It's a nightmare honestly, because the primes and companies don't care about reason and logic. They only look at cost, and think they're spending too much to have things buried.
I've been calling and asking questions since I started, trying to get clear answers on what's what. It seems the insurance companies are the best to ask, because they deal primarily with damages and who's responsible. 811 is a joke?! They don't enforce anything on the large companies, just the little guy!
The pay keeps going down, while travel, requirements, and cost increase! The requirements require larger, more costly machines. Maintenance on these machines isn't cheap! It's like they don't understand it's EARTH lol! The brand is irrelevant, it will break! I purchase top of the line tools and equipment, and that isn't cheap! Milwaukee tools, Ditch Witch, etc.
They want us to spot dig utilities, and go under them with the coax line at 1ft. They've also said just cut through irrigation and repair it at our expense! That one pissed me off, because that's not my property to just do that! Customers understand accidents, and we fix those. They don't understand negligence and blatant disregard!
Then we can barely get things located properly, or at all sometimes. Spray painting the water meter box that I can clearly see on my own, isn't telling me anything useful. I also bury irrigation and other utilities, and if it isn't marked I'm going to hit it at 2 or 3ft! Then there's the waiting for some hourly guy to show up, and the back and forth of who's responsible. Nothing but cost on my part.
Trying to do a good job is hard as ever when everyone's shady as ever. No wonder we are having so many issues as a country. Cost of living outpaces income by leaps and bounds, and we're forced into basically slavery. When you're passionate about what you do, it drives you insane to be dealing with nonsense so often.
