Imagine driving by every single home, apartment and business in the city of Richmond, Henrico County all the way to the Goochland county line, and parts of Hanover every single month at 20 mph? That's what the employees of the city of Richmond Department of Public Utilities' Meter Reading Department do in order to electronically collect the data necessary to send out accurate water and gas bills to customers.

Years ago, it was an even more daunting task when meters were manually read by gas and water service technicians who had to walk into every yard to read the meter. With the advent of computers, a city vehicle equipped with a mobile data collector can record the readings transmitted by antennas on gas and water meters as the vehicle slowly passes the location.

As each neighborhood is scanned block by block, the computer shows the meters that were missed and each missed location is revisited. If the meter still doesn't register, a gas and water service technician visits the location to investigate and fix the problem. Typical problems include old antenna batteries that weaken after 7-10 years, the water meter well is flooded from a recent rain, or the customer has cut or damaged the wire to the antenna.

A typical day's route might drive by 8,500 meters and take as long as 10 hours to complete. On some routes, it's necessary to drive through alleyways behind houses or pull into driveways in order to pick up the signal.