Membership Agreement
The fee structure is set by the board of directors each year. The following are some statements of general knowledge about Mississippi 811, Inc.:
1. The utility owner/operator must furnish and maintain an automated method of receiving the line location information by Email, FTP site or FAX. After-hours emergency contact information must also be provided. The methods used must be accessible 24-hours a day.
2. The utility owner/operator will be responsible for supplying Mississippi 811, Inc. (MS811) the database (service areas in which buried lines or facilities exist) and for keeping the database updated (additions/deletions). Membership cannot be activated until database has been submitted. The database will be used by the MS811 computer system to determine if a member is to be sent a locate request message. In order for us to build your service area you will need to provide us with a digital copy (ArcView, AutoCAD, etc.), GPS readings or a paper map that has been marked to show all roads and/or areas where you have buried facilities. The service area is then created, by putting a minimum 400-ft. buffer around the area you have submitted as your underground lines. Please understand that there will be times when you will receive a locate message from the call center where excavation is taking place within 300 ft. of your service area. This is due to the fact that our system has a built-in 300 ft. buffer around our excavation marking tools. This has been built into the system as a precaution, due to possible inaccuracies in the map or an excavator supplying incorrect driving directions. However, if you feel that you have received a locate request that does not meet this scenario, please notify our mapping department. An annual update of each operator’s underground utility lines or underground facilities is mandatory.
3. Membership Fees: Annual billing is in November. This billing is based on actual tickets received from November 1 of the prior year to October 31 of the current year. (I.e., if the fee structure is $1.60 per message, a member that received 250 messages in a given year would then be billed $400.00.) For the 2010 billing period, the current rate per ticket is $1.61.
4. Between the hours of midnight and 3:00 am each day, the Mississippi 811, Inc. computer system will send your company what we call an “Audit” or “Good Morning Report”. This report is sent as a double check regarding your locate request messages because it lists the locate request number of each locate request that was sent to you the day before. You will need to check and make sure that you did receive all messages that were sent to you. If you did not receive a particular message, then you may notify us that you need it re-transmitted. This report will take place regardless of whether you did or did not receive any messages for the day before. If you choose to receive by FAX and your FAX machine is located in your home, you may want to choose another FAX number or an Email address to receive the audit report due to the late hours in which the report is sent.
5. “Working day” shall mean a twenty-four-hour period commencing from the time of receipt by Mississippi 811, Inc., of the notification in accordance with the law, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Upon receiving a locate request from Mississippi 811, Inc., you will be required, by law, to mark your underground facilities that are in the excavation area, indicated on the ticket, using stakes, paint, or other clearly identifiable materials. This is to show the field location of underground facilities in accordance with the current color code standard of the American Public Works Association. You may also uncover or expose the underground facilities so that the excavator may readily see their location. Some situations may require pointing out to the excavator of certain aboveground facilities such as, but not limited to, manhole covers, valve boxes, pipe risers and cable risers, which indicate the location of underground facilities. Markings must be accurate in one of three ways: (a) within eighteen (18) inches measured horizontally from both of the outside edges of an operator’s facility; (b) a strip of land eighteen (18) inches either side of the operator’s field mark; or (c) mark the width of the facility or line plus eighteen (18) inches on each side of the marked width of the facility or line. The markings provided by operators shall only be valid for a period of ten (10) working days from the proposed starting date provided to the nonmember operator(s) or Mississippi 811, Inc.
6. Every person owning or operating underground utility lines or underground facilities shall, upon receiving advance notice of the commencement of excavation, make an investigation within two (2) working days from the time notice is provided to determine the approximate location of its underground utility lines and underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation. All owners or operators shall either: (a) mark the approximate location of underground utility lines and underground facilities in or near the area of the excavation, so as to enable the person engaged in excavation work to locate the lines and facilities in advance of and during the excavation work; or (b) advise in writing or by telephone or electronic means that it has no underground utility lines or underground facilities in the excavation area. In lieu of such marking, the operator may request to be present at the site upon commencement of the excavation, so long as the operator complies within two (2) working days of the receipt of the notice. When an excavator, upon arriving at an excavation site, sees evidence of unmarked underground utility lines or underground facilities or encounters an unmarked underground utility line or underground facility on an excavation site after excavation has commenced, where notice of intent has been made, that excavator must immediately contact Mississippi 811, Inc. All operator(s) thus notified must contact the excavator within four (4) hours and inform the excavator of any of their known underground facilities, active or abandoned, at the site of excavation.
7. Your company is not a member of Mississippi 811, Inc. until the enclosed application and setup forms are completed and returned, database has been submitted and your company has approved the completed service area. Once we have built your service area, we will send you a copy of the service area along with a database agreement to sign. Once we receive your signed database agreement, we will activate your membership and call your company by telephone to confirm the activation and to verify that you have received a test ticket.
We have attempted to address questions that you might have regarding the fee structure, the call center operation and your membership responsibilities. However, please feel free to call Jessica McInnis or Fred Johnson at 601-362-4322 or Amanda Russell or Donna Germany at 601-368-1150 should you need additional information or if we can be of help in any way. We look forward to having you as a member of the Mississippi 811, Inc.
