LSBUD – Laura’s 2023 Round Up
As we start the new year, I thought it would be nice to focus on what a fantastic year 2023 turned out to be for us here at LSBUD.
From beginning to end, 2023 was non-stop. We were busier than ever and at time of creating this article, approaching the 4million searches mark – which is outstanding!
Our Members
2023 saw 15 new Members join the UK’s established safe digging community. By protecting their assets on our platform, they are committing to the safety of so many individuals working near them.
We are now proud to protect almost 150 individual members, representing well over a million kilometres of underground utility assets which is fantastic. Of our new sign ups, it is really encouraging to see a rise in Members from the Public Sector, something that we are really looking forward to expanding in 2024.
From transport providers to ground source heat pumps and even EV Charging Systems, the diversity of our Member sectors has increased significantly this, which is vital in encouraging Safe Digging for ALL, across Great Britain.
Our Service
The recent launch of the Top Up service, our newest service upgrade, has been something the team have been working on for some time. The new service complements our core service by providing responses for all known network operators for any site in the UK. Once again, this service is open to any user type and is a valuable addition to a safe digging toolkit.
The launch of our new App means that safe digging is literally at the tip of our fingers, allowing searches to be carried out on our mobile devices.
Our service moved to a new and improved version earlier in the year which enhances our service delivery to our users, offering the same service but with an enhanced look and feel and functionality. This has set the foundation for further improvements in 2024.
LSBUD – Delivering our ‘Safe Digging for All’ message
2023 was a busy year in terms of networking with industry contacts. Getting our message out there is something we are always keen to do.
This year saw the BIGGEST EVER National Damage Prevention Day back in June. With a vast range of delegates, Safe Digging for All was celebrated by everyone there, and this was topped off by our first ever Safe Digging Awards – The Larries! We look forward to this year’s event which we are working hard to make better again.
We are always here to help and as such we now run a successful User webinar which we launched back in September. The aim is to show how best to use the service with some handy hints and tips thrown in there. Its also great to meet our Users, albeit on a virtual basis! (Feel free to get in touch with any of the team to find out more).
Working closely with our friends at Linewatch, to spread the safety message loud and clear, we launched our Safety Awareness Video, highlighting an unfortunate event that a fencing contractor found himself in in the Summer of 2022. The safety campaign focusses on the experience of striking a buried gas main and the peril of digging ‘blind’, especially when a simple search on the LSBUD platform would have stopped this from happening. With over 8,000 views, we hope to raise awareness even more as we continue to spread the “Safe Digging for All” message.
Our annual national safe digging industry report – Digging Up Britain, now in its 6th year and is a fantastic summary of activity across Great Britain for our industry. Its clear to see that it is used by so many to reference the latest trends, hot topics, and data from all the groundworks taking place across the country over the last 12 months. We look forward to seeing what the data tells us for the 7th edition – keep posted for more details.
And finally, we hope you have enjoyed our News & Blog for 2023. This is something that we will be progressing throughout 2024 as the LSBUD team keeps you up to date with all things Safe Digging, with a bit of light-hearted humour thrown into the mix!
“At the time of writing this blog (20.12.23), the LSBUD Safe Digging Platform has provided results for 3,876,523 searches, which was out of date approximately 10 seconds after documenting – mind blowing!“
Thank you for all of you continued support. We look forward to another record-breaking year in 2024. In the meantime, I hope you had a fantastic Christmas break and wishing you a Happy New Year.
Dig Safely!
Laura
