Member Response Time extended to five business days

To All BC 1 Call Users and Members:

As of April 20, 2022, the four One Call organizations of Western Canada are implementing a five-day response time for large project tickets. This is the only exception to the three-day response turnaround time that members have committed to in the member’s agreement.

Large projects continue over a significant area and length of time, making them more complex for BC 1 Call members to assess and respond to than other locate request tickets. In order to ensure that members have sufficient time to provide accurate, quality responses to large project tickets, the response time has been extended to five business days, from the usual three.

Providing BC 1 Call members with up to five business days to respond benefits both members and users of BC 1 Call. Accurate, quality responses to locate requests by members was deemed critical to the overall value of BC 1 Call’s service through responses given in the 2021 user and member surveys. 

Actual response times may vary. The obligation of responding to locate requests rests solely with the owners or operators of infrastructure who are BC 1 Call members, and some may respond in a timeframe required by regulation or legislation that overrides the BC 1 Call response requirement.


What is a large project?

A large project is defined as a 60,000m2-800,000 m2 dig site area in a civic setting or an 800,000 m2-4,200,000m2 area in a rural setting. 

For more information on how to correctly use the large project function click here.


How will this change affect me as a user?

Users should no longer plan or expect responses to their large project ticket within the standard three business day period. Instead, plan for a response time of five working days, and include a job start date of at least five days after the request submission date.

It is recommended that your project plan templates reflect this new response period to ensure that your timelines and dependencies take it into account to avoid surprises mid-project.


How will this change affect me as a member?

The BC 1 Call system of initial notifications and reminders for large tickets will be based on the five day response allowance. Each member should update all policies, procedures and templates pertaining to large project tickets to align with the new rule change (subject to regulatory overrides).

If you have any questions, please contact:  info@bc1c.ca