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Permit AI

The day you strike something you do not work near every week

Most crews are excellent at the work they do daily. The risk sits in the unfamiliar job — the site with something on it you have not dealt with for a year. Here is what the permit brain does when that happens.
Example 01
Unfamiliar hazard
You are on a site with HV power and you do not normally work near it
Your crew does lead-ins and pit work. Today the site has high voltage overhead and an HV cable recorded in the verge. Nobody on the truck deals with that monthly, and the rules are not the ones you carry in your head.
Permit PS-4482 · guided
Level 4
What the permit detected
High voltage apparatus in and above the work area
The BYDA response records an HV underground cable from Essential Energy, and the site video scan identified overhead conductors above the plant position.
Category applied
Level 4 · Critical
Set by the asset owner's criteria, not by the crew's judgement. HV in scope escalates automatically.
Then it asks you
What is the maximum tip height of the plant on site?
Sets the no-go zone against the conductors above you
Has the HV cable been located and marked?
A positive locate is mandatory before any excavation
Is anyone on site accredited to work near HV?
Determines whether you may proceed or must wait
What you must do, step by step
01
Stop before you set up
The permit does not clear while HV is unresolved. Nothing is unloaded until the questions are answered.
Stop
02
Establish the no-go zone
PermitSnap states the exclusion distance for the voltage and your plant's tip height, and asks for a photo of the zone marked out.
Required
03
Positive locate on the underground cable
Located and marked, then pot holed. A tape-measure photo proves the depth and position.
Required
04
Spotter appointed and briefed
Named on the permit. The spotter signs it themselves, accepting the obligation to observe.
Required
05
Hand dig within the clearance zone
No mechanical excavation inside the stated distance. The permit records the method you committed to.
Required
06
Essential Energy notified and signs
The permit routes to the asset owner with your evidence attached. They may add conditions.
Required
07
Clear to dig issued on site
Only once every item above is closed out. The crew sees a plain clear-to-dig, not a form.
Then
Who signs
Essential Energy, plus your appointed spotter
The asset owner signs because their apparatus is in scope. The spotter signs separately, because watching the work is an obligation someone has to personally accept.
The distances, accreditation requirements and controls come from the asset owner's published criteria. PermitSnap applies them to your site — it does not invent them.
Example 02
Cultural obligation
You are working in an area of Aboriginal cultural heritage
The job looks like any other trench. The address sits inside a mapped area of Aboriginal cultural heritage significance, which carries obligations that have nothing to do with the services under the ground.
Permit PS-4490 · guided
Heritage
What the permit detected
Site inside a mapped Aboriginal cultural heritage area
The location was checked against the relevant heritage register when the permit was raised. The obligation attaches to the ground, not to the client or the scope of works.
Category applied
Level 3 · High, with heritage hold point
Ground disturbance cannot begin until the heritage requirement is satisfied, regardless of what the services assessment says.
Then it asks you
Is there an approved cultural heritage management plan for this work?
If yes, upload it. If no, the permit does not clear
Is a cultural heritage monitor required to be present?
Set by the plan and the relevant party for the area
Have you been briefed on the stop-work procedure?
What to do the moment anything of significance is exposed
What you must do, step by step
01
Do not break ground
The heritage hold point sits above the services assessment. Locating can proceed; excavation cannot.
Stop
02
Confirm the approval in place
Upload the cultural heritage management plan or approval covering this address and this work.
Required
03
Arrange the monitor if required
Where a monitor or representative must attend, the permit records who and confirms attendance before the hold point lifts.
Required
04
Acknowledge the stop-work procedure
The crew confirms they know to cease work immediately and notify if anything of significance is exposed.
Required
05
Photograph the ground before disturbance
The pre-works condition is captured and attached, which protects the crew as much as the site.
Required
06
Client and heritage sign-off
Routed to the party responsible for the heritage obligation on this programme.
Required
07
Hold point lifted, work may start
The permit shows the heritage condition satisfied alongside the services clearance.
Then
Who signs
The party responsible for the heritage approval, and your client
Heritage obligations are not the crew's to discharge. The permit puts them in front of the person who holds them, with a record that it was raised before ground was broken.
Heritage obligations vary by state and by the party responsible for the area. PermitSnap surfaces the requirement and routes it; the statutory approval itself sits with the responsible party.
