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