Colorado 811 Billing and Fee Schedule Model
A letter with your company's Billing Tier Level Assessment for 2026 was mailed to the Billing Contact on your account. Please contact the Member Relations team at member-services@co811.org with any questions.
To stabilize ticket transmission fee prices and make the Colorado 811 One-Call Service a bit more affordable for all utility owner/operators in our State, Colorado 811 launched a new Annual Transmission Fee Assessment and Billing Model for ticket transmission fees and invoicing in 2025.
Previous Fees and Billing Model
Colorado 811 previously charged utility owner/operator members based on the number of transmissions generated post transmission, which included positive response renotifications and regular ticket transmissions all at one per transmission rate. The per transmission fee cost is what owner/operator members paid per ticket related transmission, and invoices were issued monthly for both regular and positive response renotification transmissions based on the volume accumulated during each previous month.
“NEW” Annual Fee Assessment Model
The NEW CO811 Annual Fee Assessment and Billing Model launched in2025.
The January 2026 invoice will include your new Annual Transmission Fee Assessment Charges based on your Assessment Billing Tier and corresponding assessment dollar amount that will be based on your transmission volume accumulated from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. Each CO811 Owner/Operator member will receive an invoice with the tiered annual fee assessment charge on it, plus a line item charging for your monthly positive response renotification fees accrued in January (plus any other outstanding fees or charges).
How Exactly Does the New Annual Assessment Fee Work?
Transmission fees for Colorado 811 tickets traditionally have always been projected forward into the upcoming fiscal year to cover anticipated future cost based on anticipated future ticket volume that was arrived at via a complex statistical projection model designed to forecast future ticket volume to determine future transmission fee prices for the following year. This type of projection based forecast model is not as accurate as an assessment model that sets transmission fees prices based on actual transmission volume that has already occurred during previous months.
Starting in 2025, Colorado 811 invoiced owner/operator members based on a new Annual Fee Assessment Model which shows your amount due for the year based on a tiered, flat-rate annual transmission assessment, plus a per transmission fee charge for any positive response renotification transmissions occurred monthly.
Each owner/operator member will pay their share of the CO811 budget based on their usage volume of transmissions that accumulated from July 1 through June 30 of the year. CO811 has assessed the volume from each owner/operator member based on actual used transmissions and has sorted each member into their new Annual Assessment Tier accordingly.
2026 CO811 Annual Assessment Tier Ticket Transmissions Fees
First Billing Tier = $FREE (0-25 Regular Annual Transmissions) – Positive Response Transmissions are still billed monthly per transmission in addition to the annual assessment amount due.
Second Billing Tier = $70 Flat Annual Assessment Amount (26-100 Regular Annual Transmissions, billed annually in one full amount in February) - Positive Response Transmissions are still billed monthly per transmission in addition to the annual assessment amount due.
Third Billing Tier = $225 Flat Annual Assessment Amount (101-300 Regular Annual Transmissions – billed annually in one full amount in February) Positive Response Transmissions are billed monthly per transmission in addition to the annual assessment amount due.
Fourth Billing Tier = 301+ Regular Annual Assessment Amount (Percentage based, annually assessed amount). Positive Response Transmissions (aka Lates) are still billed monthly per transmission in addition to the annual assessment amount due. Fourth Billing Tier members pay a Percentage (%) of the budget in relation to their transmission usage actuals from July through June. Members sorted into the Fourth Billing Tier will be assessed an annual transmission fee, but the total annual fee will be broken down into twelve easy to pay billing increments billed monthly together with any positive response transmission fees.
The NEW Annual Ticket Fee Assessment Model Saves You Money!
First Billing Tier Members - Regular Transmissions Are Free!
Second - Fourth Billing Tier Members – The 2026 fees now average about $1.25 per transmission combined.
The Member Owner/Operator Transmission Fee volume and corresponding payment percentages based on the July through June transmission volume actuals are assessed in conjunction to the operating budget and introduce a more stable fee assessment model allowing CO811 to present members with a predictable, Fourth Billing Tier Annual Fee Assessment Billing Model year after year that provides a clear volume- based fee assessment for each owner/operator mid-year, with plenty of time to include your assessment amount in your own Budget forecast. Tier level assessments will be reviewed on an annual basis, once per year; meaning that even if you use the transmission volume as the assigned parameters in your assessed Billing Tier for the year, you will stay in that Billing Tier until the annual assessment occurs again. This billing model is already commonly in use at many 811 Centers around the nation such as in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, etc., allowing you to budget your 811 fees accurately and timely, and for CO811 to stabilize ticket fees – benefiting members and the 811 Center equally.
Positive Response Renotifications
The new CO811 Annual Fee Assessments Billing Tier assignment is based on assessing a fee based only on the volume of regular ticket transmissions, no cancellations or positive response renotification transmissions (aka lates) are included in the Annual Billing Tier Assessment Formula. Positive Response Renotification transmissions will still be billed monthly in addition to the annual fee assessment amount due, for each positive response renotification transmission that occurred for the previous month at $1.75 per each Positive Response Renotification Transmission.
NEW Owner/Operators
New Owner/Operator joining as members will start and stay on a per regular transmission monthly billing schedule at a $1.27 for the first several months of membership to allow CO811 to accumulate enough transmission volume data to appropriately sort a new member into a Tier. In addition to the $1.27 price for each regular transmission, a $1.75 per positive response renotification transmission will also be due. Once an established transmission volume history has been determined by CO811, the new member will be assigned to their appropriate Tier.
Annual Colorado 811 Membership Fees
Owner/Operator members will not be charged an Annual Membership fee in addition to the regular assessment or positive response renotification fees.
New Owner/Operator members will be charged a one-time $150 initial Application & Administrative Fee to cover the cost of onboarding and training a new owner/operator member, in addition to any accrued monthly transmission fees.
Excavators Members will be charged an annual membership fee of $150 billed once per year, due in full at time of invoice.
Sustaining Members will be charged an annual membership fee of $150 billed once per year, in addition to the annual assessment amount for regular transmissions and positive response renotification fees.
Emergency and Damage Courtesy Call Fees
Members who opt for courtesy calls receive manual outbound courtesy phone calls from Colorado 811 for damage ticket notifications during business hours, as well as emergency and damage ticket notifications after hours. Members may also register for the automated system to receive courtesy phone calls. The automated system will attempt to contact a member up to three times for emergencies and damage related notifications.
If all three automated call attempts are unsuccessful and the member organization is not reachable, the system will default to prompting a manual phone call made by a Colorado 811 customer service representative. Starting January 1, 2026, members will not be charged for the three automated system calls and will also receive one manual courtesy phone call made by a Colorado 811 customer service representative for free. However, a fee of $5.00 per manual phone call will be assessed for each subsequent manual customer service representative call.
Members who opt not to use the automated courtesy call system and instead require a live customer service representative to make manual courtesy calls will also receive the first call at no cost. After the initial manual courtesy call, a $5.00 fee will be charged for each additional manual courtesy phone call performed by a Colorado 811 representative. Colorado 811 encourages all members to enroll in the automated courtesy call system.
Disclaimer: Terminating members will be responsible for payment of any outstanding annual fee assessment amount, as well as any other unpaid outstanding balances due. The assessment fee amount in all Tiers is not eligible for a refund.
Please reach out to Colorado 811 Member Relations with any questions. Call Member Relations at (303) 232-1991.
