Utility Safety Partners’ Monthly Stakeholder Report

Mike Sullivan, President – Utility Safety Partners

If you’re a frequent reader of USP’s eNews, you’ll note the absence of the monthly locate request totals and percentages table that appeared at the top of our monthly circulation. After achieving the desired locate request web percentage objectives, we felt it was no longer necessary to continue posting that information. Instead, we’ve added a new link within the eNews banner promoting access to our full Stakeholder Report.

The Stakeholder Report is produced monthly and provides our members and interested parties with details on USP Contact Centre performance and equally provides historical information on Contact Centre call, locate request, notification volumes and additional historical data. To the accustomed reviewer, the historical information illustrates how USP’s Contact Centre operations, and the damage prevention process in general, have benefitted from shifting calls to clicks. The reports have been publicly available for years, but they were either circulated to members, committees or interested parties directly or were accessible to browsers who found them on our website. Including the link on the eNews banner provides operational details to a much broader audience and offers additional insight to the type of data we collect and report on.

USP also provides Contact Centre services to Saskatchewan First Call and Manitoba’s Notification Centre, ClickBeforeYouDigMB and provides both provinces with almost identical reports. Providing services to those provinces realizes economies of scale for all three provinces, reducing costs for registered utility owners while providing the same reliable service and access to best-in-class software. Although the locate request process is often referred to as “Free”, its only free to the parties who submit the locate request. Operating costs, including software, hardware, cybersecurity, personnel, education and awareness, are borne by the members. So, any advantage we can generate that equally improves the system is beneficial.