Page 7 - Tennessee 811 Magazine 2021 Issue 4

complete. Although you are not doing any work in that area, if it is being updated, the locators are required to remark these tickets, tying up resources that could
be working on locating areas that are currently being worked. Be sure you are utilizing these resources to the best of your ability by being smart about how you call in tickets.
Lastly, as has been mentioned time and again, communicate. Communication
is essential to having a good working relationship between the contractors
and the locators and ensuring your jobs are getting marked in a timely manner. Sometimes it’s as simple as picking up the phone and talking to the locator in your area and working together to establish
a locating schedule that will keep your project moving forward with minimal delays. This communication must be two ways, meaning as a locator, if you know you aren’t going to get to a ticket, give that contractor a call and work out a mutually agreed upon schedule. A lot of times, the frustration for a contractor comes not only from the ticket being delayed, but the fact there has been no communication as to the status of the ticket or when it may be completed for them. By giving them
a call, they may have an area that they request you to get marked so they can get started and then work on an agreed upon schedule to get the rest completed or enough to keep their project moving forward. The most important thing to remember is communication can solve a lot of issues.
We all understand the pressures that
the locate industry is under, but if we work together as an industry of damage prevention professionals, I think we
can make strides in preventing damage
to underground facilities across the
state. Everybody has a role to play, and everybody should be working together for one common goal, reducing damages to our essential underground infrastructure.
At TN811, we are always willing to facilitate a coordination meeting to bring locators, utilities, and contractors together to discuss issues and identify solutions.
If you are interested in setting something up in your area, please reach out to me
or the liaison in your area and we would be happy to work with you in bringing stakeholders together for the sake of damage prevention.
As always, Tennessee 811 appreciates all the locators and your daily efforts to prevent underground utility damages throughout the state.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why have hold times gotten so long?
AInswer:
f you’ve called in a locate request lately, you’ve experienced longer than average hold times. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we’re thankful that so many excavators across the state are making the choice to call 811 before they dig.
If you’re on hold for 5 minutes, you’ll have the option to leave your number and get a call back when the next agent is available. The call back will come from a local number with a 615 area code. Some service providers may flag the call as potential spam, so be aware.
As ticket volume continues to increase, it’s possible that hold times will remain long. In August we accepted 92,276 locate requests bringing us up to 696,819 tickets for the year, an increase of more than 6% over the same time in 2020 (we saw an increase by the same percentage in 2020 over 2019). We encourage you to try E-Ticket or Remote Ticket Entry (RTE) to save you the time and aggravation of being on hold. These online methods of ticket entry currently make up a little over 46% of our incoming tickets.
If your call is not for an emergency or complex locate request, please consider entering it online through our E-Ticket platform. You may
be able to register for an account and have the ticket submitted in less time than you would be holding for. Our Locate Request Agents review E-Tickets to ensure that all required information is provided and then the ticket is saved and transmitted to the utilities. Once the ticket has been reviewed and saved, you will receive a confirmation email that includes the ticket number.
Callers also have the option of RTE through the ticket portal, which is
a great solution for heavy users who need multiple tickets each day or
a large number of tickets each week. Even if you don’t use RTE for new tickets, it’s an efficient way to update your existing tickets. Updating your tickets through RTE is quick to sign up for and easy to learn, so it can save you some serious time if you currently call in a lot of updates. There’s really not much to it – we send you a short video to watch when you get your user credentials, and you’re ready to go! If you want to be a true power user, RTE can also be used to enter your normal locate requests. It’s a live system, so as soon as you enter and save the ticket information, you will receive a ticket number. We have training videos online so that you can learn how to enter your tickets through RTE on your own time.
An important reminder: if your situation is an emergency, second notice, or something else that’s not a normal ticket or an update, you will need to call in.
To get started with RTE for new tickets or updates, visit https:// tennessee811.odoo.com/remote-ticket-entry or let one of our Locate Request Agents know you want to become an RTE user.
By Kathy Quartermaine, Damage Prevention Liaison Tennessee811
2021, Issue 4 Tennessee811 • 5
HOLD TIMES