Does Mastiff file the 811 ticket for me?
No. You call or file with your one-call center as you do today; Mastiff records what came back and tracks the timing. Filing is a legal notification to utility operators and it stays in your hands.
811 Locates
Know the ticket's good before the head touches dirt
Record what the one-call center issued and Mastiff works out the rest: your state's wait period, when the ticket becomes valid, and when it expires. The crew sees the status on the job before they start, and starting against a running wait asks once and puts the warning on the record.
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The problem
The wait period is on a sticky note
You called it in Tuesday. Is that two business days or two calendar days? Does the weekend count? Was that ticket fourteen days or twenty-one? Nobody's sure, so either the machine sits idle or it doesn't and everybody hopes. Hitting a line is the kind of mistake that ends operations.
Without Mastiff
- Ticket numbers on sticky notes, texts, and the back of a fuel receipt
- Wait periods counted wrong because the weekend got included
- Tickets quietly expiring mid-job with nobody watching the date
- The crew on site with no idea whether the locate came back clear
- Nothing on the record showing the ticket was checked, if it's ever asked
With Mastiff
- The wait period and ticket life computed from the customer's state
- Valid-from and expires-on dates derived, not typed and forgotten
- The status visible on the job and in the crew's hand on site
- A soft warning at timer start against a running wait or a dead ticket
- The warning logged server-side, so the check is on the record
- A conservative national default for states without a documented rule
How it works
From setup to done.
01
Call it in and record it
Once you have a ticket number from your one-call center, put it on the job with the date you requested it. That's the whole data-entry burden.
02
The window computes itself
Mastiff looks up your state's rule and works out when ground work may start and when the ticket dies — counting business days properly, weekends and holidays excluded where the state says so.
03
The crew sees the status
The work link carries the banner: amber means don't break ground yet, green is the quiet all-clear with its expiry date. No phone call to the office to find out.
04
Starting early asks first
If someone starts a timer against a running wait or an expired ticket, they get asked once and the warning is written to the record. It never blocks the tap.
Capabilities
Everything in the box.
State wait periods, counted correctly
Rules are held per state with the center's own name — Texas811, OKIE811 — and the wait counts business days where the state counts business days. Two days across a long weekend is not two days.
Ticket life tracked to expiry
Ticket validity runs from the request date and varies widely by state. Mastiff derives the expiry rather than storing a status somebody has to remember to refresh, so a ticket cannot read "clear" purely because nobody updated the row.
A soft gate, not a hard one
Starting work against a running wait warns once and continues. A crew that can't start over a data-entry gap stops using the app entirely — the liability story is served by the warning being on the record, not by locking the button.
Status in the field
The banner rides on the crew work link, where the decision to break ground actually gets made. The person on the machine sees it, not just the person in the office.
Conservative by default
States without a well-documented rule fall back to two business days and a fourteen-day ticket life — the short end, so the expiry warning fires early rather than late. Early and hedged is the safe direction for an advisory.
On the record
The ticket number, the request date, the derived window, and any override warning all live on the job. If it's ever questioned, the answer is on the record instead of in somebody's memory.
FAQ
Common questions.
Will it stop my crew from working?
No — it warns and logs, once. Blocking the timer would just mean the crew stops using the app on the day a ticket number was typed wrong, and then nothing is recorded at all. The warning on the record is what actually protects you.
What if my state isn't in the rules table?
It falls back to a conservative national default: two business days of wait and a fourteen-day ticket life, flagged as the default rule so you know to confirm the real numbers with your center. The default is deliberately short so warnings come early.
Is this legal advice?
No. One-call law varies by state and changes, and the rules here are an advisory built to make the timing visible — not a substitute for your obligations to your state's center. Confirm the wait and ticket life with them.
Put the locate on the job, not on a sticky note
Record the ticket once and let the wait period, the expiry, and the crew's warning take care of themselves.
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