Patent ID: 8600848

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling at least one piece of locating equipment used by a locate technician to perform a locate and/or marking operation so as to automatically ensure wage and hour compliance with a regulatory standard, the apparatus comprising: a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and at least one processing unit communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions, the at least one processing unit: A) generates at least one control signal to at least partially enable or disable the at least one piece of locating equipment based at least in part on: a time clock status of the locate technician; and/or wage and hour compliance information associated with the regulatory standard, the regulatory standard being applicable to 1) the locate technician and/or 2) a geographic location of the work site, wherein: the enabling or disabling of the at least one piece of locating equipment in A) is performed to ensure compliance with the regulatory standard; and the locate and/or marking operation comprises detecting and/or marking a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site.