For years, damage prevention has measured safety and performance per ticket. On the surface, that makes sense. 811 tickets are the common denominator across organizations, and they're easy to count. But this approach hides more than it reveals.
A single ticket could represent a homeowner planting a tree in a backyard, or a multi-mile fiber installation intersecting dozens of underground utilities. Treating those two scenarios as equal flattens risk, effort, and progress into a misleading metric.
If we want to tell a clearer story and make better decisions, it's time to change the denominator.
What if, instead of measuring damages per 1,000 tickets, we measured damages per 1,000 feet of facility overlap with the dig site? What if we measured the true scope of work, not just the count?
And what if, instead of measuring a field tech's performance in tickets per hour, we measured how many feet of facility overlap they painted and flagged per day? That tells a fuller story.
That shift changes the conversation at every level: executives planning resources, managers balancing workloads, and field techs proving the value of what they do every day.
On paper, two districts that each process 10,000 tickets per month look the same. When one district struggles with on-time performance, the quick fix is pushing managers harder: train crews better, route tickets more efficiently, stop over-marking.
But what if the real difference is scope?
District A, with no performance issues, averages 50 feet of facility overlap per ticket. District B, the one falling behind, averages 500 feet.
Who needs more resources to keep up?
Who's expending more effort per locate?
Who's facing more actual risk of a utility strike?
Whose damage prevention program is actually more effective?
Ticket counts alone can't answer those questions. Scope-based metrics can. They reveal not just how much work is being done, but whether damages are being reduced relative to the true risk exposure in each district.
Dig sites are getting larger. Project tickets are becoming the norm. Facility overlap is growing. Yet many organizations still use ticket volume as the basis for assigning resources and budgets. That approach no longer holds up. Ticket numbers alone don't tell the full story. They might tell the wrong one.
The result? Teams get caught off guard by large projects, performance metrics take a hit, damages rise, and morale suffers. Field techs managing massive project tickets with significant facility overlap are judged against "tickets per hour" expectations that don't reflect the actual workload. Their effort doesn't show up in the numbers.
Meanwhile, the damages that locators actually prevented go unnoticed. Anecdotes get shared, but without supporting data, ticket counts remain the baseline.
What is dig site overlap? Dig site overlap is the total linear feet of underground facility intersecting a dig site. It replaces vague ticket counts with an objective measure of where damages are most likely to occur and how much work a locate actually requires.
Imagine if organizations measured dig site overlap as a standard performance metric. It would give a clearer, more actionable picture:
True risk exposure. Dig site overlap pinpoints where underground facilities intersect the excavation area, identifying the locations with the highest probability of a utility strike.
Better mapping integration. Connections to GIS platforms like ArcGIS, availability of shapefiles, and improved electronic white lining at call centers make dig site overlap analysis increasingly accurate and accessible.
Objective workload measurement. Dig site overlap turns a vague ticket into a quantifiable measure of effort, helping organizations align field resources with actual risk, not just ticket count.
It's true that not every 811 ticket today comes with a perfectly defined dig site. But electronic white lining adoption is increasing at call centers, and excavator awareness of the functionality is improving. The accuracy of dig site representations gets better every year, making scope-based metrics more reliable and meaningful over time.
Executives gain a truer view of performance, tying damage rates and efficiency outcomes directly to scope rather than raw ticket volume.
Managers can balance workloads fairly across crews, assign the right teams to the highest-risk jobs, and plan proactively for large project tickets before they disrupt schedules.
Field techs can demonstrate performance in terms of real work completed, not just tickets closed. With tools like KorTerra's Dig Site Scope, they can see the scope of each ticket at a glance without opening the map. Tickets with larger dig site overlap get addressed first. Those with less overlap and later due dates can wait. Daily planning gets simpler and fairer.
It's a fair question, and one we hear often at CGA events: "What if my facility maps aren't accurate enough for this to work?"
What is facility proximity in damage prevention? Facility proximity measures the distance from a dig site to the nearest underground facility when no direct dig site overlap exists. It gives districts a data-driven safety net even when maps aren't perfect.
Tickets with facilities far away can be cleared quickly, reducing unnecessary truck rolls and field time.
Tickets within a proximity threshold get flagged for further review, catching potential damages that might otherwise slip through the cracks.
Managers can make smarter routing and load-balancing decisions based on both dig site overlap and facility proximity, not gut feel.
Even with imperfect maps, proximity data ensures organizations make damage prevention decisions grounded in measurable risk. Combined with dig site overlap and dig site size, facility proximity becomes a powerful variable for reducing damages while managing field workloads.
Now imagine if scope metrics didn't require manual review at all. With KorTerra's Dig Site Scope, data on dig site size, facility overlap, and dig site overlap is automatically surfaced the moment a ticket is created.
For executives: Resource demands and risk exposure across districts are visible immediately, making budget planning and resource allocation more accurate.
For managers: Tickets with the highest damage potential surface first, workloads balance across crews, and staffing decisions are based on scope, not just ticket count.
For field techs: Performance is measured by the true scope of work handled, not tickets per hour. There's a measurable difference between clearing ten small overlaps and safely navigating a single complex project with thousands of feet of dig site overlap. Dig Site Scope makes that difference visible.
In locating, time is money, but safety is the non-negotiable. The more referenceable data surfaced on the ticket, the more reliably techs complete work, the more efficiently managers deploy resources, and the lower the risk of damages from rushed or incomplete responses.
Metrics drive behavior. If the damage prevention industry continues to use tickets as the denominator, we keep measuring the wrong thing and undervaluing the real progress already being made in reducing damages.
Executives measure impact in terms of dig site scope and facility overlap, not raw ticket throughput. Managers measure performance through balanced workloads aligned to actual risk. Field techs are recognized for the complexity of the work they completed, not just the number of tickets they touched.
By shifting to scope-based metrics (dig site overlap, dig site size, facility proximity) organizations improve efficiency, align resources to real risk, and gain the ability to prove which damage prevention programs are actually effective.
And just as importantly: scope-based metrics create fairer measurements for the teams doing the work. Field techs aren't penalized for tackling large, complex projects. Managers aren't caught off guard when big jobs land. Executives can finally see the true return on their investment in prevention.
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