Have a Sewerage Problem? Call 811 and Work with Roto-Rooter
RotoRooter guest blog:
Scott Finley
Texas811 media and PR manager
…And Away Go Troubles, Down the Drain!
Everyone knows the Roto-Rooter® jingle. And everyone wants to see their troubles go down the drain!
Normally, when you dial 8-1-1 to get a utility locate, you have to wait up to 48 hours for the service to be completed. But – there are times when you just don’t have 48 hours, and neither does your customer.
Let’s face it – it’s tough for a company as large and busy as Roto-Rooter trying to explain to a customer without service or with sewage running into the street or their yard that it’s going to take 48 hours to get lines located. “Well,” the customer will say, “this is obviously my sewage line that’s causing the problem, what’s the difficulty?”
The difficulty, of course, is illustrated by this illustration from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the major natural gas and oil pipelines in the United States. Hazardous liquid lines are in red, gas transmission lines in blue.
The map illustrates about 2.5 million miles of buried pipeline. Not seen are the who knows how many miles of smaller feeder lines, communications conduits, electrical cables, sewer lines, water lines – you name it – that are running through, around and under residential and business sites.
A Roto-Rooter customer, though, only sees that they’ve got a problem, and Roto-Rooter has to fix it. Pronto.
Roto-Rooter’s sewer solutions specialist can still provide the service customers have come to depend on from Roto-Rooter, AND play it safe at the same time.
Every state’s 811 call center has some form of Emergency Ticket that will get a work area marked as soon as possible so Roto-Rooter can begin repairs.
In Texas, an Emergency Ticket must meet these criteria: The State of Texas defines an Emergency Excavation as one involving danger to life, health or property. Does the work meet that criteria?
Roto-Rooter representatives should check with their local 811 notification center for the specific requirements for requesting an emergency locate request in the area.
Roto-Rooter employees should never put themselves or their customers’ lives and property at risk, or make a bad situation worse, by blind digging. Always call 8-1-1 first. Then the entire Roto-Rooter team, from the local office to the corporate headquarters to the crew at the excavation site can all join in the customer’s chorus:
¯ “And away go troubles, down the drain!” ¯
Texas811 is, first and foremost, a damage prevention company. We serve over 1,400 member utilities and municipalities in Texas, and in 2014 processed 2,629,287 inbound ticket requests by sending out 14,045,818 notifications to utilities and municipalities for line locates.
We’re glad to be serving Roto-Rooter® in Texas, too!