Whats going on with consolidated and usic merger?

**mikeinnella** · October 1st, 2011, 11:51 AM

Wondering if anybodys head anything yet. they made north texas certify on gas..AGAIN...Usic is not saying nothing to the locators...

**Goldenboy** · October 1st, 2011, 03:28 PM

In Wisconsin I believe everything has been totally merged over 3 weeks ago.

**paintitnow** · October 1st, 2011, 08:45 PM

I have heard of trimming of locators in some states. getting rid of low production, locators with damages or accidents

**sprayandpray** · October 1st, 2011, 11:09 PM

I heard that a meeting at USIC corporate sometime near the end of October would finalize all details.

**octavian** · October 2nd, 2011, 09:39 AM

In Iowa the merger has already taken place, there are some differences between how the Iowa and Illinois side bill clients and what utilities they are responsible for. But, I believe that varies from state to state anyway.

**The Big-E** · October 4th, 2011, 06:21 PM

In the sunshine state it's all complete... and to tell the truth.. Consolidated people came out a hell of a lot better than the USIC guys...

Out crew went from 9 USIC guys to 10 CUS guys and 6 USIC guys...

**sprayandpray** · October 4th, 2011, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by The Big-E

In the sunshine state it's all complete... and to tell the truth.. Consolidated people came out a hell of a lot better than the USIC guys...

Out crew went from 9 USIC guys to 10 CUS guys and 6 USIC guys...

What happened to the other 3 USIC guys?

**Bad Robot** · October 5th, 2011, 03:37 PM

Most likely they were more expensive than the other guys. That seems to be the plan of action for 2011 from what I've been able to gather. Next your medical, dental and other insurance will go up. And finally, they will get rid of as many guys who are making over a couple of bucks over their entry wage as they can. All of these equity outfits run the same plays over and over and over etc. Good luck fellas!

**The Big-E** · October 5th, 2011, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by sprayandpray

What happened to the other 3 USIC guys?

They got let go for BS reasons... in my opinion...
Probably because they were up in the payscale like Bad Robot mentioned...
They will be down to 5 USIC guys after next week... stay tuned

**why r u on my property** · October 8th, 2011, 10:37 PM

Production...production...production...that's the Consolidated way. Check out their quality, especially in places where you gotta slang paint. Not impressed! Push production n you get garbage quality. It's not rocket science.

**Paint'n & Flag'n** · October 9th, 2011, 08:32 AM

From my understanding CUS does push quantity over quality. They feel that the amount of tickets completed will out weigh the cost of damages therefore making a profit. From what I hear this has worked for them. They focus on more demanding tickets rather than worrying with lot/drop tickets and if something does happen to get cut...drop or small 25/50 pr they will have made enough to cover the damage with the mass amount of bs tickets that were billed out.

Wonder what their damage policy reads like?

There sorta doing the "get what you paid for" scenario.

This is whats been discussed around the campfire and what Ive heard from other CUS guys.

**Bad Robot** · October 9th, 2011, 10:33 AM

They are a seamless fit with USIC then. These guys are all playing the same game now. Go to your projects, bore tickets and anything heavy. Bill out all of your non-critical tickets so the company can maximize the daily billing. The problem with this is real easy to see if you work in the field.:

You have locators that have worked for many seasons that cannot really locate.

The one call system has to run damage pages all day and night for tickets that no one every went to, clogging the system and wasting the time of many people, not just the offending company.

Every excavator worth his salt knows that your people are just playing a numbers game and your company doesn't take any of this seriously. This hampers your qualified techs in the field that actually know what they are doing.

And finally, you are thouroughly ripping off the customer who still believes you are servicing their contract to the best of your ability.

American know how at it's best.

**cableunderground** · October 10th, 2011, 07:59 AM

Ripping off your customer? Really? Didn't they create the scenario?

**The Big-E** · October 10th, 2011, 12:21 PM

The only thing good that can come from this merger, in my opinion, is that they have better leverage to renegotiate better contracts with the major customers like Verizon and AT&T... so that we as locators can actually do quality locates in a "REALISTIC" time frame... until that happens, it is all shortcuts and a numbers game...

**HalfTracK** · October 11th, 2011, 04:54 PM

From what im seeing on the East coast as far as Verizon they are going single source..

As far as Consolidated & USIC in Virginia.. they started their first week on the USIC payroll last friday.. Still in Consolidated cars and what not though..