For organizations with damage prevention teams, the core responsibilities stay the same year after year: reduce damages, maximize staff efficiency, and control costs. The industry's leading stakeholders have built their programs around a set of best practices that deliver consistent results across all three.
What are the key components of an effective damage prevention program? It comes down to three areas: locator training, field technology, and risk-based ticket prioritization. Here's where to start.
Why is locator training the foundation of damage prevention performance? The first step in building a damage prevention operation that performs consistently is making sure your locators are properly trained and that training is documented and refreshed annually.
The Common Ground Alliance recently released its Next Practices Initiative, and the number one critical issue identified in that report was the frequency with which underground facilities are not marked accurately or on time. That finding puts training at the top of the priority list. Before investing in technology or process changes, make sure you have a comprehensive training program that ensures your field staff understands how to perform their work accurately, efficiently, and in compliance with state one-call requirements.
Documented, repeatable training isn't just a best practice. It's your first line of defense against the inaccurate and late locates that the CGA identified as the industry's most critical problem.
What tools do damage prevention field teams need to work efficiently? The next step is removing the barriers that slow your locators down. Evaluate what your team actually has access to in the field.
Are locators viewing and managing 811 tickets through email, or has your organization invested in a modern ticket management system? Do they have access to GIS and facility mapping data, and if so, how efficiently can they pair that information with ticket data to make decisions at the dig site?
What does best-practice field technology look like for damage prevention? The standard the leading organizations have set is a single interface where locators can see ticket information, facility maps, and relevant risk data in one view. When locators don't have to switch between systems, search for information manually, or call the office for data they should have on their device, they complete more accurate locates in less time. That efficiency compounds across every ticket, every day.
How do leading damage prevention organizations prioritize their locate workload? The third component is risk-based ticket management. Many of the industry's top-performing organizations screen tickets where underground assets are not at risk or are at very low risk, clearing those tickets without dispatching a field crew. That screening, powered by comprehensive GIS and facility mapping data, frees locate resources to focus on the tickets where damage probability is highest.
What is ticket screening in damage prevention? Ticket screening is the process of evaluating incoming 811 locate requests against facility data to determine whether a physical locate is required. Tickets where no facilities are present in the dig area, or where facility proximity is well outside the excavation zone, can be cleared at the office level, eliminating unnecessary truck rolls.
For the tickets that do require a field response, flagging high-risk scenarios and routing them to more experienced locators is another proactive step toward reducing damages. When your most capable people handle the most complex and highest-risk work, your damage numbers reflect it.
Achieving consistent results in damage prevention requires a multi-faceted approach. Training ensures your locators can do the work accurately. The right field tools ensure they can do it efficiently. Risk-based prioritization ensures they're spending their time on the tickets that matter most.
Organizations that invest in all three, and continuously evaluate how each component is performing, are the ones that reduce damages year over year and get the most from their teams.
KorTerra is the leading provider of damage prevention software, protecting billions of dollars in underground infrastructure. For over 30 years, the leading stakeholders in gas distribution, pipeline operation, telecommunications, electric distribution, contract locating, and city, county, and state governments have trusted KorTerra as their damage prevention solution. KorTerra helps mitigate risk and ensure the safety of field personnel by providing secure software platforms for processing 811 locate tickets, tracking and reporting asset damages, meeting regulatory compliance, and more. Explore additional solutions at korterra.com and follow KorTerra on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Paige Nygaard – KorTerra, Inc.
952.368.1911
marketing@korterra.com