Over the course of the year, my staff and I receive many quality questions, concerns, and recommendations. This editorial will address a couple of the more common complaints that are voiced and hopefully explain the situation Diggers Hotline is put in when all sides of the issues are not understood or accepted.

First off, many of the complaints are the result of the fact that Diggers Hotline has to balance a fine line. Diggers Hotline is in the unique position of being directly in the middle of two groups of customers that have different needs and wants from the one call center. Those groups are facility owning companies and excavation companies. Facility owning companies who join the Diggers Hotline do so to protect the excavating community and their transmission facilities. These companies require Diggers Hotline to keep the costs of being a member as reasonable as possible because they are paying for this service to be free to all excavators. The excavators, because they are required to call by state law, feel the system should operate in a manner which is more beneficial to them. And in the middle is Diggers Hotline, which has to keep in mind both parties needs and devise solutions that are acceptable to both.

Let’s break down some of the most frequently targeted topics, first, the mapping system. The mapping system has for years been the target of scrutiny by excavators. The outdated data and the amount of time it can take for an operator to find a location on the map seemingly cause much grief to callers. The datedness of the data is an issue that Diggers Hotline has dealt with for years. What is often ignored by callers is the hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades and research that has been spent improving the mapping, as well as the hiring of people to strictly handle map updates. Diggers Hotline has also requested notification by excavators when they encounter outdated areas during a locate request, as well as certified plat maps of new subdivisions. All of this goes unseen.

Why does Diggers Hotline use a mapping system like this? It saves the Diggers Hotline members time and money. Diggers Hotline members can select specific areas where their facilities reside and the system itself does some screening to get tickets out to only those members affected by that work. Other systems used by other call centers require their members to select larger areas than necessary, resulting in paying for many more tickets outside of their service territory, and having to screen many more tickets at their office.

Another complaint echoing throughout the excavating community is that Diggers Hotline asks too many questions and requires too much information. I had one excavator go so far as to tell me that he would no longer call Diggers Hotline because of all the information that was required. The questions the operators ask have been determined by either Wisconsin State Statute 182.0175, or by the Diggers Hotline Board of Directors.

The information that Diggers Hotline is required to include on an excavation notice by law is, the name, address, and telephone number of the excavator, the specific location and description of the excavation area including, the county, place, street address, nearest intersecting road, distance and direction from the nearest intersection, and marking instructions, a description of the intended excavation activity, and the intended starting date of the excavation. This is required by law.

The other information operators request has been determined by the Board, which represents all 800+ facility owning members of Diggers Hotline. This information is deemed necessary by these companies to perform an accurate, timely locate request. It is not a scheme to amass a huge database which makes Diggers Hotline look important, as one excavator claimed.

If you think I am painting a picture with too broad a brush, let me assure you that this article is addressed to the "vocal minority" that is present within the excavating community. There are many people out there who have spent time listening to the explanations and have gained an understanding for why certain things are the way they are.

Also, if there is also any question as to the commitment of Diggers Hotline to the excavating community, look no further than this spring. After last spring, Diggers Hotline addressed the problems, moved forward on solutions, and is taking more locates than ever before this spring with virtually no hold times. There was a cost to being able to provide this level of service, Diggers Hotline members saw a $0.05 increase in their per-ticket cost. 5 cents a ticket, and Diggers Hotline will take well over 600,000 tickets this year, that shows the commitment this call center has to excavators.