Example 03
Site context you cannot see from the truck
Your work area is on Bramston Street
You drop the marker on the job and carry on filling out the permit. The permit brain has already looked at what surrounds that marker, and at what the sky is doing above it.
Work area · Bramston St, Fadden ACT
PS-4507
Detected within 200 m
Fadden Primary School
Your work area
School zone, 40 km/h when active
What the permit brain advises
There is a school beside your work area, and a school zone in force between these hours
Morning
8:00 – 9:30
40 km/h in force
Afternoon
2:30 – 4:00
40 km/h in force
School days only
Mon – Fri
Not on public holidays
Traffic control plan must account for the reduced limit, not the posted 50
Avoid plant movements across the drop-off window where the work allows it
Pedestrian management is mandatory — children, not just adults, on that footpath
The permit asks you to confirm your TCP reflects the school zone before it clears
Conditions on site today
Live · 06:42
1 warning for this location
Severe wind warning
→
16.0°
Feels like 14.2°
17°
Max
9°
Overnight min
Wind
46 km/h
Gusts
72 km/h
Rain chance
20%
UV index
7 · High
Acknowledgement required
I acknowledge the weather could have an impact on my work site
Signed by Zack Marks · 06:44 · recorded against permit PS-4507
The permit does not clear until this is ticked. Where a warning is active, the conditions at the time of issue are stored with the permit — so if the day turns, the record shows what was known when work started.
Nobody had to look this up
The crew dropped a marker on Bramston Street. The school, the zone times and the wind warning all arrived on the permit because of where that marker landed — not because someone remembered to check.
School zone times vary by state and by school. Weather is drawn from the Bureau of Meteorology for the permit location. Both are advisory — the decision to work, delay or stand down remains yours.
What the AI reads
It looks down the street before you do
Same five addresses in Fadden. Every callout below is something the permit brain raised from the imagery at that location, before anyone opened a form.
34 Bramston St, Fadden ACT
Street View, Aug 2020
1 callout
You are working near a school zone – Are your controls in place for this
36 Appel Cres, Fadden ACT
Street View, Aug 2020
2 callouts
This looks like a power sub station have you identified this? Do you have controls in place to deal with this
Do you have protection so fluid doesn't enter the stormwater drains
1 Free Pl, Fadden ACT
Street View, Dec 2009
2 callouts
Potential Tree Protection Zone – Has this been identified? Do you need to contact the asset owner?
Do you have protection so fluid doesn't enter the stormwater drains
2 Riordan St, Fadden ACT
Street View, Aug 2020
1 callout
Do you have controls in place for changes in speed zone
2 Maughan Cres, Fadden ACT
Street View, Aug 2020
2 callouts
Obstacle? Lane Closure – Will this affect your work
Do you have protection so fluid doesn't enter the stormwater drains
And then it tells you what you are crossing
The assets under the work area, with the rules attached
SubSurface has identified you are crossing or working near the following key Assets
Underground HV Power
Crossing the work area.
Upload required
This asset owner stipulates that you are required to have a safety advice to proceed with works. Please upload this or your permit cannot be approved
Stormwater
Within the work area.
Minimum clearance is
XX
Minimum clearance is
YY
Watermain
Within the work area.
Minimum clearance is
XX
Minimum clearance is
YY
Gas Line
Within the work area.
Minimum clearance is
XX
Minimum clearance is
YY
Sewer Line
Within the work area.
Minimum clearance is
XX
Minimum clearance is
YY
Clearance values are set by each asset owner and applied to your permit automatically.
The pattern
Same engine, whatever the site puts in front of you
01
It notices
From the BYDA response, the asset owner criteria, the site video and the location itself.
02
It categorises
The risk level is calculated from the rules, not interpreted from a table by whoever is on shift.
03
It asks
Site specific questions with defined answers, each one changing what the permit then requires.
04
It holds
Where an obligation is unmet, the permit does not clear. Nobody has to make that call alone.
Important
PermitSnap does not take the liability or the ownership of preventing and reducing risk off you. It supports you through the process and tells you what is expected, site specific, as you are doing it.
You do not have to know every rule
You have to follow the process. PermitSnap knows the rules and walks you through them.
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Rowan Isaacs · 0405 373 337