It is not a situation anyone wants to be in—pole owner or attacher—but fortunately, it is a problem that can be avoided with a smart process in place.
Failure to comply with pole transfer requests can come about as the result of a number of situations:
Backlogs mean ordinary process grinds to a stop. Weather downs dozens of poles in one night. Community growth in the form of new development means lots of work must be done in a short period. Resource contention puts transfers on the back burner until there are too many to complete in a reasonable timeframe. Whatever the underlying reason, a backlog of transfer requests means a large amount of work is overdue. Often, internal resources are simply taxed beyond their limits to complete the work on time.Two major pieces of advice for those involved in a joint use relationship regarding how to avoid taking ownership of "bad" poles through failure to transfer equipment:
If you are an attaching company, be diligent. The only real way to prevent this situation from happening is to stay on top of transfer requests. Simply being aware of the need for transfers and diligent in their completion can go a long way to ensuring things are moved on time and no double wood, or unwanted ownership handovers, need to take place.
If you are a pole owner: be communicative. On the other side of the relationship, pole owners must also ensure that transfer requests are clearly communicated to attaching companies. If the request was never received, the contractual clock cannot in good conscience be started, leaving everyone in limbo.
What best practices does your company use to keep backlogs at bay? Reply in the comments section below.