Australia’s excavation safety culture has come a long way since the mid-1980s. A pivotal moment, a serious bulldozer incident in 1984, spurred the creation of the Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service, which for decades provided a free referral system to prevent damage to underground infrastructure. This one-call service became ingrained in the industry, saving countless contractors from costly hits to water, gas, and telecommunication lines. Nearly forty years later, the familiar “Dial Before You Dig” has been rebranded as Before You Dig Australia (BYDA), marking a new chapter in damage prevention. This post explores why DBYD evolved into BYDA, what this change means for the excavation and utility locating industry today, and how Smartscan Locators’ services align with BYDA’s mission of improving excavation safety and preventing utility strikes.
Why Rebrand to Before You Dig Australia (BYDA)?
Several key reasons prompted the transformation of DBYD into BYDA, all rooted in modernising and strengthening Australia’s safe excavation practices:
- Unified National Organisation for Efficiency: Historically, “Dial Before You Dig” operated as separate state-based entities (six different regional call centers/businesses) delivering the same service across Australia. This fragmented model began causing inconsistent user experiences and operational inefficiencies. To “challenge the status quo” and streamline operations, the state and national DBYD boards agreed to merge into a single, unified not-for-profit organisation. By July 1, 2022, all states officially united under one banner, Before You Dig Australia, to deliver higher levels of efficiency and a consistent approach to damage prevention nationwide. Importantly, this change came with no disruption to the core free referral service that users rely on, but it positioned the organisation to respond faster and more consistently to the industry’s needs.
- Modernising the Approach (Dropping the “Dial”): The word “Dial” in DBYD harkened back to an era of telephone hotlines, but the way people access the service has evolved. Today’s contractors and excavators typically lodge inquiries online rather than making a phone call. In fact, DBYD had introduced a NextGen online referral system to make it “easier and more efficient to lodge an enquiry”, rendering the old “dial” terminology outdated. The rebranding to BYDA (which stands simply for “Before You Dig Australia”) reflects this digital shift. Instead of dialing a number, users now use an online portal to request information on underground assets at their excavation site. The name change helps drive home the modern message: check before you dig, whether via computer or mobile app, rather than the old notion of a phone call. By dropping the verb “Dial”, BYDA resonates better with younger tradies and the DIY community who expect digital convenience.
- Reinvigorating the Safety Mission: While the name and branding changed, the underlying mission remains as critical as ever: “Zero Damage, Zero Harm.” The consolidation and rebrand allowed BYDA to double down on this vision and re-emphasise the dangers of unsafe digging. There was concern that familiarity bred complacency, some workers assumed that hitting a pipe or cable was a minor inconvenience, not a life-threatening hazard. The BYDA launch came with fresh messaging to combat this complacency, reminding the industry that striking a high-pressure gas main or high-voltage cable could be catastrophic. In other words, Before You Dig Australia recommitted itself as a safety partner to the construction industry, promoting a culture where every excavation project, big or small, starts with proper planning and risk mitigation. The new branding, logo, and national awareness campaigns (like emotive advertising and on-site safety workshops) were designed to grab attention and reinforce the importance of using the service every time. Essentially, BYDA represents an evolution from a well-known phone service to a comprehensive national safety platform tailored for today’s needs, a “slight makeover” that keeps the service relevant to modern excavators while staying true to its core purpose.
Impact on the Excavation and Utility Locating Industry
The transition from DBYD to BYDA has had a significant impact on the excavation and underground utility locating industry. By creating a single national entity and updating its tools, BYDA has enhanced how industry professionals plan and perform digging work:
- Simplified Access to Vital Information: One immediate benefit of the change has been improvements in technology and access. BYDA invested in upgrading its behind-the-scenes systems, making the process of obtaining underground utility maps and safety information faster and simpler for end users. Through the BYDA online portal, contractors can now secure all relevant utility plans for their job site with just a few clicks, often within minutes, whereas older manual processes could be slower. This ease of access means less hesitation to check, even for small jobs, since getting free safety plans is practically hassle-free. As a result, more excavators are integrating BYDA inquiries into their standard workflow, treating it as the first step of any project (as it should be).
