Change Your Approach - A new weapon in the war against unlicensed and unpermitted works in the road right of way.
Change Your Approach - A new weapon in the war against unlicensed and unpermitted works in the road right of way.
Hear how one City improved visibility of street works and dramatically improved their permit response time from 10 business days to just 48 hours!
Challenges:
- Asset protection department lacking visibility around works being done by contractors within the road reserve
- Manual, resource intensive process for Permit Applications regarding these works meant projects were often commenced without the awareness of the City
- Lack of notice by contractors of actual work being performed
- High road reinstatement costs due to undocumented works
- No integration with the local 811 centers
With a road network of over 1,050 miles, servicing a population of 155,000 residents, the local City of Mornington Peninsula was receiving on average 800+ 811 One Call inquiries per month. As an existing PelicanCorp partner, Mornington Peninsula were automating their ticket screening and response process via automation using TicketAccess, and in a huge step forward to complete the overall automation revolution of their damage prevention processes they became the first City to implement PermitAccess.
Whether you manage a small regional shire or a large inner city council, the road opening permit application process presents a complex set of challenges to any local government organisation. Yet, every day, asset managers are tasked with keeping track of permit applications and being aware of who is working within their locally managed road reserves. Not only are they expected to know who is working where and when but are required to manage the process in an efficient, timely and cost-effective manner. With the volume of public works levels increasing at the most rapid rate seen in the past decade it can often feel as if they must achieve the un-achievable, with less resources than ever before.
Solution:
PermitAccess is the end-to-end cloud solution for applicants and Permit Authorities to apply for, review and approve permit requests by combining and automating the processes with the submission of a One Call inquiry and applying for a Permit.
“When processing over 10,000 One Call tickets per annum, we knew there were many permit applications we were missing. Whilst this has implications for revenue, our primary interest was in gaining an awareness of the works potentially affecting council property and the benefits this knowledge would provide. Our planning departments were often in the dark with respect to works that could affect our region” said Cameron Cantley-Smith, Asset Protection Officer - Service Authorities at Mornington Peninsula.
The manual process in place meant that permit applications could take up to an average of 10 working days to process. “After investigating PermitAccess with PelicanCorp, who we already had a trusted partnership with, we realised the ability to automate would not only ensure all projects followed the correct permit procedure, but that we would have far greater awareness and save time and resources” said Cameron.
Cameron then explained that “The team at PelicanCorp worked with us to configure PermitAccess to suit our local permitting requirements and business workflows. Contractors using the 811 service for asset plan locations now automatically have their permit applications delivered to MP.”
“The team are then able to communicate with the contractors, to invoice them online for their permit, and once payment has been received send the permit. The contractor can then advise the City of when they commence and complete their works. This enables us to be able to go out on site and confirm the works were done to the cities satisfaction” said Cameron.
Outcome:
- Contractors planning works within the City area can now access their systems and information far more effectively, allowing greater productivity and efficiency
- Reduced a previous average of 10 business days turnaround time for a permit to now usually achieved within 48 hours
- Far greater visibility across all works conducted within the road reserve. Through close monitoring of activities, it enables the City to rectify any issues that may occur, saving time, resources and costs
Cameron went on to say “This gives contractors the confidence to walk away from a project knowing it has been completed to our satisfaction. Contractors can now access our systems and information much quicker. What was previously an average of 10 business days turnaround time for a permit can now usually be achieved within 48 hours.”
PermitAccess also provides MP with a range of features not seen by other cities manually processing requests. The online service gives both MP staff and contractors logging in the ability to generate reports on activity, pay for permits online, do an accurate map view of the location of each permit application and see a full audit trail of applications recorded in the system.
Cameron summarised that “We are incredibly positive and excited about the enhancements PermitAccess from PelicanCorp have brought to MP as an organization. As part of our corporate ‘digital transformation’ it is important that we stay on the forefront of being adopters of technology that can really revolutionize the way forward.”