enhancing your bottom line: waste and recycling collection vehicle routing optimization
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8/3/2019 Enhancing Your Bottom Line: Waste and Recycling Collection Vehicle Routing Optimization
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Management
Enhancing Your Bottom Line: Waste andRecycling Collection Vehicle Routing Optimization| Gary Lima and Bob Wallace |
The wasTe indusTry has seen more changes than most o us can keep up with, not only within
the most recent ew years, but largely over the past
three decades. Most company owners and solid
waste industry management say the same thing, “I
remember when we picked up the trash and took it
all to the landll.” A ar cry rom where the industry
is today.
Now there are rules, ordinances, ranchise
agreements, municipal collection—processing,
transer—disposal contracts, collection service
constraints and other regulations that dictate what
collection service providers can and cannot do. For
example, diversion, recycling, green waste, ood and
organics, C&D, medical, wet, dry, etc. It also seems
the industry went rom one truck type to several
specialized vehicles, each unique and seemingly
needed in its own way. Keeping up with the routing
o all these services and collection vehicles hasbecome an important part o eciently managing any
organization’s or company’s solid waste and recycling
collection operations.
The economy has aected organizational goals or
solid waste and recycling collection or all lines o
business—residential, commercial and industrial—
in today’s market. The motto is, “Do it cheaper,
aster and with less resources and equipment now.”
Maintaining service levels, contracts and ranchise
compliance have become more competitive oten
eroding prot margins.
The rapid growth spurt, preceding the recent
recession, happened aster than anyone expected, and
it led to adding more routes without having the time
to create them eciently. This resulted in a wide
range o collection routes throughout the nation so
unbalanced and inecient that, now that the new
growth has halted, it is time or both public sector
agencies and private sector companies to stronglyconsider rerouting their customer base and begin
running their routes more eciently.
Route OptimizationRoute optimization reers to choosing the best
element rom some set o available alternatives.
Rebalancing routes or reducing hours and miles, it
involves improving feet and manpower productivity
and protability. Route optimization aects all aspects o
a solid waste and/or recycling collection service provider
organization. Whether private or public sector, ecient
and cost-eective feet and resource management throughplanning is the most important step in enhancing an
organization’s bottom line. Understanding all the
parameters and how they create impact an organization’s
service objectives allow collection service providers to
choose the right tools or the job.
To begin route optimization, reducing route hours
and miles driven are accomplished by benchmarking
an organization’s current operations and driver
procedures, then analyzing that data to identiy key
areas o needed improvement and make the necessarychanges. There are a variety o decisions to be made
with respect to collection vehicle routing, customer
service impacts, day o service changes, whether or not
to purchase routing sotware, GPS, onboard systems,
etc., and, more importantly, which proessional
experts to hire to assist in helping make the critical
decisions and the implementation o the needed
changes. One thing that is certain, those who invest
in route optimization will be more protable.
Software and TechnologyRouting sotware has been around or a while now
and is widely used; however, a large portion o the
industry still uses more traditional methods o physical
maps and pins to improve collection vehicle routing.
The most signicant changes have been in the
digital mapping technology. Back in the 1990s when
computer routing sotware was rst introduced, the
biggest obstacle was geocoding an organization’s
customer locations. This is the process o assigning
an address to a digital map. The problem was all
Route optimization
affects all
aspects of a
solid waste and/
oR Recycling
collection
seRvice pRovideRoRganization. Ecient andcost-eective feet andresource managementthrough planning isthe most importantstep in enhancing anorganization’s bottomline.
28 WasteAdvantage Magazine March 2010
Route optimization: completing the puzzle tosaving money. Image courtesy of CBF Wealth Firm.
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streets were not included or they didn’t have an address
range entered. One could use latitude and longitude
coordinates to place the customer on the map but it
wouldn’t route by the street address.
Back then, the biggest goal was to reduce the
number o hours it took to service all customers. Themore a person worked with the sotware and was
able to analyze the results, one began to realize many
advantages to using a program that used algorithms to
nd the quickest way to route vehicles through your
service area. As a result, the need or becoming experts
at benchmarking was apparent. The key is to break
down the processes and know the details allowing one
to manage better and make more inormed process
improvement and waste management collections
operational decisions.