- Consistency and Confidence Across Regions: Under the old system, a contractor working across multiple states might have dealt with slightly different procedures or response times from various DBYD offices. Now, with BYDA’s consistent nationwide approach, the experience is uniform whether you’re digging in Sydney, Perth, or anywhere in between. Asset owners (utilities) and excavators are all plugged into one centralised system, which fosters clearer communication and expectations. This national consistency increases confidence in the accuracy and completeness of the information provided. In turn, utility locating professionals find it easier to coordinate with BYDA and asset owners, knowing the process is the same across Australia. The merged entity also means consolidated data and reporting, trends in near-misses or asset strikes can be tracked Australia-wide, helping the industry identify hotspots or training needs more effectively than when data was siloed by state.
- Greater Industry Engagement and Safety Awareness: The formation of BYDA has spurred more proactive engagement with the construction and civil works community. In the first year post-rebrand, BYDA’s national Damage Prevention Team dramatically increased outreach, conducting around 500 safety sessions nationwide for over 8,000 workers, and participating in 250 industry events reaching an estimated 31,000+ attendees. These sessions educate crews about safe excavation practices, the importance of using BYDA, and interpreting utility plans correctly. The increased outreach is paying off: BYDA handled 2,249,180 plan enquiries in one recent year, up by 55,000 from the previous year. This uptick suggests that more contractors and homeowners are using the service, which should correlate with fewer accidental utility strikes. In essence, the BYDA era is reinforcing a safety-first culture: checking for underground assets is becoming as routine as wearing a hard hat on site. The telecommunications sector, for example, has highlighted BYDA’s importance in avoiding costly cable cuts, a single incident can cut off services to entire neighborhoods and rack up huge repair bills. With BYDA making information readily available, such incidents are more preventable. Overall, the industry today operates with a heightened awareness that “Before you dig, you check BYDA”, it’s a mantra that is taking hold, resulting in safer excavation workflows across the country.
- Integration of Locating Services into the Process: Another notable impact is the emphasis on pairing information with action. BYDA doesn’t just stop at sending out utility plans; it actively promotes the next step of engaging professional locators for on-site verification. On the BYDA platform, after you receive your plans, you’re presented with an option to “find a skilled locator”, underlining that calling in locating experts is the “essential second step” in safe excavation. This integration has elevated the profile of the utility locating industry, making services like those of Smartscan Locators more vital than ever. There’s growing recognition that digital plans alone aren’t enough, to truly prevent strikes, you need experienced technicians to interpret those plans on the ground, use advanced tools (like ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic wands), and physically mark out the pipes and cables. By embedding locators into the process, BYDA has effectively created a more robust safety net: first, know what’s supposed to be below, then verify it in the field. This two-step approach has become a best practice standard in the industry, reducing the likelihood of errors due to incorrect maps or unknown assets. For utility locators, this means more work but also more appreciation for their specialised role. The overall result is a collaborative safety culture, BYDA provides the information, and certified locators ensure that information is correctly applied on-site, drastically reducing utility strike risks.
SmartScan Locators: Aligning with BYDA’s Mission of Safety
As a leading provider of underground service locating, Smartscan Locators has fully embraced the BYDA-led evolution in excavation safety. Our services and company is tightly aligned with BYDA’s mission to improve safety and prevent utility strikes, ensuring that projects are completed “Zero Damage, Zero Harm.” Here’s how Smartscan Locators supports and amplifies the BYDA vision:
- BYDA-Certified Expertise: SmartScan Locators is proud to be a BYDA Certified Locator, meaning our team and processes have met the rigorous standards set by Before You Dig Australia. Achieving BYDA certification involves comprehensive training in underground utility safety, from interpreting complex utility maps to mastering the latest locating equipment and techniques. This accreditation is a testament to our commitment to industry best practices. It assures clients that when Smartscan is on the job, we bring a nationally recognised level of knowledge and skill to the task of preventing underground damage. In fact, being BYDA certified is woven into the fabric of our operations, it’s not just a badge, but part of our company’s DNA in how we approach every locate job. With BYDA’s program now listing certified locating organisations (CLO’s) for excavators to trust, SmartScan’s inclusion in that list signals that we are “qualified and equipped to safely locate and work around underground utilities”. This aligns perfectly with BYDA’s goal of raising the bar for safety in the industry.
