Pipeline Inspection Software for Field Crews and Contractors

What pipeline inspection software does for a contractor

An operator's integrity team decides what needs inspecting and how often. The contractor's job is to send qualified people to the right place on the right date, collect the evidence and hand it back in a form the operator can use. Pipeline inspection software for a contractor is therefore mostly about scheduling crews across a very long asset and making every crew record the same things in the same way.

Shifton Field Service handles that part. Every patrol, survey and dig inspection is a job on the board with a segment, a date and a crew. The crew works from a mobile app with the checklist for that type of inspection, enters readings, takes photographs and gets a signature where the operator requires one.

Types of work that share the same crews

Right-of-way patrols

Walking, driving or flying the line to look for third-party activity, erosion, exposed pipe, missing markers and encroachment. The value is in consistent observations with photographs and locations, so a change since the last patrol is obvious.

Cathodic protection surveys

Reading potentials at test posts and checking rectifiers along the route. These are repetitive and easy to skip, which is exactly why each post should be a line on a form rather than a note in a book.

Excavation and dig inspections

Direct assessment at an exposed section, usually tied to an excavation programme run by the operator. Timing depends on the dig contractor, so the inspection crew's slot moves, and the board has to show where they can go instead when it does.

Above-ground stations

Valve sites, pig traps, regulator stations and crossings get their own periodic checks. They are fixed places with fixed equipment, well suited to a standard checklist and a photo of each item.

Why pipeline inspection schedules slip

The causes are rarely technical. A landowner withdraws access, a river crossing floods, the dig contractor is two days behind, or the only certified inspector in the region is off sick. Each of these moves one job, and each moved job pushes others. When the whole programme sits on one board, the planner can see which segments are drifting towards their due dates and bring another crew across before the operator notices. When it sits in separate spreadsheets per region, the first sign of trouble is usually an overdue report.

Writing the reason for every reschedule on the job also helps at contract review. An operator is far more forgiving of a late patrol with a recorded flood than of one that simply did not happen.

Pipeline maintenance software and inspection in one plan

Many contractors inspect and repair. When pipeline maintenance software and inspection scheduling are separate, findings wait in an inbox until someone creates a repair order. On one board, the office sees the finding, raises the repair job and assigns it, with the inspector's photos already attached.

Qualifications and crew safety

Some work needs certified inspectors; some sites need a two-person crew because of the terrain or the landowner. The planner notes the certification a job needs and puts the right pair together. Daily start and finish times for every crew are visible on the board, and GPS work location control can be added as a paid module if the operator asks for proof of position.

What Shifton Field Service does

It plans patrols, surveys, dig inspections and maintenance on one board, sends crews the job details and checklists on their phones, collects readings, photographs and signatures, logs hours and produces reports for each operator. Two people or fewer use the core of it without charge and without a deadline. Inventory, Invoicing, GPS work location control and the customer portal are paid modules.

It is not pipeline integrity software. It does not process in-line inspection runs, model risk, calculate remaining life, store the network in a GIS or connect to SCADA. It is the tool that gets your crews to the line and brings their evidence back.