long time lurker,1st time poster

[clownshoes]

hello all,been paintin' the ground for about 11 months now for USIC....my sup recently asked me if id be interested in heading down to houston,tx for 2 weeks "helping".

So my 1st question for the vine is.......what all does USIC locate in the Houston area n how much of a headache am i looking at if i decide to head down?

thanks in advance!!!

[Wingfoot]

Hey clownshoes - Welcome to the'Vine!

Typically the sups do not give out the challenging deep-dig tickets to the out-of-town "helpers." These "helpers" usually are limited in experience and do not have their own assigned territories back home. These limited experience out-of-towners are of more value to the teams needing help if they just knock out the quickies. These sups don't want damages any more than out-of-towners want to get damages.

As a rule, out-of-towners don't get charged for at-fault cuts that happen on tickets they do in un-familiar territories. The exception to the rule happens if the "helpers" just clear out tickets without throwing paint. When this happens, those lazy bastards get no sympathy from me and deserve any repercussion they get.

If you decide to go to Houston, just do the best job you can do. That's all that is expected from you. Contact the sup if you run into any problems and everything will be fine.

Anyway, we are all pleased you became a member of this fraternity of locators and please post often!

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[mattm211]

it's like Wingfoot said. out of town helpers don't get anything hard, just help pick up all the slack. When i was with SM&P (right before they became USIC) i helped out west and just did simple single address rural tickets. Then later went up to Oklahoma for two weekends in a row where some company called in ENTIRE subdivisions to be located. They paired us up in 2's and just split up the roads in the subdivision and each of us would start at one end and just start working house to house till we meet in the middle and the road was done, then on to the the next.

The hardest ticket I'd imagine you get is a Cable TV replacement where they like to put a single address, but when you read the whole ticket it actually asks for about 4 or 5. It's been awhile since i've been in Houston, but i do believe most everywhere has an alley. So you should be alright..no worries

[big boots mcghee]

Out of towners typically get the cake tickets. However, it will absolutely depend on where you work down there. I helped out in Houston earlier this year and assisted a crew that only had four techs. I'm a tenured tech and did not get the typical out of state helper treatment because that crew was so far behind. Two mile long road projects, gas main replacements, multiple address bore tickets.....it sucked. Where I was at we only located phone so it wasn't that bad, right? WRONG! The phone prints down there are legendarily bad. You might as well be locating blind. Fiber listed on the east side of the road? Nope. It's actually on the west side. Print shows eight cables running through an easement. Nope. They're actually in a duct. Limited access points for everything, too. There are very few above ground structures to locate the phone. Everything is either a buried splice or in some type of handhole, and even those aren't always shown correctly on the prints. I honored my two week commitment because those guys needed the help, but I hated every single day of it.

[clownshoes]

thank you very much Wingfoot,Mattm211 n Big boots!!!! yeah everytime i've went somewhere to help i.e.grand rapids MI n Indy they have generally given us "cake" tickets,but i think the questions i had have been answered....again thank you very much!!!!