APGA’s Gas Overall Awareness Level (GOAL) tool helps public gas systems measure safety-awareness effectiveness as required by Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Regulations 49 CFR 192.616 and American Petroleum Institute (API) Recommended Practice RP 1162. APGA has partnered with Blue Otter Solutions for several years to offer a cost-effective, turnkey program for measuring the effectiveness of your public awareness program.
APGA GOAL works by polling customers and non-customers in your service area to determine their gas safety knowledge, as well as providing educational information. Data gathered in real time is formulated into a final report, designed to meet all compliance requirements, and sent to you. Follow up surveys and reporting are conducted periodically to measure any changes in knowledge and behaviors. Annually, each participating system will receive national average data enabling you to comparatively rate your performance.
Last year, APGA worked with Blue Otter to add new features to GOAL. Our objective was to improve the user experience and make it easier for your customers to participate in GOAL surveys, without significantly increasing the cost. After receiving feedback from a diverse group of GOAL users, APGA asked Blue Otter to add the following two features:
- Online access to the GOAL survey to allow your customers to participate online.
- The ability to permit anyone to place an inbound call to participate in the GOAL survey, rather than only having the ability to place outbound calls to your customers. This allows customers to participate in the survey on their own time if they aren’t available when you initially call them.
These enhancements are available to all GOAL users when you begin your GOAL surveys.
Please note that in conjunction with these enhancements, there was a small price increase per call. For APGA members, the price increased from $0.34 to $0.41 per call. For non-APGA members the price increased from $0.54 to $0.61 per call. APGA will not receive any additional revenue from these price increases.