Page 8 - Tennessee 811 Magazine 2020 Issue 3

David Roberts
By Jason Fryer
Damage Prevention Liaison I Tennessee811
f you have ever performed any excavation work in southern Middle Tennessee, there is a good chance you may have met David Roberts with Atmos Energy. David has been
with Atmos Energy for 42 years and has worked for the natural gas company in many capacities. Some of those jobs include setting meters, working construction, installing appliances, marketing and working in different management positions such as a service manager and being the supervisor in Shelbyville. David now holds the title of damage prevention specialist and
he has been in that role for 6 years. Back when David was hired on, the company was called United Cities Gas (Atmos Energy purchased United Cities Gas in 1997), and David gives credit to his friend Kenny Hay, operations supervisor in Franklin, for getting him on with the gas company all those years ago.
Much of David’s time is spent out in the field talking to excavators about gas safety and the importance of calling 811 before they dig. Like many others in our industry, he does not have just one job task and he covers a lot of ground.
“I cover our Middle Tennessee towns, Columbia & Franklin, that includes Spring Hill and parts
of Brentwood. Then I have Murfreesboro which goes over into Smyrna a little bit and I also
have Nolensville. And the last area I cover is Shelbyville.” On a busy day, David can get around to 20 subdivisions and stop at 25-30 job sites in one day. One of David’s objectives when going
out in a subdivision or a job site is to interact with the excavator. David explains, “One thing
I take pride in, is that I don’t go out in these subdivisions and meet these excavators with a Barney Fife attitude. It’s all in asking a question. I could pull up on a job and the first thing out of my mouth could be, I need to see your locate number. I don’t do that, that’s sort of offensive right off the bat. Usually, my first question is, have we located everything for you? I am asking the same question, but in a different way. It’s all about the relationships you build.”
David also spends a few weeks every month conducting around 30 locate audits on their contract locator Heath Consultants. He does this just to verify the gas is being located
6 • Tennessee811
2020, Issue 3