXCAVATOR Each time an excavator plans to dig ONE CALL (IRTH software) Utilities are charged for each locate ticket generated LOCATOR and again for each request to mark their facilities NOTIFICATION AREA

NOTIFICATION AREA ONE CALL (IRTH software) LOCATOR VETTRO DP Each time an excavator plans to dig Only Utilities necessary are tickets charged arefor each generated locate ticket using GPS coordinates generated and for each and again only essential request to mark their locate requests are facilities generated Savings of 39% per ticket

BENEFITS TO ONE CALL The one call centers benefit in much the same way that they have been benefitting from Internet ticket entry. Every time an excavator uses electronic means to submit a ticket the cost of a person handling the call is eliminated. During this time of economic slowdown the impact isn’t felt as much as when volumes were increasing 7 to 15% per year. Centers were required to staff up to handle the call volumes coming in. Using this method of ticket creation speeds up the transaction and allows the flow to happen purely by machine, through machine, to machine.

INCENTIVES TO EXCAVATORS A new method of encouraging the excavators to participate may be coming from one of the partners with incentive to see this program succeed. A utility company that was cited for facility damage and faced with a stiff fine from the PHMSA is currently working to trade in the dollars they would pay for a donation of GPS enabled phones to excavators. This falls in line with several other unique methods of trading in financial penalties for educational opportunities. There have been cases where companies ran advertisements for 811, painted water towers or posted large billboards in lieu of paying a fine.

BENEFITS TO OPERATORS Less “wasted” tickets Less damages BENEFITS TO ONE CALL More accurate tickets Less CSR interaction BENEFITS TO EXCAVATORS Speedier response from locators Less locations to mark Claims reduction

PHASE TWO Phase 2 involves the creation of an electronic manifest of the dig site that shows the utilities along with the dig site on an aerial map of the location. This document will greatly aid in the communication as “a picture tells a thousand words.” It will not eliminate the need for care in the digging process but it will provide an on-site reference for the excavator to use during the course of activity. As the results are being gathered from this phase right now they will be addressed in the future.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES Florida – Low Impact Marking Public records exemption, No charging for locates, Call Center not responsible for locating: “ The system does not have a duty to mark or locate underground facilities and may not do so, and a right of recovery does not exist against the system for failing to mark or locate underground facilities. The system is not liable for the failure of a member operator to comply with the requirements of this chapter. “

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES Kentucky

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES Nevada California Only two ticket extensions

Many States Evaluating The 9 Elements from PIPES Act Enforcement Plays a Key Role In Determining How The Future Laws Will Look

Questions? Louis Panzer IRTH Solutions www.irth.com [email protected]