[NOTE: You might ask yourself one question - "How much does it cost to repair one break?"]
AUTHORIZATION TO TRANSMIT LOCATE INFORMATION
Mississippi 811, Inc. (“MS811”) provides member utility owner/operators with excavation information that is reported to MS811, in the form of a locate request. This document contains the terms and conditions upon which MS811 will provide such information to the member utility owner/operator as follows.
1. Service Area. A buffer distance specified by the member utility owner/operator (400 feet or larger) on the “Member Set-Up Form” or in writing, will be placed around the underground utilities/facilities reported by the member utility owner/operators. When an excavation is reported to MS811 that is within 300 feet of a member utility owner/operators’ service area, a locate request will be transmitted to those member utility owner/operators.
2. Locate Request Delivery. MS811 will deliver locate request information by the mode you specify in writing or on the “Member Set-Up Form”. When a locate request is sent by MS811 it enters an information processing system outside the control of MS811. MS811 SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOCATE REQUEST MESSAGES THAT FAIL TO REACH YOU. In addition, MS811 shall not be liable for any failure to send a message where such failure results from a cause beyond MS811’s reasonable control, including, without limitation, any equipment, communications, or power failure.
3. Audit Reports. MS811 will deliver an Audit Report by the same mode specified in writing or on the “Member Set-Up Form” for Locate Request Delivery. The report will be transmitted daily between the hours of midnight and 3:00 am. This report lists the locate request number of each locate request that was sent to you the day before. You will need to confirm that you did receive a complete copy of each of the locate request numbers listed. If you did not receive a particular message, then you may notify us that you need it re-transmitted. This report will take place regardless of whether you did or did not receive any messages for the day before.
4. Messages. MS811 may send out informative Messages by the same mode specified in writing or on the “Member Set-Up Form” for Locate Request Delivery. Messages are generally only sent once or twice a year and will be sent between the hours of 7:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday thru Friday. The messages will contain information such as, but not limited to, important MS811 system updates or MS811 events.
4. Modes of Delivery. The available modes in which MS811 can deliver your locate request information to you are as follows: (a) EMAIL – Address provided by your company. (b) FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – Site address, username and password provided by your company. (c) FAX – Number provided by your company. (d) TEXT MESSAGE – Cellular Phone number provided by your company. Your Cellular Carrier name is also required.
5. Normal Delivery. Normal Delivery shall mean the Email address, FTP site or FAX number that you instructed us to send your locate requests to on the “Member Set-Up Form” or in writing.
6. Text Message Delivery Restrictions. Text messages are limited to a minimum number of characters; therefore only partial locate request information can be sent by text message and is not a legal or binding document. Therefore you are required to receive a copy of the complete locate request information by Normal Delivery. Only Emergency and Short Notice locate request information will be sent by Text Message. The following locate request field information will be included in the text message, when supplied by the excavator: Ticket Number/Priority/ Contact Phone Number/Contact Name/Street or Address where excavation will take place/Nearest Town/County].
7. Emergency Message Delivery. You will be required to provide MS811 with an after hours emergency contact phone number for your company. We will contact the phone number provided, if an emergency locate request is reported to MS811 between the hours of 3:00 pm and 7 am, Mon. – Fri., 24 hours a day on weekends and MS811 observed holidays. In addition to this call, you will also be sent a copy of the emergency locate request by Normal Delivery.
8. Emergency/Short Notice Defined. “Emergency Ticket” shall mean locate tickets involving danger to life, health or property or a customer service outage. “Short Notice Ticket” shall mean only that the excavator has requested that the utility lines or facilities be marked prior to the standard 2 working days.
9. Change of Delivery. Any changes that you wish to make to the mode or time in which you receive your locate request information must be submitted to MS811 in writing at 5258 Cedar Park Dr, Suite H, Jackson, MS 39206 or gis@ms811.org.
10. Delivery Fees. Member may request any combination of receiving locate information at no additional charge with the exception of two or more FAX numbers for a single dispatch area. Then an additional $0.25 per locate, per additional FAX number will apply.
11. No Warranty. You understand that MS811 relies on maps and other location information provided by others that may contain errors or omissions. The services provided by MS811 are provided “as is” without any warranty of any kind, expressED or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose and merchantability. You are solely responsible for the interpretation and use of the information MS811 provides to you.
12. Limitation of Damages; Indemnification. MS811 shall not be liable for any special, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages arising from its provision of or failure to provide services to you, even if MS811 has been advised of the possibility of such damages. You shall indemnify, defend, and hold MS811 harmless from any and all claims, demands, actions, attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses based upon, or arising out of, any act or failure to act of MS811, its employees, subcontractors, or other agents while performing services for you, except to the extent such act or failure to act is attributable solely to MS811.
I AUTHORIZE MS811 TO PROVIDE LOCATION INFORMATION TO THE COMPANY LISTED BELOW, BY THE MODE I HAVE CHOOSEN ON THE “MEMBER SET-UP FORM OR BY THE MEANS THAT I HAVE SUBMITTED IN WRITING. I HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND THIS DOCUMENT AND AGREE TO ITS TERMS.
