Methods, apparatus and systems for ensuring wage and hour compliance in locate operations
First Claim
1. An apparatus for controlling at least one piece of locating equipment used by a locate technician to perform a locate and/or marking operation so as to automatically ensure wage and hour compliance with a regulatory standard, the apparatus comprising:
- a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and
at least one processing unit communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions, the at least one processing unit;
A) generates at least one control signal to at least partially enable or disable the at least one piece of locating equipment based at least in part on;
a time clock status of the locate technician; and
/orwage and hour compliance information associated with the regulatory standard, the regulatory standard being applicable to
1) the locate technician and/or
2) a geographic location of the work site,wherein;
the enabling or disabling of the at least one piece of locating equipment in A) is performed to ensure compliance with the regulatory standard; and
the locate and/or marking operation comprises detecting and/or marking a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Control of locating equipment used by a locate technician to perform a locate and/or marking operation to detect and/or mark a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site (e.g., locate receivers, locate transmitters, marking devices and/or combined locate and marking devices) is based on time-keeping information associated with the technician and/or wage and hour compliance information. In one example, one or more control signals are generated to at least partially enable or disable one or more piece of locating equipment based at least in part on a time clock status of the locate technician (e.g., clocked-in or clocked-out), and/or wage and hour compliance information associated with the locate technician and/or the work site (e.g., relating to required breaks and/or maximum number of work hours).
184 Citations
41 Claims
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1. An apparatus for controlling at least one piece of locating equipment used by a locate technician to perform a locate and/or marking operation so as to automatically ensure wage and hour compliance with a regulatory standard, the apparatus comprising:
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a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and at least one processing unit communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions, the at least one processing unit; A) generates at least one control signal to at least partially enable or disable the at least one piece of locating equipment based at least in part on; a time clock status of the locate technician; and
/orwage and hour compliance information associated with the regulatory standard, the regulatory standard being applicable to
1) the locate technician and/or
2) a geographic location of the work site,wherein; the enabling or disabling of the at least one piece of locating equipment in A) is performed to ensure compliance with the regulatory standard; and the locate and/or marking operation comprises detecting and/or marking a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A computer-implemented method, performed using a computer system comprising a memory to store processor-executable instructions and at least one processing unit communicatively coupled to the memory, for controlling at least one piece of locating equipment used by a locate technician to perform a locate and/or marking operation so as to automatically ensure wage and hour compliance with a regulatory standard, the method comprising:
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A) in a first computer process performed by the processing unit, monitoring a time clock status of the locate technician and/or wage and hour compliance information associated with the regulatory standard, the regulatory standard being applicable to
1) the locate technician and/or
2) a geographic location of the work site; andB) in a second computer process performed by the processing unit, generating at least one control signal to at least partially enable or disable the at least one piece of locating equipment based at least in part on A); wherein the enabling or disabling of the at least one piece of locating equipment is performed to ensure compliance with the regulatory standard; and wherein the locate and/or marking operation comprises detecting and/or marking a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processing unit, perform a method for controlling at least one piece of locating equipment used by a locate technician to perform a locate and/or marking operation so as to automatically ensure wage and hour compliance with a regulatory standard, the method comprising:
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A) monitoring a time clock status of the locate technician and/or wage and hour compliance information associated with the regulatory standard, the regulatory standard being applicable to
1) the locate technician and/or
2) a geographic location of the work site; andB) generating at least one control signal to at least partially enable or disable the at least one piece of locating equipment based at least in part on A); wherein the enabling or disabling of the at least one piece of locating equipment is performed to ensure compliance with the regulatory standard; and wherein the locate and/or marking operation comprises detecting and/or marking a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site.
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Specification