Pipe and cable locating is an important part of everyday life in the construction industry.  We are here to locate and protect underground assets from damage mainly caused by excavation and erosion.  When damaged, these assets can cause a minor or major impact on our day to day life.  From a minor loss of communication or water,  to  a major environmental catastrophe or death.  In early times, radio detection was considered the best way to locate mainly communications and power and over the last 7 years we have seen a large increase in the amount of untraceable assets emerging (Optic Fibre, HDPE, Hobas) so Locators are taking advantage of more advanced and accurate technology such as Ground Penetrating Radar and Sonding equipment to help find these assets.  Because of the massive infrastructure upgrades over the last 5 years the Pipe and Cable locating industry is slowly becoming a recognised stand alone industry and driving this industry in QLD is 1300LOCATE.

Even though 1300LOCATE team members have industry experience and background and use the most up to date equipment this still does not guarantee all utilities will be found, there are thousands of utilities in the ground that are abandoned, not mapped and not on plans that will not be located during a routine inspection, these are the utilities that cause the most grief on a job site and there are a number of reasons these utilities won’t be found with the technology currently being used.

If utility owners (especially communications owners, consultants and councils) became more vigilant and used more advanced technologies, our underground utilities networks would be easier to locate and a lot of the problems currently being encountered would be eliminated in the future.

It is for this reason that you need to choose your cable locating company wisely, as there have been a number of new cable locating companies that have emerged over the last 5 years and it is these companies that will cost you money, time and headaches and you will be left high and dry.  Cable locating is not a trade that can be learnt over night, it takes years of industry experience with a wide variety of different types of experience to produce a professional cable locator.  The equipment they use is a small part of the overall picture, so when ordering a locator ask a few simple questions;

• Industry experience of employees or the individual
• Does the company have accrediations to perform the tasks
• Are they insured (professional indemnity and public liability)
• Referees or the name of someone they have performed work for in the past
• Do they have the equipment necessary to perform the task
• Do they follow safe work practices and use method statements
• Do they guarantee the work
• Do you get your money's worth

Asking these questions will save you time, money, headaches, site problems damaged utilities etc. So be sure and do your homework.

1300LOCATE team members all have experience in Civil, Construction, Drainage and utilities and are trained under the strict 1300LOCATE training method.  All of our team members have a set format to follow when locating underground utilities, and are regularly audited on site to ensure they follow this format, they also undergo refresher training up to 3 times a year to make sure they are at their peak.  All of our team members are fully accredited to perform the works and all have defensive driving accreditations for off road locating.

You can be absolutely certain if your using 1300LOCATE your using one of the most experienced teams in Australia.