Opportunities???

[claimscenter]

Hello All~

My Name is Dennis McKenzie, and I work for the The Claims Center, LLC in Minneapolis, MN. I've worked in the Insurance/Risk Management/subrogation industry for the better part of 15 years.

The Claims Center specializes in the investigation and billing of claims resulting from third party damages to property... albeit; utility Poles, utility boxes, buried utility lines, fleet vehicles, etc -- Our principle clients are all Public Utilities.

I am attempting to build a nationwide network of damage investigators in the field... beginning with the greater New England area. It seems a forum devoted to locate professionals might be a good place to seek some advice.

Can anyone give me some tips as to how I might better communicate this opportunity and build a list of candidates??

[locator1]

HELLO I AM A 6 YEAR LOCATE VETERAN IM INTERESTED IN A JOB I CURRENTLY LIVE SOUTH OF LAKELAND FLORIDA YOU CAN EMAIL ME AT SOLETRAIN@LIVE.COM AND WE COULD CONVERSE THAT WAY PLEASE

[yahoo]

good luck dude hope things work out for you!!!

[OVUS1]

Hello All~

My Name is Dennis McKenzie, and I work for the The Claims Center, LLC in Minneapolis, MN. I've worked in the Insurance/Risk Management/subrogation industry for the better part of 15 years.

The Claims Center specializes in the investigation and billing of claims resulting from third party damages to property... albeit; utility Poles, utility boxes, buried utility lines, fleet vehicles, etc -- Our principle clients are all Public Utilities.

I am attempting to build a nationwide network of damage investigators in the field... beginning with the greater New England area. It seems a forum devoted to locate professionals might be a good place to seek some advice.

Can anyone give me some tips as to how I might better communicate this opportunity and build a list of candidates??

I worked very briefly for a similar company based in Colorado about ten years ago and it was a nightmare. Had to fight the company every week to get paid, lost all my good locate friends because of the pressure from the company to quickly assess blame so they could invoice and skim their $$ off the top, no company vehicle, no benefits, and so on. Not saying this company is like the one I worked for, but 26 years in this business has shown me that everything rolls downhill and it's generally the locate company that sits at the bottom when it comes to damages and third party claims.

And yes, I am an owner - the one that generally has to either fight these claims at a very high costs or has to pay them because it is less expensive than fighting them. There is relatively no consideration for the tangled mess under the ground that we have to deal with, nor the human factor when it comes to the "art" side of locating. I actually contacted a similar company last year to see if they could assist me in recovering downtime due to false emergencies and bogus remark tickets being called in and they hung up on me........

I will say that in the cases where actual investigators with locating experience are involved, they tend to better understand and provide a more comprehensive investigation, but the pressure from the home office to point the finger as quickly as possible is always there so that invoice can get out the door and late fees and interest can start piling up. If you are considering hooking up with a company like this do your homework first. Check with the BBB or other similar agencies, request their D&B number and see their payment history, ask for references and actually contact them, make sure it is crystal clear what equipment/software/training they will provide you - you get my drift. Jobs are scarce out there right now and I know opportunities are limited, but make sure everything is clearly spelled out in your employment agreement, especially when it comes to timely reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses and frequency of pay cycles.

[ctdon1952]

OVUS1. I have one thing to say to that. AMEN.

[sprayandpray]

Not much need for your services here in Texas,. It seems our contracts that were signed indemnifies the utilities from any responsibility and basically assures them that if a contractor refuses to pay a claim, the Locating company will then reimburse the utility company. No amount of investigating or negotiation can help us anymore. That is, unless you can do something about the mentality of a company that would become that desperate to sign on clients.