Other advantages o the use
o sotware and technology
become apparent when a
collection service provider
organization is trying to
determine where the most
optimal place is to purchase
an oce or yard or their
vehicles. Some sotware oersgreat logistical uses or this
type o acility siting studies.
The sotware allows organizations to identiy the best
location or a depot in a service area or geographical
location. The right sotware also allows organizations to
review the impacts o adding a transer station or MRF
to see how it would aect drive times to and rom the
collection routes, as well as non-driving times—thus
being able to better calculate collection costs.
As stated beore, GIS mapping has come a long way.
Some haulers have already starting using Google Earth
maps in their routing processes. New technology has
been, and will continue, to be an important unction
or waste collection service providers (organizations/
haulers) in being as ecient as possible.
Routing Parameters and ConstraintsThere are a multitude o parameters that need to
be included during the routing process and the more
detail that is used, the better the results are versus
using estimates or averages. For example, having
actual stop times always allowed or routing more
stops per day. The same goes or travel speeds and time
windows—one can calculate the most optimal time toservice any given street.
Another area that plays a key time constraint role—
impacting driver productivity, collection vehicle on-route
time and feet maintenance—is the time at the disposal or
processing acility (transer station, MRF or landll). As
part o the route optimization, review the transer station,
MRF and landll trac congestion (scale and dumping
queuing line times) in order to determine an adjustment
in start times and changing load commodities. This can
be accomplished, in part, through the use o certain types
o routing sotware, allowing changes to the parameters
that lead to greater eciencies.
There are so many dierent services, terrains,
weather conditions and seasonal customer bases and
set outs that having a tool to help plan or these
dierences is critical to using labor and equipment the
most ecient way.
Route OptimizationBest Management Practices
There is no one method or way o producing
optimized routes. Waste and recycling collection
service providers look at this process rom many
angles. Some organizations simply want better driving
directions rom route optimization. They eel this
method will help not only the driver, but also any
relie or new drivers to gure out the quickest way to
complete their routes. Interest in this method becomes
particularly popular when uel prices increase.
Another method or route optimization is setting
up parameters to route all collection vehicles by the
shortest driving distance. The biggest dierence when
using driving directions or residential and commercial
routes is the sequencing o commercial stops. There
are multiple ways o accessing a commercial property
especially in strip malls and corner locations. This
means sitting down with the drivers and manually
sequencing each route. Quite oten, sotware cannotdistinct all the ways to access a property or know the
exact bin placement location needed or optimization.
Enhancing Your Bottom Line: Waste and Recycling Collection Vehicle Routing Optimization
30 WasteAdvantage Magazine March 2010
Lessons LearnedFrom experience
Sta rom Stealth Marketing
(Stealth) and WIH Resource Group
(WIH) have been perorming
special projects or the last 15
years. They have seen waste
hauling operations rom Alaska
to New York, ridden with
hundreds o drivers, worked with
countless waste management and
executives, analyzed operations,
billing, sales and customer service,
saety and maintenance managers.
Most o the work related to
route optimization consists o
perorming route audits, vehicle
routing and billing audits, creating
new routes or optimizing current
routes and implementing new
programs. Both frms’ sta have
worked with GPS, GIS, digital
mapping, handhelds and various
kinds and types o route and
route optimization sotware. Both
frms’ client-specifc eorts have
produced millions o dollars in
savings and new revenue or
clients.
Some o the key takeaways rom
all o this experience, specifcally
rom riding on trucks on collection
routes and tracking productivity,
has allowed sta to see which
routes are most proftable.
Experience shows that it quickly
becomes evident in determining
who a collection service providers’
most proftable drivers, routes and
customers are.
Benchmarking is the process of continual comparison andmeasuring of known industry standards in order to adapt themto one’s own situation to improve performance.Image courtesy of Change Excellence.
Old school maps and pinmethods to routing.
Image courtesy of WIHResource Group.
