Utiliquest in Md signs for a loss

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 27th, 2011, 06:11 PM

Across the coutnry Utiliwuest has lsot numerpous contracts and Maryland is no expection. They lost WSSC, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commision, and in nearvy northeren Virginia the lcoating contracts for lcoal water and sewer.

In Maryland the Verizon contract was up for bid and Utiliquest was / is desperate to hold onto contracts. The word is they got the contract renewed and maybe picked up the additional area that was contracted to OCC, One Call Concepts.

The word I got, and I am looking to find some more sold info, is they more than low balled the bid, they lowered the bid to less than what they get now.
What are you guys thinking here? (A) $10 a ticket? (B) $5 a ticket? (C) Less than $2 a ticket?

The correct answer is C. I am trying to nail down how much less than $2 but even if half that amount it does not matter, $2 a ticket means a heavy loss. So far I am seeing well less than $2, just put that there to error on the side of caution.

Right now Maryland UT does not have enough locators to handle the light Winter work load and during weekdays locators come in from the Virginia office then go back to Virgina on the weekends and catch up on their work. If they picked up the OCC area they will have even grater demand for locators they do not have. And since Virginia UT picked up the Columbia Gas contract they lost the locators Maryland needs to borrow jsut to do their present workload.

Operating the Verizon at a loss means they must boost productivity of the tickets but this cannot be just for Verizon as the tickets have their other contracts on them as well. Boosting production has to mean dropping overall quality of all locates. Plus if they do as they have historically done there will be another round of pay and benefit cuts. They usually do this by creating new rules on how they can cut individual pay rates so on paper it looks like they are paying good wages for good work.

Any Utiliquest locators in Maryland wish to comment? Do so anonymously, you know they will fire you if you speak out.

**ifinditunderground** · January 28th, 2011, 08:28 AM

You ok there PL???? Too many beers on this snow day?

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 28th, 2011, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by ifinditunderground

You ok there PL???? Too many beers on this snow day?

As strange as it sounds my writing is based on no hallucination. My source is very reliable and was standing where theycould hear what really went down.

I am estimating their annual phone damages exceed the income the Verizon contract will generate. then add on the overhead of the employees and equipment and you have one big loss.

Why would any firm take such a loss? Well, you would not sign such a contract but your situation is much different. Utiliquest has been losing contracts nationwide as we have seen on this forum. In the DC area they have lost WSSC and some others recently. Plus another of the contracts they have has been shopping for a new locate firm. They cannot afford to have on their record the loss of another long time client as this could destabilize their relationship with their other existing clients.

While I got the phrase "less then $2 a ticket" I am also getting wind of $1 a ticket. Whatever the amount I see it as a real Hail Mary play in an effort to keep their other clients. Personally based on the sources I rate this information accurate enough to be beyond being a wild rumor.

**ifinditunderground** · January 28th, 2011, 06:57 PM

PL, go back and look at your first post.....from a grammar standpoint.

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 29th, 2011, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by ifinditunderground

PL, go back and look at your first post.....from a grammar standpoint.

Tired, in a hurry. But on the plus side I blended in with many of the other posts here.

**elvee** · January 30th, 2011, 09:24 PM

Is this for all of MD? Western shore? Eastern shore? Usually the contracts are separate.

**TheCableVine** · January 30th, 2011, 10:07 PM

LOL... at first I thought you were doing that thing where the words are scrambled except for the first and last letter.

Other than that I know nothing about the contract.

**OVUS1** · January 31st, 2011, 12:08 PM

And since Virginia UT picked up the Columbia Gas contract

UtiliQuest only picked up the western portion of Columbia Gas in Virginia that was previously located by Consolidated. All of the eastern CGV contract area was renewed with OneVision. Some of my employees read this and got a little nervous. We remain the vendor of choice for Columbia Gas in their eastern territory with a new contract signed last month.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify!