When I walked into the North Service Center to meet the supervisor, he handed me a crow bar and casually said, “Here, you’re going to need this.”
Thinking he was just trying to scare me, I looked at one of the meter readers and smiled, “He’s kidding, right?”
The meter reader looked at me with a completely serious face and said, “No.”
Okay…
Meanwhile the supervisor was opening and closing drawers looking for an extra can of dog spray for me.
“You’re wearing those shoes?” he asked, eyeing my Mary-Janes.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, doing my best to seem tough.
Crow bar in hand, I was driven to Scenic Hills where I met up with Steve, a meter reader who agreed to let me tag along.
He saw my crow bar and started laughing. “You won’t need that today,” he said.
I looked at my driver and said, “I knew you guys were trying to scare me!”
He just laughed, told me to call him when I’d seen enough, and drove off.
At least they didn’t make me wear a bright yellow shirt!
Steve explained that there are routes that are more dangerous than others and that crowbars (that are technically used to open the water meter covers) and dog spray are necessary at times. “Today, you’ll get a feel for what it’s like to climb a lot of hills,” he said looking at my shoes.
“I’m ready,” I said.
Steve explained how he jumps from house to house reading four water meters at the street before going up to the house to read the gas and electric meters. He also showed me how he might read all of the water meters on one side of a street before circling back to get the gas and electric readings.
“Ah-ha,” I said. “No wonder people get confused.”
(I talk to a lot of customers on the phone and I also do a lot of presentations in the community, so I am familiar with common meter reading complaints. I even helped put together a Meter Reading FAQ brochure. You can print from the link or call 528-4557 to have a copy mailed out.)
As we walked up a hill to read several meters, I was amazed at how quickly Steve could get the reading off of the dials.
“Wow,” I said. “You hardly have to look.”
He laughed and explained that when you read 300-600 meters a day, five days a week, you get pretty good at it. “Do you want to try?” he asked me.
After working on the Meter Reading brochure and setting up several displays at fairs, I felt pretty confident. “Sure,” I said.
We went to a gas meter and I slowly read the numbers from right to left, remembering to round down to the nearest whole number. “Three…five…eight…seven…two,” I reported while Steve looked over my shoulder.
“Close,” he said showing me where I mistook a four for a five. “You would have cost this customer about a thousand dollars.”
“Oops!” I said. “But your hand held computer lets you know when the reading is off or too high, right?”
“Let’s see,” he said as he punched in the numbers I read off.
Sure enough, his computer beeped, alerting him to the mistake. Then he entered the correct numbers.
Steve let me continue to read the meters, making sure my reading matched with his. It was kind of fun, but I felt like I was really slowing him down.
“Okay,” he said handing me his computer. “I’ll call off the numbers and you punch them in.”
This helped us to pick up the pace a bit. While punching in the numbers, I got them wrong a few times and it beeped at me so that I could ask Steve to tell me the numbers one more time.
I also noticed that the computer provided Steve with helpful tips like, “Close gate,” “Watch for dog,” “Zig-zag here,” etc.
Steve told me that for each route, the meter reader looks at a map, plots his course, and then makes notes along the way in the computer so that someone else could easily work the route, if necessary. Having the specific water, gas, and electric meters programmed into the computer also helps the meter reader stay on track and not accidentally skip a meter or enter the wrong reading.
It seemed like most people were at work or elsewhere, so we didn’t do too much actual customer communication, but every once in awhile Steve would see someone outside and say hello. One customer in particular wanted Steve to give him an estimate of what his bill would be for the month. Steve has a general idea, but hesitates to give customers an actual dollar amount. He asked the customer what he had his thermostat set on and gave him some energy conservation advice. In the past he has also referred customers to the Energy Doctor.
“The Energy Doctor told one woman to insulate her water heater with a blanket and it made a big difference in her bill,” Steve told me. “Every time I see her she thanks me again for referring her.”
After awhile I gave Steve back his computer so I could focus on other aspects of the meter reading process. There were several houses with locked gates, dogs, and other obstacles that made reading the meter a little difficult. That’s when I learned how to use the scope. It’s a tiny microscope that allows meter readers to see the meter from very far away.
I also discovered how easy it is to read a meter through a tiny crack in a fence.
Meter readers also have a special tube for reading water meters. Since the water meters are underground, they often fill with rain water and mud. Several times Steve had to wipe dirt off of the meter face and insert the glass tube in the ground in order to get a reading.
Now, a word on dogs. Steve isn’t particularly scared of dogs and has gotten to know the ones along this particular route fairly well. Many of them greeted him happily or ignored him all together. He was always looking ahead and over fences to see which houses had their dogs out and whether or not they looked familiar. There was just one dog that prevented him from actually reading the meter. He knocked on the door to ask the homeowner to hold the dog, but no one was home.
The owner of another house with several dogs left a “Do-It-Yourself” meter reading card tied to the electric meter in the front of the house so that Steve would not have to go into the backyard to read the gas meter. Steve appreciates this and it also prevents the homeowner from getting an estimated reading.
“If a dog is wagging its tail, that’s usually a sign that they want to play,” he told me.
(I was able to use this knowledge just a few days later and not freak out when my neighbor’s pit bull ran up and jumped on me, while wagging his tail.)
However, many meter readers are scared of dogs—often for good reason—and have had to use their crow bars and dog spray in order to protect themselves.
“All routes aren’t as nice as this one,” Steve advised.
“Maybe after I prove myself today, y’all will let me go out in a more challenging neighborhood,” I said.
“Maybe,” he agreed.
I really enjoyed my four hours out in the field. The weather was great, Steve was a patient and knowledgeable teacher, and I got a little exercise. It was rather invigorating…until I actually sat down. I yawned the whole way home and was super tired that night. My feet hurt, my back hurt, and I really wondered what it would be like to read 300-600 meters, rain or shine, five days a week, year after year.
I definitely have a new appreciation for our men and women in yellow.
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