I am very pleased to announce that last month we purchased a new ground penetrating radar unit. The IDS Opera Duo has just been released by the Italian manufacturer and we’re proud to be the first locators in Australia to have a 4-wheeled version of the unit.
The Opera has many great features, including dual frequency antennas, two encoders, adaptable configuration, intuitive interface and it can incorporate a GPS unit—but none of that really matters to you, the customer out in the field. The main feature you’ll be happy about is the new unit’s speedy set-up, which means you get results as soon as you start.
The addition of the new Opera unit to our existing GSSI radar means we are now one of few locating companies in Victoria able to offer a GPR unit on every single locating job we undertake. This will be a huge benefit to you.
As you may know GPR doesn’t always work well as it’s dependent on the soil conditions. But the mere fact we utilize a GPR unit on all our jobs gives you the added benefit of knowing that we’ve made every effort to locate as much as possible onsite, whether it be a conductive power cable or an ‘untraceable’ plastic water main. In other words, if we can’t find an underground utility with the traditional cable locator, we can still try to find it with the GPR. This can only be a bonus to our customers.
Our other piece of good news is that, although we have made a big investment in this newest available technology, the fact we now have a GPR in each vehicle means we’re actually able to eliminate the GPR hourly fee we used to charge when we had only one unit. This means that when we come out to your site and locate underground services for you, you’ll pay just the standard locating rate regardless of what gear we use.
We’re also working on some other exciting initiatives we think will really benefit our customers, but for now I’ll keep them under wraps until they’re finished and we’ve completed our testing to confirm they work well in the real world.
As always, if I can be of any assistance at all—be it to book in a locating job, or just help out with some advice in relation to locating underground cables and pipes—don’t hesitate to contact me.
Take care and kind regards,
Ben Minutoli
