What is the average number of damages by the average locator at your firm?

[ProfessionalLocator]

What is the average number of damages by the average locator at your firm?

Not the average damages of the top of the line locators but of the middle group of locators. Those locators who do not damage out but still get damages and are not in the top production numbers. These are the average locators.

I observe the ‘average’ locator gets 3 or 4 damages a year. So I have observed 3.5 damages a year for the average locator. I must point out that was at one office I worked at that had an overall low damage rate. I have observed higher.

[Locator5000]

Our crew has an average of roughly 1.85 damages per locator in the last 12 months. Below is a small compilation I put together. The first number is the number of damages per locator in my crew in the last 12 months, the second is the tenure:

3 / 1yr 3mo
2 / 4yr 5mo
0 / 11mo
4 / 1yr 8mo
2 / 1yr 1 mo
2 / 4yr 4 mo
0 / 4 mo
3 / 1yr
1 / 4yr 1mo
2 / 15yr 2mo
1 / 2mo
1 / 8mo
1 / 10yr?
1 / 9mo
6 / 3yr 8mo
0 / 2mo
0 / 8mo
3 / 3yr 1mo
2 / 9mo

[Mke]

I always thought it was Taboo to talk about this topic? It gives me the Heebeegeeebeees.

I'm assuming we are talking about At Fault Damages? With that being said, Damages that we were actually at fault on, or ones that were pinned to our name?

Either way, i'm not gunna answer cause we only have Two locators, and we would throw the bell curve outa wack.

Mke

[ProfessionalLocator]

Our crew has an average of roughly 1.85 damages per locator in the last 12 months. Below is a small compilation I put together. The first number is the number of damages per locator in my crew in the last 12 months, the second is the tenure:

3 / 1yr 3mo
2 / 4yr 5mo
0 / 11mo
4 / 1yr 8mo
2 / 1yr 1 mo
2 / 4yr 4 mo
0 / 4 mo
3 / 1yr
1 / 4yr 1mo
2 / 15yr 2mo
1 / 2mo
1 / 8mo
1 / 10yr?
1 / 9mo
6 / 3yr 8mo
0 / 2mo
0 / 8mo
3 / 3yr 1mo
2 / 9mo

Let's take a look there L-5000

0 / 2mo
1 / 2mo
0 / 4 mo
0 / 11mo 5 damages 8 locators avg. 1.6
1 / 8mo
0 / 8mo
1 / 9mo
2 / 9mo


3 / 1yr
2 / 1yr 1 mo
3 / 1yr 3mo 12 damages 4 locators avg. 3
4 / 1yr 8mo

Out of 19 locators 47%, 9 locators, have less than two years experience. Of these 6 have no more than 12 months.

The ones with a year or less average 1.6 damages but they do not have a full year in. The one with the full 12 months has 3 damages. During this first year time many firms give these locators the more simple tickets and least likely to result in a damage.

There are four locators with 1 year but less than two years of experience.
These four locators average 3 damages and the newer locators appear to be heading towards this number. If all these employees stay with the firm this group of 12 locators can be expected to produce 24 damages a year for several more eyars.


Next is a big jump to locators with 3 years experience. There are no locators in the category of 2 years experience.

3 / 3yr 1mo 9 damages 2 locators avg. 4.5
6 / 3yr 8mo

This group is small and cannot by itself be indicative of how locators of this experience in this firm do with damages. They are at the level where they are given more difficult locates. Still this group is averaging 4.5 damages compared to the much lesser experience locators. This may be due to the personalities of the two locators in the 3 year bracket.

1 / 4yr 1mo
2 / 4yr 4 mo 5 damages 3 locators avg. 1.66
2 / 4yr 5mo

This group of 3 locators all have 4 years expertise and their damage rate falls to about half of those locators in the newer groups.

The fall of point for damages is indicated by the 4th year.



1 / 10yr? 3 damages 2 locators avg. 1.5
2 / 15yr 2mo

The old locators with many year of service fair little better than the 4 year veterans. But this is a very small group. The trend for the company overall need to be examined for real accuracy.

Still this short study indicates that if all 19 locators had 3 or less years experience then the group of 19 would produce about 66 damages a year. This is by throwing out the averages of locators with less than a years service because their numbers are not yet complete.

If the group of 19 locators all had 4 or more years experience then they would produce about 30 damages, a saving of 35 damages a year.

It also indicates that by the end of the 4th year the effort to train these lcocators, and pay for their damages incurred while they learned their craft, was lost due to attrition. Still a larger look at the company is needed to draw a better conclusion.

What is the average cost of a damage in your area? Try multiplying that by 35 and see what you get.

[Goldenboy]

First off 5K your area doesn't have much tenure at all. In the area I work I'm guessing the average tenure is 7 years or better. We actually don't have any locators with under 1.5 years of experience.

ProLoc you have to remember that the more tenured locators are pushed way harder. Heavier ticket counts,road projects, and just plain ugly tickets. The newbies normally don't get the harder tickets.

I don't feel like looking through all the stats but if I were to take a guess I would say that the average locator takes 2 at fault damages a year.

[ProfessionalLocator]

First off 5K your area doesn't have much tenure at all. In the area I work I'm guessing the average tenure is 7 years or better. We actually don't have any locators with under 1.5 years of experience.

ProLoc you have to remember that the more tenured locators are pushed way harder. Heavier ticket counts,road projects, and just plain ugly tickets. The newbies normally don't get the harder tickets.

I don't feel like looking through all the stats but if I were to take a guess I would say that the average locator takes 2 at fault damages a year.

I mentioned that the newbies tend to get the easier tickets. Or at lest I meant to if that is not there. Still this usually runs out by the end of the first year if not sooner.

I also say it takes a company wide study to show the real differences.

Still the group used was interesting in that it had a wide range of experience. Looking at one group that was all locators with 3 or less years should produce significantly different indications than a group of locators all with four or more years.

Another fact that is not considered in the example is the number of locates each had performed in the time period.
I do not mean just the gross number of tickets but the number of utilities marked excluding clear tickets with no buried utilities.
For example if in the time of one year a locator marked 7,000 tickets with 3 utilities each, none of them clear tickets, then they performed 21,000 locates.

[sprayandpray]

I personally average 1 at-fault damage per year which equals a 1 in 16,000 locate ratio - which is how we are measured here at USIC. Recently, our co. put out a company wide ratio list with a ratio of 1 in 8,000 being about the average of 40+ Districts.

[ProfessionalLocator]

I personally average 1 at-fault damage per year which equals a 1 in 16,000 locate ratio - which is how we are measured here at USIC. Recently, our co. put out a company wide ratio list with a ratio of 1 in 8,000 being about the average of 40+ Districts.

Yes, but that is inclusive of the newbies with less than a year and the old pros who have a low damage rate like yours. The question is what is the damage numbers for the average locators, say with less than 4 years experience. Remember, it is locators like you that produce high volume and few damages that makes those overall numbers look good.

[yahoo]

3-5 a year for our average guys...that is a guess though

[ProfessionalLocator]

3-5 a year for our average guys...that is a guess though

This matches my unscientific observations over the years, an educated guess.

From what I observed locators, overall and excluding the exceptionally talented, have their highest level of damages in the first three years. The damage rate seems to begin dropping around the end of the second or third year. There is a point where it flattens out no matter how long the locators have been doing this work. I am guesstimating that overall the damage rate for locators with five or more years is half that of locators with 4 years or less. What I exclude from this estimate is the locators who damaged out prior to their three or four years experience.