July 31, 2001 News Media Release

City of Austin has new meter reading company

IMServ FieldTech, a Milwaukee-based company with meter reading operations in 9 states, is now reading City of Austin electric and water meters. The company began providing services July 2, 2001 in a transition that has occurred smoothly.

The six-year old company, which has established an excellent track record in some 11 cities where it provides meter reading services, has grown to over 500 employees nationwide who last year conducted more than 20-million meter reads. Cities for which FieldTech provides meter reading include Rochester, New York, Jacksonville, Florida and New Orleans, Louisiana. Austin will be the first Texas city the company will serve.

IMServ FieldTech meter readers wear uniforms and display identification badges. Their uniforms consist of a light blue button down shirt with "Meter Reader" printed on the back. IMServ FieldTech and the company logo are displayed on a front pocket. On the left sleeve it reads "IMServ FieldTech Contractor for Austin Energy" with an AE logo. Austin Energy manages meter reading for all City of Austin electric and water meters. IMServ FieldTech meter readers will also drive marked vehicles.

The 2-year contract requires IMServ FieldTech to read Austin's 500,000 electric and water meters each month with no more than one mis-read per thousand reads and achieving a 99.4% coverage rate. The coverage rate means that for every 1,000 meters read no more than 6 per thousand can be left unread for any reason--including lack of access to property due to locked gates, dogs or other difficulties. The coverage requirement, which exceeds industry standards, puts the responsibility on IMServ FieldTech to work with customers to solve access difficulties.

Customers can help ensure their meter is reliably read. The date of a customer's next meter read is indicated on their utility bill each month with the statement "Next meter read will be on or about (date)." This means your meter could be read on the date given, the day before or the day after.

The most frequent obstacles to meter readers are dogs and locked gates. Customers are asked to manage dogs on the three possible days each month when their meter could be read and to leave gates unlocked on those days.

When a meter cannot be read a message is left asking the customer to call to make arrangements to provide access. A meter reader must then go back out the next day and read the meter. Return visits are made for about 250 meters each workday-about 1,200 a week. This increases overall meter reading costs for the City of Austin and their customers.

The City of Austin reads meters on weekdays. For various reasons such as bad weather or extra days in billing cycles, it becomes necessary to read meters on a few Saturdays over the year. Otherwise - meters are not read on Saturdays or Sundays.

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For more information, contact Ed Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000