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to the one call industry specifically for the protection of essential infrastructure . Its team has over 40 years of experience working with utilities , one call operations and local authorities , helping to provide efficient software solutions to increase awareness , improve information exchange and to reengineer processes to deliver day-to-day benefits to the industry . Its unique technology platforms are developed through extensive industry knowledge and market experience . With customers around the world , it uses its own platform of products to deliver global services including LSBUD .
Multiple benefits
Fisher German LLP , LSBUD ’ s other parent company , is a leading national firm of chartered surveyors and specialist property consultants . It has offered professional services and support in all aspects of land and property management for over 170 years . The firm has been involved in the provision of advice to the utility and infrastructure sector for over 30 years and is proud of creating the original innovative www . linesearch . org service . “ We started off as an organisation that mainly looked after transmission networks ,” Richard continues , “ and have evolved to work with all sorts of different asset owners . Our largest network partners operate hundreds of thousands of kilometres . Over the years , the number of people using the services has really grown . We ’ ve seen considerable growth in the householder and agricultural sectors , for example . So , in terms of volume , we ’ re now at 52 percent higher than we were five years ago . When we started , I was tasked with writing a business plan with an ambition to get over two million searches . At the time , I remember thinking it was an audacious target but we ’ re now at almost four million .”
LSBUD ’ s service protects over two million kilometres of national infrastructure by responding to more than 3.9 million third party user enquiries each year . With over
60 per cent , and rising , of the UK ’ s utility infrastructure protected by LSBUD , it is firmly established as the nation ’ s safe digging service . With more than 160 members already registered , its collaborative approach enables safe digging for all . LSBUD is designed to be used by anyone that needs to know where utility assets are to work safely . Works can be of any scale from a highway scheme to simply replacing a garden fence . With 290,000 registered users , and 4000 more signing up every month , there is no other solution that can provide the same level of reach as LSBUD . The combined asset network includes gas transmission and distribution networks , electricity transmission and distribution networks , water and sewerage networks , high pressure hydrocarbon pipelines , fibre optic cable networks and district heating networks .
Members can secure their assets by gaining greater understanding of who is working near their network . Likewise , users can access information more quickly and easily . This visibility reduces unplanned interruptions and customer lost minutes . The platform helps to improve service resilience with reduced repairs and downtime , and fewer administrative resources are needed to respond to enquiries . Collectively , membership facilitates reduced risk to workers , improved productivity , faster roll out of major programmes and demonstrates pro-active encouragement of safe digging practices through collaboration .
Increasing collaboration
Digging up Britain 2024 , the UK ’ s safe digging industry report by LSBUD , is the seventh edition , documenting the latest trends , hot topics and data from all the groundwork taking place across the UK last year . “ With greater awareness around digging safety than ever before ,” Richard explains , “ it ’ s reassuring to see that 2023 was the safest year on record for the digging community , achieving the highest number of underground asset
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