On January 24, 2024, Before You Dig Partners is implementing improvements to the locate ticket software. These improvements include changes to the outbound ticket that's sent to facility owners / locators in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The changes to outbound tickets are described below under Legal Grid Grouping and New Ticket Field. The rest of the outbound ticket will remain the same as it is now.
Legal Grid Grouping
Legal Land Descriptions in the LandGrids field will be grouped by section. Whenever the mapped work area on a ticket includes multiple quarter sections within the same section, the quarter sections will be grouped together.
In the XML ticket format, grouped quarter sections will look like this:
<onecall:LandGrids>NE-NW-SE-SW-01-01-01-W4,NE-SE-02-01-01-W4</onecall:LandGrids>
In the PDF ticket format, grouped quarter sections will look like this:
New Ticket Field
A new checkbox for Alberta's Alternate Locate Provider program will be included on the outbound ticket (ALPOption). The ALPOption checkbox will only be available on Alberta tickets, but the output field will be visible on all tickets in BC, AB, SK, and MB.
In BC, SK, and MB:
The output field will be visible. It will always read 'false' on the XML output and 'no' on the readable text format since this program is not available in BC, SK, or MB.
In AB:
Excavators will check the ALPOption checkbox if they choose to hire a certified locator to complete the locates instead of waiting for the utility-provided locator. Not all utilities are participating in this program. If the excavator checks the checkbox, the XML output will read ‘true’ and the readable text format will read ‘yes’. If the excavator does not check the checkbox, the XML output will read ‘false’ and the readable text format will read ‘no’.
In the XML ticket format, the ALPOption field will look like this:
<onecall:ALPOption>false</onecall:ALPOption>
In the PDF ticket format, the ALPOption field will look like this: