Utility locates

Definition

The marking a crew must wait for before digging a post hole, on the state's clock, not yours.

Why It Matters

Every fence starts with a hole and every hole waits on a locate ticket, which puts part of the schedule in the hands of an outside agency with its own turnaround. A shop that books work without filing locates early runs crews to sites they cannot dig, and a shop that hits a line pays for the repair and sometimes the outage. Ask how far ahead tickets are filed, how many jobs slipped last season waiting on one, and whether there has been a damage claim, because that history follows the company, not the crew.