- Safety-First, Zero Strike Approach: Both BYDA and SmartScan Locators share a safety-first philosophy. BYDA’s free referral service provides the where and what of underground assets; Smartscan takes it a step further by ensuring those assets are physically identified and protected on-site. Our team uses advanced locating technologiess from electromagnetic induction scanners to ground penetrating radar, to detect and mark underground pipes, cables, and other utilities with precision. By doing so, we act on the information that BYDA supplies, translating digital plans into painted lines and flags on the ground that crews can see and avoid. This dramatically reduces the risk of accidental hits, protecting workers from injury and preventing costly damage to infrastructure. Our field experience has taught us that even with accurate plans, variations can occur (for example, depths or positions can slightly shift over time, unrecorded installations might exist, etc.). SmartScan’s job is to eliminate those uncertainties. We embody the BYDA mantra that “safety doesn’t live in a drawer, it lives on-site”, meaning we don’t just file away the utility plans; we actively use them to guide safe digging practices. By implementing thorough site scanning and adhering to safe excavation guidelines (like BYDA’s recommended “5Ps of Safe Excavation”), SmartScan ensures that the project proceeds without incident. Every cable spared and every pipe avoided is a direct win for BYDA’s vision of zero damage.
- Compliance and Professionalism: Operating in line with BYDA’s standards also means strict compliance with legal and regulatory requirements for excavation. SmartScan Locators stays up-to-date with national and local regulations governing underground work, a core aspect emphasised in BYDA’s locator certification. When we take on a job, clients can be confident that all our locating and potholing activities will meet the safety codes and duty-of-care obligations. This compliance focus protects our clients from potential fines or liabilities associated with utility strikes, echoing BYDA’s advice that hitting assets can carry heavy legal and financial consequences. Moreover, our status as a BYDA-certified locator instills client confidence. It serves as an independent endorsement of our professionalism and expertise, much like an ISO certification in other fields, showing that Smartscan’s processes are audited and trusted by Australia’s peak digging safety body. We often find that new customers approach us because they saw us listed as a recommended locator through the BYDA platform, or they specifically seek a BYDA-certified team to ensure their project’s safety. In this way, the BYDA initiative not only guides safe practices but also helps connect excavators with reliable locating professionals, creating a community of practice focused on preventing strikes.
- Contributing to a Safer Industry: SmartScan Locators views our role as part of something bigger, contributing to the overall safety culture that BYDA champions. Every successful locate and excavation job we complete without incident is a tangible contribution to the industry’s goal of zero harm. By consistently applying BYDA’s best-practice principles on the ground, we help reinforce those standards industry-wide. Our team regularly participates in safety training, workshops, and updates in collaboration with BYDA’s programs to ensure we remain at the forefront of damage prevention techniques. In turn, we share our on-site findings and experiences, which can help BYDA and asset owners improve their data and guidance. This feedback loop is important – for instance, if we discover an unlisted asset during a scan, we communicate that to the asset owner so future BYDA enquiries will have even more complete information. Through such collaboration, SmartScan supports BYDA not just by following its guidelines, but by actively advancing its mission. We take pride in being part of an industry community that looks out for one another, engineers, contractors, locators, and the BYDA organisation all working in concert to protect infrastructure and lives. Our “safety and precision are paramount” ethos mirrors BYDA’s, proving that when everyone does their part, excavation accidents can be drastically reduced.
The evolution from “Dial Before You Dig” to “Before You Dig Australia” symbolises more than a branding change, it reflects the maturing of Australia’s excavation safety culture. BYDA’s emergence has modernised how we approach digging projects, embedding the practice of checking and planning as an industry norm. The impact is evident in today’s worksites: obtaining underground service plans is easier and faster, awareness of excavation risks is higher, and collaboration between asset owners, contractors, and locators is stronger. As we’ve seen, companies like Smartscan Locators are key players in this evolved ecosystem. By aligning closely with BYDA’s mission, through certification, best practices, and a shared commitment to zero harm, Smartscan Locators not only reinforces its own expertise in underground service locating, but also helps lead the charge in preventing utility strikes. Together, BYDA and professional locators are ensuring that “before you dig” is more than a slogan; it’s a deeply ingrained habit that keeps people safe and infrastructure intact. And as technology and awareness continue to advance, Australia’s excavation safety culture will only grow stronger, one safe dig at a time.