Page 6 - Arkansas 811

Locating completely and accurately is the basis for what constitutes excellent locating results.
FACT: The best locators in the world are the ones doing it now.
OPINION: A lot of people say today’s locators are not good enough.
An Easy Target?
There’s a meme that circulates on social media proclaiming, “I don’t always locate utilities,
but when I do, I’m ten feet off.” This meme effectively summarizes what we’ve heard for years from excavators regarding the quality of the 811 marks. The locators who run 811 tickets might get a lot of flak from excavators, but is the quality of their work a lower level than that of other locators?
811 locating is unique to the other groups of locating. The excavator, who initiates the work, doesn’t pay for the work, has no choice in who performs the work, and has no remedy if the work is not performed in a timely fashion. Locators become the target of excavators’ ire because they are the only person in the 811 process the excavator sees.
Other locators come from private utility locating, engineering/survey locating, and construction crew locating. Over
a nearly 40-year period, I’ve been in front of thousands of locators in these groups, and I’d say there is virtually no quantifiable difference in the knowledge and skills of these locators when comparing them to 811 locators.
Learning that many of the people who do private, engineering or construction locating started in 811 locating only serves to validate my conclusion.
No One Wants to be a Locator
What happens in the world of 811 locating passes through to the other locating groups. If people today don’t want to be 811 locators, they probably don’t want to be locators in the other groups either. What is it about 811 locating that doesn’t appeal to people?
One industry insider claims the typical job applicant “wants more for doing less, doesn’t want to work outside, doesn’t want to work longer hours
in the summer.” I’ve also been told applicants see a murkier career path with locating work than that of other job opportunities. I believe that.
At this moment, it’s likely easier to attract people to openings in the other locating groups, since many of these jobs are filled by former 811 locators. But if the 811 locating pool dries up,
so will the pool for the other locating groups.
A Shrunken Younger Person Labor Pool
Locating is not the only discipline going through tough times finding people. According to a July 26, 2023, story in The Washington Post outlining the recruiting troubles of the U.S. military, “the percentage of Americans ages 19 through 25 is at a 15-year low, which means the services — and many other employers — are all drawing from the same shrunken pool.
The economy clicks along at near-full employment and offers young people who might otherwise go into uniform attractive alternatives and rising wages.”
Three days following The Post story,
a July 29, 2023, CNBC story quoted
an industry insider claiming, “There
is a labor shortage. There are about 650,000 workers missing from the construction industry, and construction backlogs are now at a four-year high.”
If higher-paying construction jobs
are going unfilled, it follows that the locating industry is going to find filling positions rough sledding.
Late 811 Locates
In Illinois, excavators file complaints to the state’s enforcement agency, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). I sit on the ICC’s Advisory Board, and I
4 • Arkansas 811 Magazine 2024, Issue 1
Why I Started a Locator Certification Program
(and why one is needed)
by Mike Parilac