1. A system for dispatching a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the system comprising: A) at least one first storage device for maintaining a ticket database; B) at least one second storage device for maintaining a technician database; C) at least one first processor programmed to implement a scheduling engine for: C1) allocating the plurality of locate technicians to the plurality of locate activities, and C2) scheduling the plurality of locate activities; and D) at least one second processor programmed to implement a dispatch engine for: D1) retrieving ticket information from the ticket database; D2) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database; D3) retrieving technician information from the technician database, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians; and D4) providing inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity, the latest start time based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity, the performance deadline based at least in part on the ticket information, and the latest start time further based at least in part on the shift information, further comprising providing the latest start time to the scheduling engine in association with the locate activity, wherein: the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and risk information associated with the locate activity; the at least one second processor is further programmed to determine at least two of job performance information, quality assessment information, weather information, traffic information, the risk information, penalty or profitability information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity; the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity; and the at least one second processor is further programmed to apply a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the locate activity based on the at least two of the job performance information, the quality assessment information, the weather information, the traffic information, the risk information, the penalty or profitability information, and the complexity information; and at least one of the base value and the weighting factor are based in part on at least two of contractual obligations, statutory and/or regulatory requirements, best practices, and standard operating procedures.