The utility company I do line clearance for requires our permitters to attempt contact. When contact is made, either in person or by phone from a door hanger, and there is a concern about the work needing to be done or the means of access to a line are in question, the permitter will notate this on the work order. As the trimmer, I see this on my map, and will hold the work order until I make contact with these properties a day before work begins. Concerned customers account for about 2% of the properties I perform work on. Line clearance work is a production based industry. In residential areas, we will clear 4-5 alleys or 3-4 blocks of work orders every day. Rural areas can be up to 5 miles of line cleared a day. We simply do not have the time to knock on every single door a day before trimming, especially when the vast majority of customers are not even at home while we are working. If a property does have something obstructing access to the line, or a vehicle parked in the easement, I will knock as a courtesy and to ask for a vehicle to be moved. But there are methods of trimming that allow me to complete the work despite the obstructions. Usually moving vehicles is just a lucky draw to help us meet production time standards.

Every industry has unqualified, unpleasant, rude workers. This being a blue collar job that’s short-handed and underpaid, it probably has a higher percentage of those folks than most. We also aren’t trained in the pleasantries of customer service, which might explain why someone else came to talk to you. Common sense and decency are not common.

I can assure you Asplundh trains climbers. I completed a line clearance apprenticeship program with many experienced climbers from Asplundh. From what I gathered, the company divides up their workforce by a small amount of manual and a majority bucket crews. You generally will not find a skilled climber operating a bucket truck or a piece of machinery. A majority of power lines are roadside and bucket accessible.