The Legend of Texas811
Texas Excavation Safety System, Inc. (Texas811), a private non-profit corporation, was organized in 1982-1983. At the time, there was no statewide one-call organization in Texas.
Texas811 was incorporated in January 1984, and after a lengthy period of fundraising, the call center opened for business in September 1987.
Texas is the only state in which the one call business is competitive. When the “one call law” went into effect in 1998, there were 3 centers in operation: Lone Star Notification, Texas One Call, and TESS. All three centers were comparable in size and scope, with approximately 130 facility operators and taking about 200,000 calls per year.
In 1997, Texas811 formed a new corporation, Progressive Partnering, Inc. (P2), with Tennessee811, Arkansas One-Call System and Mississippi811. P2 developed GeoCall, a one-call operating system with integrated GIS mapping. This platform is currently used in 11 one-call centers: Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia; and by GulfSafe, the first offshore “one call” system.
In 2010, the GeoCall platform processed over 25% of the locate requests in the United States.
Since 1998, the growth of Texas811 (formerly TESS) has outstripped its Texas competitors. Texas One Call ceased operation in 2010. In 2011, Texas811 has processed 80% of the total inbound requests in Texas, operates centers in South Dakota and West Virginia, and provides services in Minnesota as well.
