Consolidated! Have they gone nuts? These people must be a joke!

**UQlatech** · September 26th, 2010, 09:33 PM

As you all know UtiliQuest will be losing the AT&T contract on Nov. 1st, and Consolidated will be picking it up. I for one had no problem with this, hell we are all tired of all the added things UQ has been making us do. When I was hired many years ago I was responseable for locating and protecting my lines in the area I ran. Needles to say it seems like we have gotten away from this thinking, or at least the new processes where not thought out enough. So when I heard we lost the contract I was worried because no contract equals no job. Then we find out Consolidated is the new company coming in, and I for one was excitied because I heard they run the business like it was ran years ago, locate and protect your cables and all will be well. I went ahead and started looking into the company, soon to follow were all the rumors that always seem to startin this business. I have learned through the years to just ignore them but one day I was told that this guy who works out of our Covington office came in and gave his two weeks notice to the supervisor there. No big deal whats new right? Wrong, this tech (if you even want to call him this) said he was quiting and going to Consolidated to be the MANAGER! Ok first let me say this guy was a supervisor for a short time in the Covington office but he was demoted and turned into a lead tech then demoted from that and was turned into a regular tech. Who knows this could all just be his bad luck, or this guy may not know his butt from a hole in the ground, so before I decided to come on here I did some checking. I called several peoiple that work in the Covington office to find out about this guy. There was not one person that could say something good about this guys work habits, or his knowledge of the business. They did say he was pretty cool as a person and was someone they would drink a beer with, but as far as running a operation he does not know crap. They said when he got here he could not even really read and understand our At&T prints, even after going through a training class. I also heard that he could not even conduct a proper damage investigation, and that his techs had to go out and conduct their own. How much of that being true is hard to know, but I would hope that if you are a supervisor you should know how to do this. One guy who is a tech said that he had one of his techs route tickets, non the less it appears this guy did not get demoted on just because reasons.

Well come to find out this is all true that this guy a former UQ tech will now be the manager for Consolidated. Look call me crazy but who thinks a locator can go straight into a operations manager position? All I know is after hearing this I have decided that I will stay with UQ or get out the business all together, but I am not going to work for some company that can not even find good experienced people to be the face of their operations. Guys, I know I was long winded however I just felt like everyone needed to know this. This is the first time I have ever posted on here and it will most likely be the last. I do come often and read the blogs and have found some useful info on here. Take care everyone.

**orangeboots** · September 27th, 2010, 07:02 PM

Soooo you never worked with this guy you're taking second hand info and spouting it on here. Why don't you call the regional manger for cus he is a nice guy and will give it to you straight. Do you even know for a fact he is going to be a supervisor? Is it possible you have your own reasons for attacking this guy for no reason. Ive been on here long enough to see 95% of the time there is a agenda behind the bashing.

**yahoo** · September 27th, 2010, 10:26 PM

well regardless if it's good info or not, it will come out soon enough. CUS will have their work cut out for them as we had when we started....it is no easy contract....and they will soon know that for theirselves.

**UQlatech** · September 28th, 2010, 04:17 AM

I agree with you on that one Yahoo.

Orange boots I do know this peron, and this guy is not going to be a supervisor he is going to be the operation manager. There is a big difference in the two. I have no need to call anyone from CUS, I met everyone I needed to this weekend. Just an example of what kind of guy he is I know for a fact that he was calling UQ techs today and telling them to go and take their CUS drug test on UQ's time. Look I know we all have taken care of personal business on company time, however for this guy to call another companies employee and tell them to do this on his/her present companies time shows me that he has no class. I hope the real leaders of CUS are not the ones telling him to do this. How dedicated is this guy to his new client AT&T? By doing this he is only helping put the UQ tech behind on their load. To me this guy is trying to make a statement to a company that demoted him and not showing a comitment to his new client. Hell call me old school but this is not how you do business.

**[HAF]Foxtrot** · September 28th, 2010, 12:07 PM

If this guy is really as bad as you say he is. Then you need to contact either the regional manager or the General Manager of the East Coast Operations and inform them. Because eventually, either sooner or later, they are going to see his performance and he will get the can. It seems they come down pretty hard on these fellows and if he doesn't know what hes doing, ect ect. Then he wont be there long.

You can find the regional managers number and the GE managers number on cusinc.com and under Contact Us or something to that extent. Select your state for regional, the Georgia office has the GE.

**orangeboots** · September 28th, 2010, 07:51 PM

Guess I'm confused in post#1 you said you called some guys in covington to check this guy out in post#4 you say you know him so you know him but never worked with him? also I don't know what a operations manager does.

**ace_locator** · September 29th, 2010, 12:03 AM

For anybody interested in working for CUS, ask what happened to their Canadian Operations, specifically Edmonton. Theres good ppl at CUS, too bad none of them are in upper management!

**screenshot99** · October 7th, 2010, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by UQlatech

As you all know UtiliQuest will be losing the AT&T contract on Nov. 1st, and Consolidated will be picking it up. I for one had no problem with this, hell we are all tired of all the added things UQ has been making us do. When I was hired many years ago I was responseable for locating and protecting my lines in the area I ran. Needles to say it seems like we have gotten away from this thinking, or at least the new processes where not thought out enough. So when I heard we lost the contract I was worried because no contract equals no job. Then we find out Consolidated is the new company coming in, and I for one was excitied because I heard they run the business like it was ran years ago, locate and protect your cables and all will be well. I went ahead and started looking into the company, soon to follow were all the rumors that always seem to startin this business. I have learned through the years to just ignore them but one day I was told that this guy who works out of our Covington office came in and gave his two weeks notice to the supervisor there. No big deal whats new right? Wrong, this tech (if you even want to call him this) said he was quiting and going to Consolidated to be the MANAGER! Ok first let me say this guy was a supervisor for a short time in the Covington office but he was demoted and turned into a lead tech then demoted from that and was turned into a regular tech. Who knows this could all just be his bad luck, or this guy may not know his butt from a hole in the ground, so before I decided to come on here I did some checking. I called several peoiple that work in the Covington office to find out about this guy. There was not one person that could say something good about this guys work habits, or his knowledge of the business. They did say he was pretty cool as a person and was someone they would drink a beer with, but as far as running a operation he does not know crap. They said when he got here he could not even really read and understand our At&T prints, even after going through a training class. I also heard that he could not even conduct a proper damage investigation, and that his techs had to go out and conduct their own. How much of that being true is hard to know, but I would hope that if you are a supervisor you should know how to do this. One guy who is a tech said that he had one of his techs route tickets, non the less it appears this guy did not get demoted on just because reasons.

Well come to find out this is all true that this guy a former UQ tech will now be the manager for Consolidated. Look call me crazy but who thinks a locator can go straight into a operations manager position? All I know is after hearing this I have decided that I will stay with UQ or get out the business all together, but I am not going to work for some company that can not even find good experienced people to be the face of their operations. Guys, I know I was long winded however I just felt like everyone needed to know this. This is the first time I have ever posted on here and it will most likely be the last. I do come often and read the blogs and have found some useful info on here. Take care everyone.

I do not post much on the forum but I happen to know this is fact, he is not able to even operate any piece of locate equipment other than a metrotech 810
the bggest problem i had with the guy is when he was a sup he would ignore the tech's phone calls they pretty much were on there own in the field
but it goes to show you its not what you know its who you know

**yahoo** · October 7th, 2010, 09:22 PM

the facts are out guys ( you who are with cus ) these are facts not rumors. but to be fair they will have to prove themselves and within 6 months is a good time frame. In 6 months time I will repost about this subject and the truth will be told, for in that time frame we will know and CUS VP's will know! Good Luck to you CUS guys taking our UQ contract!

