Happy New Year 2019! With Christmas and New Year’s Day both falling on Tuesdays this year, welcome to a Wednesday surprise on your first day of work in the new year!

This issue marks the eighth anniversary of the Utility Information Pipeline. If you’ve been with me from the very beginning (and many of you have!), this is the 194th issue you’ve received!

In the beginning, I had all kinds of ideas for topics for future newsletters. Now, eight years later, inspiration for new content isn’t as easy to come by. Many times, a conversation with a customer, a prospect, or a recent listserv post will serve as the source for a newsletter. Other weeks, the ideas don’t come so easily. With that in mind, I’m always looking for new ideas to write about so, if you have ideas or suggestions for a future topic, please feel free to email me!

If you have co-workers or colleagues from other utilities you feel would benefit from reading this newsletter, please take a minute to forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe.

Looking back on 2018

2018 marked the completion of the second bi-annual Utility Staffing Survey. The Utility Staffing Survey, like the Utility Fee Survey in odd number years, has become a regular feature in even numbered years.

In 2018, I updated my personal website – www. garysandersonline.com. This includes the Days of Exposure Calculator which has proven to be a valuable resource for utilities to determine if their security deposit is sufficient.

Listed below are the top five most frequently viewed blog posts in 2018, regardless of when the post was published:

How much is your late fee?

What are these barcodes on my bills?

What is your leak adjustment policy?

Do you have a cash handling policy?

What’s a compound meter?

Looking ahead to 2019

This year will include the 2019 Utility Fee Survey which will be the fourth survey of the various fees utilities charge. Previous Utility Fee Surveys were completed in 2012, 2015, and 2017.

2019 will also mark the 200th issue of the Utility Information Pipeline, so I’ll try to come up with something special for that issue!

Is this a good time to consider a business review?

When things in your office slow down a little is sometimes the best time to conduct a business review. If you’ve been considering a business review as an internal check-up, or would like to know more about what you could gain from a business review, please give me a call at 919-232-2320 or e-mail me at gsanders@edmundsgovtech.com to discuss it.