[GeorgeGregory20]

HELLO I AM A 6 YEAR LOCATE VETERAN IM INTERESTED IN A JOB I CURRENTLY LIVE SOUTH OF LAKELAND FLORIDA YOU CAN EMAIL ME AT SOLETRAIN@LIVE.COM AND WE COULD CONVERSE THAT WAY PLEASE

Hey bud, I work for Consolidated Utility Services in Brunswick Ga and they are currently looking for Locators in Tampa, you can look up the job listing on the LocatorJobs.com web site. Good luck bro

[claimscenter]

I worked very briefly for a similar company based in Colorado about ten years ago and it was a nightmare. Had to fight the company every week to get paid, lost all my good locate friends because of the pressure from the company to quickly assess blame so they could invoice and skim their $$ off the top, no company vehicle, no benefits, and so on. Not saying this company is like the one I worked for, but 26 years in this business has shown me that everything rolls downhill and it's generally the locate company that sits at the bottom when it comes to damages and third party claims.

And yes, I am an owner - the one that generally has to either fight these claims at a very high costs or has to pay them because it is less expensive than fighting them. There is relatively no consideration for the tangled mess under the ground that we have to deal with, nor the human factor when it comes to the "art" side of locating. I actually contacted a similar company last year to see if they could assist me in recovering downtime due to false emergencies and bogus remark tickets being called in and they hung up on me........

I will say that in the cases where actual investigators with locating experience are involved, they tend to better understand and provide a more comprehensive investigation, but the pressure from the home office to point the finger as quickly as possible is always there so that invoice can get out the door and late fees and interest can start piling up. If you are considering hooking up with a company like this do your homework first. Check with the BBB or other similar agencies, request their D&B number and see their payment history, ask for references and actually contact them, make sure it is crystal clear what equipment/software/training they will provide you - you get my drift. Jobs are scarce out there right now and I know opportunities are limited, but make sure everything is clearly spelled out in your employment agreement, especially when it comes to timely reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses and frequency of pay cycles.

I think I know of the Company to which you refer... Phoenix Loss Control??

If so, what we propose is very similar. There would be no company vehicle, and work would be on an on-call, 1099 contract basis. We would pay electronically upon submission of the claim form and photos through the web.

All we need is someone in the field to determine the root cause and all they would need is a camera, ruler, laptop and internet connection.

We'll pay mileage and hourly -- The difficulty we face is response time and distance to the damage site.

I've got one client on board already... they have approximately 400 damages a year in the territory they've assigned to us. Easy money for the right person or group of people.

[claimscenter]

Not much need for your services here in Texas,. It seems our contracts that were signed indemnifies the utilities from any responsibility and basically assures them that if a contractor refuses to pay a claim, the Locating company will then reimburse the utility company. No amount of investigating or negotiation can help us anymore. That is, unless you can do something about the mentality of a company that would become that desperate to sign on clients.

Well I can't do anything about that sort of mentality -- and I think the point is being missed here a bit here... it's not our intention to nail all the locator's.

In fact, we don't need any locating done at all, but what we do need individuals that understand the locating process and the industry, that can determine if a locator made an error... or if the contractor did... not to mention that quite often the investigation may even involve a vehicle vs. pole or box.

Anyone or any company that does locating for one of our clients would not be eligible for this opportunity, as it would present an inherent conflict of interest. We need the investigator to be totally objective.

[scap]

SOLETRAIN@LIVE.COM[/email] AND WE COULD CONVERSE THAT WAY PLEASE

ghahahahhahahahha

[scap]

I will say that in the cases where actual investigators with locating experience are involved, they tend to better understand and provide a more comprehensive investigation,

I agree. But we still deal with DI's...(both of whom for our office have over 8 yrs locate exp are are great at what they do)

'this ticket has 56 pics'...when theres 300k under the ground right there...I'm sorry if you have to sit and download pictures....I'm so sorry that is your job, sorry! I have to wake my ass up at 6:05, go pop a manhole and fish around for a cable instead? Wanna join me in on that masquerade? Didn't think so..... But you know what? That really ain't a big ****in' deal, because I just helped train a guy who wakes his ass up at 2:00am. That gave me a different view on things. Know what made him wake his ass up at 2am for ten years to go throw papers? (Added to his '7 to 5' ...) ......A wife and kids. That, I can respect. That means you got a man in front of you who is a man.




Everyone gets their fair share of horseshit to deal with. Just eat your shit sandwich like everyone else with Tabasco on it and pretend it tastes better than turds and yeast