We are a service company dedicated to minimizing utility service interruptions, reducing on-the-job injuries and deaths, promoting a higher level of public safety and protecting the environment.

Since its inception in 1972, Pennsylvania One Call System has increased its membership from 6 utilities in one county to over 3,760 underground facility owner/operators in all 67 counties from the following industries: cable television, electric, gas, propane, Marcellus shale, pipeline, sewer, telecommunications, telephone, water and government, including state, county, city, borough, townships of the 1st class, townships of the 2nd class, and municipal authorities.  Members also include private master meter companies, manufactured housing communities, and private entities, such as schools, hospitals, manufacturing sites, and others owning underground facilities which cross public roads.

The organization incorporated 4/6/1978.

Use of the service increased from 389 work location requests the first year, to a record breaking 1,020,498 notifications in 2023.

The company can be reached using the national call before you dig number of 8-1-1 or through its toll free telephone number 800-242-1776 by anyone requesting location of underground lines prior to digging.  The service is available 24 hours per day, every day of the year. Information is obtained from the person planning or scheduling excavation or demolition.  In addition to phoning the call center, users with credentials that have passed the Web Ticket Entry training may enter their dig notices via our website www.paonecall.org . The collected data is referred to as a Work Location Request, ‘Dig Notice’ or ‘Ticket’.  After creation of a dig notice, a ticket confirmation, which is a copy of the ticket, is sent to users and to callers who provide their email address or fax number.  The emailed ticket confirmation includes a hyperlink to the map graphic of the work site.

Whether the notice information is gathered by phone or entered via the web, it is disseminated to underground facility owner/operators via email, fax, XML, or Webview.  Facility owners have the option to request voice relay to their emergency personnel outside normal business hours when requested.  

Additionally, for emergency tickets, facility owners may request to receive a text notification when an emergency ticket is sent to their designated receiving email address.  The system accepts automated responses from facility operators and relays them to the excavator or designer through our KARL system.

Members are required to “register” their underground facility locations by providing us with a list of municipalities in which their lines are located.  Electronic “member mapping” service became a requirement for all members beginning in 2018.  It allows members to define polygonal notification areas, with adjustable buffers, to reduce the number of non-involved dig notices they receive.  Members with internal GIS or CAD systems can upload their shapefiles into the system.  This saves members time and money, as they do not need to research or respond to dig notices outside their mapped service territory.  Persons reporting planned excavation also benefit from our electronic mapping as they can draw a polygon to delineate the proposed excavation area, notifying only the members within the drawn polygon.

 

Coordinate PA is the project and coordination tool for utility and public works project planning and coordination within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Coordinate PA was developed by Pennsylvania 811, is web based, and easy to use.  It provides a spatial, map-based look at underground utility and public works projects to help identify opportunities for coordination and collaboration when projects overlap in space and overlap in time. Planning is the first step in effective damage prevention efforts.  From within the Coordinate PA portal, the next two steps in damage prevention can be initiated:

Design notifications.The Design Drawing Exchange portal, launched in early 2012, to allow designers to electronically share geo-registered pdfs with member facility owners, saving time, paper, and postage, has been augmented with the Coordinate PA functionality. With a new release, the Drawing Exchange portal is now located in Coordinate PA.

Coordinate PA is the project and coordination tool for utility and public works project planning and coordination within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Coordinate PA was developed by Pennsylvania 811, is web based, and easy to use.  It provides a spatial, map-based look at underground utility and public works projects to help identify opportunities for coordination and collaboration when projects overlap in space and overlap in time.  Planning is the first step in effective damage prevention efforts.  From within the Coordinate PA portal, the next two steps in damage prevention can be initiated:

1. Design notifications.  Design tickets can be created from within the Coordinate PA portal and allows for the electronic exchange of drawing data.
2. Complex Projects. Coordinate PA is the mechanism to use for defining a project, requesting a complex project pre-construction meeting, creating phases, adding meeting participant contact information, uploading meeting notes and other documents, and creating routine excavation tickets.  Routine tickets created from the project are associated with the project by reference, tying all related documentation together.

Education and Public Awareness are a critical part of the service we provide. Educational programs, Act 287 compliance training, and Safety presentations are offered targeting facility owners, designers, excavators, and locators.

We strongly believe that early utility coordination is an important component of damage prevention, and devote resources to starting, building, contributing and maintaining thirty-four (34) active Utility Coordination Committees (UCC) throughout the Commonwealth.  These committees also provide the Liaison an opportunity to educate the committee members on POCS’s products and services, and new developments with POCS’s ticket management applications.  In 2023, there were 1,431 attendees at 46 UCC meetings.
 
Education and Public Awareness are a critical part of the service we provide. Educational programs, Act 287 compliance training, and Safety presentations are offered targeting facility owners, designers, excavators, and locators.
 
In 2023, there were 323 combined virtual and live session for 10,343 attendees.  The DPLs participated in 690 meetings with 6,700 attendees.
 
In 2023, there were 323 combined virtual and live sessions for 10,343 attendees.  The DPLs participated in 690 meetings with 6,700 attendees. Five Safety Day events were held across the Commonwealth with a total attendance of 2,075.
 
We conduct public awareness programs to promote safe digging practices within the commonwealth through billboards, email marketing ads (direct and retargeting), social media, TV ads, radio ads, our YouTube channel, and a Digital Marketing Plan with Audacy targeting specific consumers based on their characteristics, behavior, lifestyle, demographics, and interests. Additional homeowner outreach is done via postcards.  Outreach to rental companies is done to educate those renting powered equipment on the importance of contacting 811 before starting their projects and includes participating in grand opening at Lowe’s tools center and POCS keychains on Lowe’s equipment keys. High damage rate counties continued to be targeted with POCS billboards. We leverage joint awareness efforts through partnerships with our members at minor league baseball games and 811 Popper Ads.  as well as outreach to our state officials, i.e., Senate, House, Governor, County Commissioners, and local government entities, who in turn give us proclamations to support our efforts and the communication service.
 
To promote the safe digging and the 811 brand, POCS uses Common Ground Alliance toolkits and infographics. These materials are published to our social media channels. POCS promoted the national outreach campaigns for:  safety is in your hands every dig, every time; how excavators can help; a single dig can be a matter of life or death; who is responsible to notify 811; use white lining when outlining your proposed worksite; complex projects; protect underground lines; and safe digging steps.
 

We support the CGA national 811 awareness efforts in conjunction with other one call centers and stakeholders, by participating when Pennsylvania professional teams play on August 11^th. In 2023, the campaign used 811 assets across 15 games played on August 11^th which included the Minnesota Twins vs. Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds vs. Pittsburgh Pirates.

Educational videos are published and available on our website at www.pa1call.org/videos

Pennsylvania One Call System serves all 67 counties and employs over 80 people.

Pennsylvania One Call System, Inc. is incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and registered as a non-profit corporation under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code. A 35 member Board of Directors governs the organization.  The composition of the Board includes representation from the following industries:  Electric, Gas (including an owner or operator associated with Conventional oil and gas wells and a facility owner representative of a pipeline associated with Unconventional oil and gas wells), Municipal, Pipeline, Telecommunications, Telephone, Water, Cable Television, Associate, Excavator, Designer, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Transportation. William G. Kiger, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the corporation.

Funding of the company has come from notification service fees to members.  Increased revenues from growth are used to offset operating expenses.  A lesser amount comes from collection of excavator fees.  The excavator fees are used to offset the cost of membership for municipalities and municipal authorities, to offset certain company operational costs, and to partially fund the PUC enforcement effort.