How Many tickets should be done in an hour

**radiotechfios** · February 16th, 2010, 11:31 PM

I Think 3 tickets is a reasonable amount ,only if the streets are close by. What do you think

**ProfessionalLocator** · February 17th, 2010, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by radiotechfios

I Think 3 tickets is a reasonable amount ,only if the streets are close by. What do you think

Depends on how many utilities you are locating and the general size of the property.

In some areas I marked residential yards 1/4 acre or less. In some areas the houses were on one or more acres.

I have marked as many as five different utilities and as few as one.

Depends to on the documentation system your firm uses. You can have to make a detailed drawing complete with measurements or just a photo.

Marking one utility in an area I am familiar with using photo documentation with the jobs less than a mile apart I was working at four or five an hour.

In my routine work area with some remarks a few that turned out to be 'clear' and not to long tickets I have done as much as five to eight tickets an hour. Working in such a situation I have in a long 12 hour day done as much as 90 tickets or 7 1/2 per hour. This is becasue with that many tickets I got a lot of construction sites with say three tickets on three adjacent yards. Sometimes tickets from different excavators overlap allowing a high productivity number. This was working a dense area but still around 170 square miles or 12 miles by 14 miles. Roughly half of all the tickets for that county came into my assigned area. The rest of the county was less dense requiring more drive time, often 20 minutes between tickets, so it took two locators to cover that area.

**FiosKing** · February 17th, 2010, 01:40 PM

id say 3 an hour "IF" they are single address and 3 or less utilities

**Goldenboy** · February 17th, 2010, 03:26 PM

I hate when people talk about how many tickets you should do. Production is such an uncontrollable issue in this business. Most my tickets this time of year are between 1000ft and a mile. Most these jobs are for installing new phone or fiber in real congested areas. One ticket can take 4-8 hours if not more on some occasions. In the summer when there are residential tickets mixed in it is a little easier to run some numbers but in the winter with nothing but upgrades and road projects there is no way to make any production.

**Locator in NY** · February 17th, 2010, 04:44 PM

Difficult Topic to discuss. Always depends on the amount of utilities you are locating on each ticket. Wherever I have worked my production has always been based on the footage/increment/unit that i have completed.

I may have completed 30 single addresses locates in a day and had respectable production.

or

I may have done a Project ticket that was 15,000 feet for a single utility but =s the same if not more in production.

It is obvious why Managers put production levels on us, but we need them so we can you gauge ourself as a Locator.

**big boots mcghee** · February 17th, 2010, 06:43 PM

I say that you should aim to achieve whatever production goals your company sets for you, plus about ten percent. For example, say your company wants you to complete 12 tickets in an 8 hour day. I'd try to maintain something a little higher, like 13-14 tickets per 8 hour day. It might put you on the good radar (so long as you're not big on damages) and give you a nice sense of achievement. Of course, you likely won't be able to hit your production goal every day. Some days you'll come in under, and some you'll be way over, but on a week by week or month by month basis you'll generally meet your goals.

**TheCableVine** · February 17th, 2010, 06:57 PM

That is all relative. If you are in the country and you are driving 5 miles between tickets you should expect to get so many done. If you are in a city and your locates are just blocks apart, then you should expect to get so many done. It is all relative.

**yahoo** · February 17th, 2010, 07:43 PM

1 ticket per hour

**wilder** · February 17th, 2010, 09:37 PM

"it depends"
I agree but you've got to have a yard stick somewhere. Road conditions, type of tickets, weather all have a huge effect. Our yard stick is that an experienced locator should be able to knock out 16 tickets in an 8 hour day. But it depends.....

**radiotechfios** · February 17th, 2010, 09:58 PM

Thx Guys

**mattm211** · February 18th, 2010, 07:38 AM

just for my two cents.... when i was doing my area at first I averaged about 60/8-hr day. (2-way locates) I had a lot of multiple lot new construction and commercial properties.

later we picked up gas/electric contract and i started doing 4-ways and production went to about 40/day

the best day i ever had i finish 118 tickets (picking up slack for someone else, so not even in my area!) Guys with more experience than I told me to stop doing so many (i was highest producer), but i'm sorry..i enjoyed my bonus

come to 1.5 years later...i left for the biz for a while and now no one will hire me...how's that for karma.

**Bad Robot** · February 18th, 2010, 07:45 AM

Originally Posted by big boots mcghee

I say that you should aim to achieve whatever production goals your company sets for you, plus about ten percent. For example, say your company wants you to complete 12 tickets in an 8 hour day. I'd try to maintain something a little higher, like 13-14 tickets per 8 hour day. It might put you on the good radar (so long as you're not big on damages) and give you a nice sense of achievement. Of course, you likely won't be able to hit your production goal every day. Some days you'll come in under, and some you'll be way over, but on a week by week or month by month basis you'll generally meet your goals.

I think this is a pretty reasonable approach for most folks. But really, production numbers are the devil's playground around here. Since our company's focus has changed to production, morale has dipped proportionally.

**ProfessionalLocator** · February 18th, 2010, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by mattm211

just for my two cents.... when i was doing my area at first I averaged about 60/8-hr day. (2-way locates) I had a lot of multiple lot new construction and commercial properties.

later we picked up gas/electric contract and i started doing 4-ways and production went to about 40/day

the best day i ever had i finish 118 tickets (picking up slack for someone else, so not even in my area!) Guys with more experience than I told me to stop doing so many (i was highest producer), but i'm sorry..i enjoyed my bonus

come to 1.5 years later...i left for the biz for a while and now no one will hire me...how's that for karma.

One of the common things I hear is that companies want to get noobies and "train them to do it their way". For the most part they hire them, train them and watch 50% of their new hires gone the first year. Then the most of the remaining wander off or never reach the level they want them to be. The whole while the company is complaining of low production and high damages.

Unfortunately experienced and capable locators are regarded as used cars and as just some other company's old troubles.

**sling'n paint** · February 18th, 2010, 09:03 AM

.

**Mke** · February 18th, 2010, 09:03 AM

When I was doing public One-call stuff, we had a smaller telephone contract in which we billed depending on length. For example; if it was a lot job it was one charge, however if it was a 1500' locate it was 3 charges (we billed in 500ft increments).
That was great, short lived, but great. I wish more contracts were written to cover footages, and not just tickets.

On the topic though, I had a rather large area, it would take about 1hr and a Half to go from one side of my area to the other. The drive time would kill production. I still maintained the Quota by routing appropriately, which meant a couple of early morning drives into Elk territory to beat the dig times, but it worked out.

mke