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WasteAdvantage Magazine March 2010 31
Route optimization provides collection service providers the
advantage when bidding or proposing on a new service contract.
Knowing how many collection vehicles and hours it will actually take
to service a city or service area helps organizations set reasonable and
competitive rates.
Saety has become an important part o everyone’s business. Route
optimization and route auditing through driver ride-alongs, identies
many saety issues on route and once those are exposed, it gives the
collection service provider a better way o making changes to prevent
injuries or accidents. This helps organizations decide i they need to
put a helper on a truck or create a scout service or the route, increasing
eciencies, reducing on-route collection costs and improving bottom-
line protability.
Routing and Customer BillingRoute optimization also can be linked to customer billing (invoicing).
Knowing where a collection service providers’ customers are is one thing, but
knowing where the competitor’s customers are is another, at least in “open” not
contracted or non-ranchised markets. Identiy potential growth areas that would
make routes more protable. On–board computers, AVL and RFID are starting
to play a role in optimizing routes. Though each o these products has their
advantages, there is still room or improvement.
A Strong RecommendationThere are many ways to accomplish route optimization. When it comes to
enhancing an organization’s bottom line, take the time to evaluate any product
or service and realize that there are experienced people in the industry that
can assist you and your organization in route optimization, route auditing,
benchmarking operational process improvement and provide you with sotware
Modern map view of points using real-time GIS data. Image courtesy of EPA’s Enviromapper.
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Enhancing Your Bottom Line: Waste and Recycling Collection Vehicle Routing Optimization
32 WasteAdvantage Magazine March 2010
and technology solutions recommendations and post purchase/back-end
support.
Additionally, and as a strong recommendation, consider the sotware or
technology service providers’ back-end (post purchase and product or technologyinstall or implementation) customer service support when purchasing routing
or other sotware and technology tools to allow time to use the sotware or
what is. | WA
Gary Lima is Founder, President and CEO o Stealth Marketing (Yorba Linda,
CA), a service provider or major and smaller haulers and municipalities across the
nation oering owners and operators unparalleled, specialized waste management
services. A pioneer o proprietary route auditing techniques and best practices, Stealth
Marketing is experienced in route smart, caps logistics, GIS, GPS and ESRI sotware,
digital mapping and geo-coding services, proessional consulting and policy and procedure
implementation, cost analysis services and special waste programs. Programs and
ndings are tailored to improve all areas o a company’s business, providing the ultimate
validation that operations are running optimally. This provides peace o mind to clients
and the satisaction that they’re doing all they can to maximize their businesses and
growing prots. Gary can be reached at (714) 469-3571 or via e-mail at garylima@
sbcglobal.net.
Bob Wallace , MBA, is a Principal and Vice President o Client Solutions or WIH
Resource Group (Phoenix, AZ), providing diversied services and extensive experience to
clients in both the private and public sectors. Bob has more than 25 years experience in solid
waste and recycling management, transportation/logistics operations, feet management, alternative vehicle uel solutions (CNG, LNG, Biodiesels, etc.), WastebyRail program
management, recycling/solid waste program planning and development. He has expertise
in the areas o solid waste and recycling collection routing and route auditing, disposal
and transportation rate and contract negotiations and strategic business planning. He
has extensive experience in conducting both solid waste collections and transer station
operational perormance assessments OPAs (a business improvement process). Bob
previously served as a board member or the Arizona Chapter o SWANA and has
served on the National Solid Waste Rate Committee or the American Public Works
Association. He is also a ormer board member o the Caliornia Reuse and Recycling
Association’s Global Recycling Council. Bob can be reached at (480) 241-9994, via
e-mail at [email protected] or visit www.wihrg.com.
Garbage trucks in queuing line at transfer station.Image courtesy of WIH Resource Group.
Sanitation engineers manual rearloading solid waste on-route.Image courtesy of Capital News Service/Maryland Newsline.
©2010 Waste Advantage Magazine, All Rights Reserved.Reprinted from Waste Advantage Magazine.Contents cannot be reprinted without permission from the publisher.
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