Ear to the Ground - Fall 2015 - (Page 11)
FEATURE
B Y T E R R Y M U R P H Y, C . L . P.
Green Industry
Damages Greatly
Reduced
BACKGROUND
About 10 years ago, while working
at Landscape Ontario, I had a call from
Jim Douglas, since retired President of
ORCGA, and he indicated that the landscape/fencing industry in the United
States was number one in utility damages. He suspected that it was the same
in Canada, and in Ontario. He asked
if Landscape Ontario would sit on the
ORCGA Board with the objective of
improving our industry performance. I
accepted this challenge and have been
on the Board almost from day one (with
the exception of 18 months after I retired
in 2008). My goal, and that of Landscape
Ontario, was to promote awareness of
damage prevention of utilities, reduce
the number of utility hits by the Green
Industry and to increase the number
of locate requests to Ontario One Call
(ON1Call).
THE PLAN
In 2005, we drafted an action plan,
presented it to the Landscape Ontario
Board of Directors and received full
approval to proceed. We decided
that awareness and education were
the keys; we had to make sure the
industry excavating contractors knew
about the dangers and costs associated
with utility hits and not calling ON1Call
for locates.
CONSEQUENCES
OF DAMAGES
Landscape and fencing contractors
had to be frequently reminded that calling ON1Call for locates was not only the
law but an important best practice. They
needed to be reminded that lives are at
risk if one does not call and that even
a strike on a small residential gas line
could cost $3,000 or more with TSSA
fines, administration charges and utility
repair costs. In addition, it could result
in a WSIB Workwell Audit, which is a
very time-consuming and costly process. Why risk this when ON1Call is
a free service? Especially now, since
the approval of Bill 8 in the Ontario
Legislature virtually guarantees a fiveday locate turn around
THE STATISTICS
It is interesting and very rewarding
to see the recent statics. Our key measurement of performance is data from
the ORCGA DIRT REPORT. Similar to a
batting average in major league baseball, we measure utility hits divided
by 1,000 locate requests. Both hits and
the number of locate requests measures true performance. See the data
in Figure 1:
FA L L 1 5
11
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ear to the Ground - Fall 2015
President’s Message
What Is a Stickered Locate?
Green Industry Damages Greatly Reduced
How TSSA Handles Late Locates
The ORCGA 10th Annual Golf Tournament
Hydro One Programs and Initiatives
Bell Canada Leads Safety Effort
Utility Coordination Comes to the Forefront in Canada
2015 ORCGA Locate Rodeo
Index of Advertisers
Ear to the Ground - Fall 2015
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