When You Don’t Get a Response to a Locate Request

Sher Kirk – Operations Director, Utility Safety Partners

In a perfect world, every locate request you submit would result in a response before the date you choose in the “Job Start Date” field, right? Well, despite everyone’s best intentions, that doesn’t always happen. There are a variety of reasons for delayed responses:

1. Asset owners receive more requests in a short period of time than they have resources to respond to within the 3 to 5 business days’ notice period.
   Each year, USP transmits approximately 1.5 million notifications to asset owners and approximately 77% of those notifications go out between mid-April and mid-September. With volume spikes in April and May, there are some days when there are more jobs than resources to do them. 
2. Missed communication and miscommunication.
   It may be that an asset owner didn’t understand something on the locate request, or perhaps they provided you with a clearance without locates. Sometimes, voice mails go unanswered, and emails get caught in spam folders. 
3. Lost in the ether.
   While it is a very rare occurrence, it is possible that your request didn’t reach the asset owner, or got lost in the shuffle of hundreds of requests.

What do you do then?

USP and the asset owners have a process in place to address these “no responses.” It is important that you either place an online "No Response Reminder" on your ticket online (see image below) or contact USP to place one for you. You can email your ticket number and report no response from a notified member to info@utilitysafety.ca or you can call us at 1-800-242-3447. USP has no visibility into the asset owners’ responses once we transmit the ticket, so the only way we know to start the escalating no-response process is if you start it.

Reminders can be sent as soon as the Job Start Date is reached without a response from one (or more) asset owners. Another reminder can be sent out after 24 hours if you still don’t have contact from the asset owner. After two reminders, our support team reaches out to the asset owner by email. After three reminders, our member services team follows up with the asset owner by phone. If a no response reaches a fourth reminder or more, it is escalated to the USP operations director for action. 

It is frustrating to deal with delays, but if you follow the process, you have a much better chance of resolving the issue quickly. We’re all in this together, and it is important to USP and our members that you get timely locates and stay safe.

How to place a No Response Reminder online.