**screenshot99** · October 8th, 2010, 12:34 PM

well UQ will be pulling out of La completly they are handing there existing contracts over to unibar
for those techs that do not plan on going with CUS maybe you can snag a spot with Unibar from what I am hearig it would be the better of the two. they also start out with a little better pay than CUS. CUS has been lowballing all the veteran tech's offering 2 to 3 bucks an hour less than what they are making. It is a shame that when a locate company including UQ takes over a contract the ones that suffer are the ones that actually make the money for the company THE TECH'S IN THE FIELD

**yahoo** · October 8th, 2010, 06:59 PM

2-3 bucks..........try 6 bucks!!!! that is a fact not rumor!!! DPG is starting to sound really good anyways

**Painterchuk** · October 8th, 2010, 08:07 PM

too bad UQ lost all of LA because of thier new wizbang technology:< Seems with Jamal moved to the "Chairman" spot Uq has a President from the car business and a Operations XVP thats a rookie to locates.

**HWYRIPR** · October 8th, 2010, 09:26 PM

All of those LARGE locate companies are the same old same old. CUS is the same upper management that ran UtiliQuest back in the day and sold to Dycom. From what I hear trying to do it again, perhaps with USIC, something for those considering a move to keep in mind. Same old business model, different name! I have worked for both of them under that ownership and I have to say they gave me a job opportunity, better yet a career, to support my family. Unfortunately, I believe, they are not trying to make the industry better for those they currently employee. The proof is in the contracts they hold and in which they are obtain. The best way to have a contract with a utility is when you work together to build a business model that works for both of you. That's a partnership.

Just my 2!

**ProfessionalLocator** · October 9th, 2010, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by HWYRIPR

All of those LARGE locate companies are the same old same old. CUS is the same upper management that ran UtiliQuest back in the day and sold to Dycom. From what I hear trying to do it again, perhaps with USIC, something for those considering a move to keep in mind. Same old business model, different name! I have worked for both of them under that ownership and I have to say they gave me a job opportunity, better yet a career, to support my family. Unfortunately, I believe, they are not trying to make the industry better for those they currently employee. The proof is in the contracts they hold and in which they are obtain. The best way to have a contract with a utility is when you work together to build a business model that works for both of you. That's a partnership.

Just my 2!

Such a partnership contract BG&E, Baltimore Gas & Electric, tired to implement but the locate firm decided this was a poor idea.

The BG&E contract worked like this.

Each locator was assigned a permanent area and it was expected for that locator to keep that area until they quit or died. The locator was to become an expert in their area and know where every installation was, a great idea. Plus they would establish a relationship with all the contractors working in their area. With the locator knowing their area so well this resulted in more tickets per hour being worked.

The locate firm was held to a maximum number of damages permitted. These damages include mismarks, damages on correct marks and damages from digging without a ticket. These goals were met, often exceeded, because the locator in their assigned area knew everything that was going on. If they saw someone digging they knew if there was a ticket issued or not. If not they would stop, advise the contractor they needed an immediate ticket called in, and call BG&E if the contractor refused to get a ticket, and to protect plant by immediately marking the area.

Each foreman’s group of locators had a BG&E liaison assigned to them. This liaison would hold monthly meetings to distribute information and give updates of what was going on. They also participated in the locator’s training classes. If you could not locate an electric or gas line, and your foreman also could not find it, the liaison would come to the site and locate the line or declare it un-locatable with BG&E taking responsibility. The liaison could also come to a damage site and declare it improper installation like being far different than the drawing, or un-locatable again taking the damage off to both the locate firm and the locator.

BG&E would recognize the performance of individual locators as well as the entire office. Once a year they held a breakfast at a rental hall. All the locators were present and recognition and small awards, even some money, was given out to locators who were damage free.

To make all this happen it was critical the competent locators, knowledgeable about their assigned area, were retained. Pay was based on Pay For Performance, PFP, which was the quarterly production rate per hour minus for damages. Locators back in 2000 were making $18 to $24 an hour based on their performance rather than time in service.

BG&E contracted out their locating and shut down their in-house locating division. The winner of the contract was Kelly Locating. But soon after Kelly sold off the Maryland operation and it was purchased by Utiliquest. They complied with the contract, and the spirit, and produced an office that was operating at a profit and an extremely low damage rate.

