Is this the end of CALL Before You Dig?

Mike Sullivan - President, Utility Safety Partners

A few weeks ago, Ontario One Call (ON1Call) announced it will phase out Call Before You Dig locate requests before commencement of the 2025 digging season. Their decision may seem cavalier, but it isn’t. Data is projecting that the day is coming when notification centres will transition all locate requests to the web. All it took was one notification centre in North America to do it first.

ON1Call’s announcement is smart, justified and will reduce damages even further in that province—which is precisely the end goal.

Over the past decade, ClickBeforeYouDig came of age. Initially, it was another convenient option to submit a locate request 24/7. It reduced wait times for people calling-in and clicked with the younger folks who were now ordering groceries, clothing, and pizza online. Then, we had a hunch web locate requests reduced damages compared to phone requests. We crunched the data. We analyzed it. We shared it. We asked other notification centres to tear it apart, only to have our analyses further supported. With that in-hand, USP mandated web locate requests for our members and contractors five years ago and we dropped Call Before You Dig from our promotions entirely. Homeowners could still call-in their locate requests, but they too are shifting from calls to clicks.

The crossroads, the nexus point of this next move in the damage prevention process isn’t lost on us. We know some people prefer to use the phone, their landline, to submit their locate requests but that demographic within the homeowner stakeholder category is shrinking. We also know that contractors working for a homeowner often ask them to submit the locate request on their behalf.

Last year, there were roughly 70,000 locate requests submitted by homeowners and 53% of those were submitted over the web. In 2023, that percentage was 51%. In 2022, it was below 50%. As time goes by, the percentage will climb and people who look like me, with grey hair, will be less likely to submit a locate request at all. If ClickBeforeYouDig became mandatory, how many homeowners would decide not to submit a locate request? Would it really be the tipping point between doing the right thing and taking a chance?

When USP shifted Calls to Clicks for members and contractors five years ago, we planned it in advance. Video tutorials were created and weekly webinars were held to train users how to submit and manage online locate requests. We soft launched the member and contractor web request mandate months before the hard launch and assisted callers with their requests, walking them through the process so they could manage it on their own the next time. We even had an excavator, who routinely provided us with an XL spreadsheet of locate requests that our agents would type in for him, shift to the online experience. When we finally hard launched, all of the apprehension we felt evaporated. In today's world, it was a nothingburger.

So, are we investigating doing the same and someday eliminating Call Before You Dig in Alberta? Yes, we are because once again, ClickBeforeYouDig reduces damages. Full stop. Is the change imminent? No, it isn’t. We have a lot of data to analyze before any final decisions are made. But when one moves, others follow.