Not a pin on a map.

Position Every point at the accuracy your receiver delivers, with the fix type, correction source and accuracy estimate stored beside it.

Depth of cover The locator's depth reading, recorded exactly as the instrument reported it and tied to the exact point it was read at.

Utility type Classified as it's captured, in the same colour code your crews mark with. Material and size where you know them.

The sketch Drawn to scale in the field, from the points you just captured. Finish it on the tablet or hand it to the office.

The sketch is mostly done before you leave

On paper, the sketch is the job after the job. Measure off the curb with a wheel. Tape the offsets. Draw it in the truck or back at the office. Hope the numbers match.

In TerraFlow Mobile the sketch builds from the points as you capture them. By the time the locate is finished, it's roughly 90% done. The base data is already there. The locator just draws it in. No measuring wheel. No tape. Add the reference points and the notes, and it goes straight out to CAD and GIS.

Some companies finish every sketch in the field. Some hand them to office staff. Both work. The data underneath is already structured either way.

Guild Electric cut locate completion time by 40 to 75%. The larger the area, the more they saved.

Your tolerance zone is measured in inches. A phone's GPS is off by feet.

Tolerance zones are set by state law, commonly 18 inches (46 cm) either side of the mark and wider in some states (PHMSA state law summaries). GPS.gov puts a phone's GPS at about 16 feet (4.9 m) under open sky, and it's worse under trees (GPS.gov).

When the position error is bigger than the tolerance zone, the record can't tell you where the line is. It can tell you roughly which yard it's in.

Pair the locator with an RTK receiver and the error falls to something the manufacturer specifies at about half an inch to an inch and a quarter (1 to 3 cm). Now the record says where the line is, not roughly where it might be.

The record never claims more than the hardware delivered.

Every point TerraFlow captures stores the conditions it was measured under. RTK fixed or float. The correction source. The horizontal and vertical accuracy the receiver reported at that second. The signal strength on the locator.

So someone reading the record later can see what was measured and how confident the measurement was. A point captured under heavy canopy at 12 inches (30 cm) says so. A point captured RTK fixed at under an inch (2.5 cm) says so.

No form filled in at the end of the day can do that. It's also why the record is worth trusting. It doesn't pretend.

The depth goes on the record.

A two-dimensional map shows where a line runs. The locator's depth reading adds how far down it read.

TerraFlow records the depth exactly as the locator reports it, tied to the point it was read at, with the method, frequency and signal alongside. We record the instrument's reading. We don't adjust it and we don't warrant it: depth is the locator's estimate, and the tolerance zone and hand exposure still apply.

That's why locate companies and utilities use it for depth-of-cover surveys as well as everyday tickets.

The standard engineers use already has a place for your locator.

ASCE 38-22 sorts utility information into quality levels. Quality Level B is surface geophysics, electromagnetic locators and GPR, with the interpreted position tied to the project survey datum to 0.2 ft (60 mm) horizontally (ASCE/UESI/CI 38-22).

An RTK receiver is specified by its manufacturer well inside that. So the locate your crew already does can produce a position good enough for the standard subsurface utility engineers work to. Whether a particular job is a QL-B deliverable depends on the survey method and the engineer responsible, not the software. Premier Locates uses TerraFlow for exactly this kind of work, mapping straight to CAD.

The office sees it before the truck leaves.

TerraFlow Mobile works offline first. Maps, forms and data stay on the tablet. The moment there's signal, the locate syncs.

So the office can check a locate while the crew is still on site. A missing depth or a point with a poor fix gets fixed there and then, not three weeks later when the paint is gone.

Fix it while the crew is still there, or explain it for the life of the claim.

Works with the kit you already own.

Locators: Radiodetection RD8200SG, RD8200 and RD8100. Vivax-Metrotech vLoc3 Pro, vLoc3 RTK Pro and vLoc2 Pro. Rycom Pathfinder. GNSS receivers: Trimble R Series and Catalyst. Eos Arrow. Emlid Reach RS3. Juniper Geode. Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor. Corrections: Can-Net, Trimble FieldPoint RTX, or any NTRIP service.

Half your trucks on one brand and half on another? Same app, same record. A mixed fleet shouldn't force a mixed workflow.

The full list, with setup guides

Where your records go.

Field → Data Engine → your GIS, your CAD, your asset system, or your operator's.

Esri ArcGIS Online and Portal. AutoCAD DXF. KML, CSV, GeoJSON and Shapefile. A REST API for anything else. Exports come out in feet and inches or metric, whichever your client asks for.

We don't replace your ticket system. Tickets still arrive the way they do now. TerraFlow adds the record the ticket was never built to hold.

Data Engine · Data ownership

Locate contractors A complete record on every ticket, and the sketch done before the truck moves. The paperwork stops being a second job at the end of the day.

Subsurface utility engineering Depth of cover and sketch geometry captured to scale in the field and mapped straight to CAD.

Depth-of-cover surveys Regulated depth surveys where the measurement and the conditions it was taken under both have to be on the record.

Pipeline operators and utilities Records arriving from contractors in one format, with the accuracy of every point attached. No software to roll out to a hundred contractors.

Customers

"TerraFlow is at the leading edge of the industry change. They're easy to work with, receptive to how and why you're using the software, and the ability to customize is impressive." Peter Tatham, Premier Locates

Premier Locates case study

PUC Services in Sault Ste. Marie deployed TerraFlow to connect its crews' RTK receivers to ArcGIS Online. Esri Canada reports PUC's positioning error fell from 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 m) to about an inch (2.54 cm) (Esri Canada, March 2026).

PVS Contractors and GTel run more than 40 TerraFlow licences on Trimble Catalyst with Can-Net, for sketching and depth-of-cover surveys.

Specifications

Capture: point, line (with per-vertex detail) and polygon. Depth, locate method, frequency, signal strength, utility type and subtype, material and size, ticket number, locator, timestamp per measurement, photos, notes.

Accuracy information per point: GNSS fix type, correction source, horizontal and vertical accuracy estimate, satellites, capture time, receiver and locator model.

Sketch: built from captured points, to scale, completed in the field or in the office.

Hardware: see supported instruments.

Workflows and setup: your asset types, attributes, dropdowns and sketch conventions, configured by us and managed through the web admin. Unlimited attributes.

Offline: works with no connection. Syncs when one returns.

Export and integration: ArcGIS Online and Portal, DXF, KML, CSV, GeoJSON, Shapefile, REST API. Feet and inches or metric.

Deployment: hosted, with a separate database per client in Microsoft Azure, or on-premises as TerraFlow Enterprise.

Support: full support of the app, regular releases, and a team that actually listens to the field.