But this type of operation seems contrary to the Utiliquest operating ideals. Soon the locators began getting large pay cuts. The first to go was the bonus system. The bonus was for every 3,000 locates without a damage. The bonus amount was progressive starting at like $50 or $100 dollars and topped out at around $500. There were locators who had not gotten damages in years getting these bonuses every two to three months. Someone thought the bonus system was a failure, after all only the good locators were getting bonuses. Also one manger was quoted as saying locators were expected to do perfect work so a bonus was inappropriate, he never turned down his own bonus. For the best locators this was a 10% pay cut and the poor locators were unaffected.

Next PFP was renamed and new ways to cut the locators pay were added every few months.

Soon they began losing locators, no surprise there.

Utiliquest also wanted away from marking just for BG&E, whatever profit they were making they wanted more. So after years of resistance by BG&E they finally broke them down and added Comcast to the load. One locator told me he was taken into the office and chided about his now lower production rate. He looked at his record and it showed that the number of utilities located per hour (gas, electric and TV) were actually higher. The boss said yes, but the number of TICKETS per hour was down. Although he was making more money per hour for the firm the firm demanded no loss in tickets per hour. They did not want to outfit new locators to cover the additional workload, the higher profits were not enough.
Doing more jobs per hour could only be done by dropping quality which was what was really being demanded, just not openly and clearly stated.

A few years after buying out Kelly Utiliquest changed it’s training program. Before locators took both classroom and riding with experienced locators. But Utiiquest adopted laptop computers and there was no more room for a trainee. So they switched to classroom training, rewrote the training program and called their training improved and superior. This was so that for the mentor class locators they did not have to get a vehicle capable of holding both a trainee and computer equipment. Plus many mangers felt that the mentor class locators who worked for years without damages and turned out high productivity would teach the trainees bad things. Whatever those mentor class locators were doing they were doing great and that was what they were teaching those trainees. Damages began to skyrocket.

Finally Utiliquest “merged” all their Maryland offices so BG&E no longer got exclusive locators at all.

So BG&E introduced such a ground breaking, progressive relationship and it was dismantled one piece at a time. BG&E must be in love with Utiliquest for their showing them the error of their concept, Utiliquest still has the contract.

**ProfessionalLocator** · October 9th, 2010, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by Painterchuk

too bad UQ lost all of LA because of thier new wizbang technology:< Seems with Jamal moved to the "Chairman" spot Uq has a President from the car business and a Operations XVP thats a rookie to locates.

There is an idea common in management that the best managers are those with management experience, that management experience is the most valuable no matter what field it is in.

There are many firms where this idea causes minimal problems, locating is not one of them.

Locating requires two areas of expertise in addition to general management experience.

The first area is obvious to us, experience in the locating field. This industry requires making decisions that affect the individual operation of the employees. For these decisions to be correct the manager making that decision must, absolutely must, have a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of this work. Comprehensive understanding does not come from performing some job within the firm as a manger in training. Some locate firms hire college grads and have them locate a couple of months. These managers think they worked as locator but retaining their job, and getting a good paycheck, was never dependent on their performance as a locator. They never got enough experience to have comprehensive knowledge.

The second are of expertise is in dealing with people, this is critical in the locate industry. The locate industry is wholly dependent on the locator performing their job well. There is no technology that can substitute for a good locator. A good manager must have the ability to deal with these employees in a nonabrasive way. They must have the attitude that they are there to support this group of workers more than to boss them. They must inspire in these employees a sense of pride, a higher set of work ethics. They must build morale and their reactions to problems from poor employees must not have an adverse affect on their good employees.

For example some employee is found with inappropriate material on the company laptop. Sow what do you do? Do you cut off internet access for everybody? The answer is no, you do nothing. Your good employees will use the internet access to research a ticket in the Call Before You dig website, look at Doppler radar to get an idea of what jobs to do when during the day, find a location that is not on the map. I have Googled addresses and while mapquest and google maps did not produce a result some real estate firm popped up. When I surfed in I found a map available and was able to get to the site. Why cut off such a resource which your good locators can use? And for those that would misuse the computer there are already rules in place and they knowingly broke them. Just cutting off internet access leave them out there to break other rules and your good locators hampered, the bad locators end up running the firm. Eventually the laptop will need some repair and anything inappropriate will be found, it becomes a trap to be used to get rid of the bad employees.