Finding Your Way Home

No operation appears to be so simple as curbside collection of municipal solid waste (MSW). No technology is so basic as the truck that does the hauling. But high tech has transformed the practice of solid waste collection, and with it the waste management industry. Equipped with GPS, waste collection trucks can be tracked in real time, their performance evaluated and their efficiency maximized—resulting in increased profits for the waste operator and better service for his customers.

Factors Affecting Hauling Efficiency
On average, a typical waste collection truck travels 25,000 miles per year, covering routes from its service garage to collection routes, to the landfill, and back. Day in and day out, this workhorse and crew provide a much-needed service to the community, ensuring health and quality of life in the process. The typical waste hauling truck gets under 3 miles per gallon, and uses 8,000–9,000 gallons of fuel per year (Cannon 1986).

In addition to labor costs, the costs of a fleet of waste trucks consist of fuel and maintenance. By maximizing the route efficiency of each truck, all three costs factors can be minimized. The crews can pick up more waste per hour, the truck travel fewer miles each year, which minimizes the need for maintenance, and annual fuel costs are reduced.

There are several cost factors that have a unique effect on waste hauling efficiency. Meeting time windows is a key performance parameter. Transfer stations, maintenance yards, material recovery facilities (MRFs), and landfills have operational time windows that hauling trucks should meet to meet delivery times and avoid unnecessary queuing. Approaching pickup points, whether residential or commercial, usually require right hand side pickups, which can limit approach options.

Waste haulers have to account for vehicle capacity, compaction ratios, and the number of disposal round trips required for each route. Furthermore, the truck fleet has to operate under various conditions and scenarios that will affect vehicle time and performance. (For example, there can be a significant difference between winter and summer operations.) And each type of pickup (residential, commercial, or rolloff) will require different operational rules governing time of pickup, the amount of waste that is collected, safety procedures, access, and such.

Navigational and Positioning Systems
Like the Internet, the now-common GPS devices grew out of a Cold War application. GPS is actually part of a larger system, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a system of synchronized satellites used to pinpoint the geographical location (northing, easting, and elevation) of the receiver unit. GPS is the American system, while the Russians operate the Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), and the European system is called Galileo. Each operates a system of orbiting satellites working together with a series of ground stations. Originally available to civilian users with accuracy deliberately limited for political and security reasons to only 100 meters, after the year 2000 the GPS was made available to the public with accuracies to within 15 meters. Technological advances now allow for accuracy to within 1 meter.

Though a complicated technology, the actual operation of a GNSS is rather straightforward in principal. GNSS utilizes triangulation to locate the user. This triangulation is derived from calculations based on digital information broadcast by each satellite. This information consists of coded signals (which get converted into position, time and velocity values by the receiver) transmitted at precise intervals. The satellites distance can be measured by the signal’s time delay. Using the signals from four or more satellites allows the GPS unit to calculate its exact position.

The Telematics Solution
Not to be confused with telemetry (the simple transmission of measurements and information without affecting the movement of remote vehicles), telematics combines telecommunications, vehicle technology, roadway safety and vehicle sensors, data base management, and Wi-Fi communication. Using vehicle telematics, individual truck operators and vehicle fleet managers can send, receive, and store information concerning the location and movement of the truck. Both the tracking of truck movement in real time, and the accumulated data on its usage can be used to improve its operational efficiency. For waste hauling trucks, this requires a telemetric system that integrates telecommunications (both digital and verbal), GPS technology, and automotive navigational systems. There are multiple advantages provided by this technology.

There are two types of GPS tracking systems: passive and active. Data from passive systems is downloaded for review and analysis after completion of the operation. It is a recording of the vehicle operation, which can later be downloaded into a computer for further analysis.

Active systems, on the other hand, broadcast data in real time for concurrent analysis and observation. Radio signals provide information concerning the trucks location and how efficiently it is being used. Other data is directly downloaded into the database maintained at the main office and can be called up for review as needed. Data is sent via radio signals by cellular phone app, radio, or satellite hookup. GIS screen interfaces back at the home office display the truck’s location and movement in relation to the local road network and the truck planned hauling routes. The above sounds complicated, but it is really just a recent extension of the methods long used by the shipping industry to track cargo.

It uses established technology as well as established methods. Where they operate actually makes the application of this technology easier. Operating on city streets and country roads, waste truck GPS systems do not need to be concerned with overhead obstructions except for the occasional overpass or bridge. So the need for a direct line antenna is not normally an issue. GPS modules can be used for the transmission of voice communication as well as data transmission. If the fleet manager notices on the GIS screen interface that a truck is not following its designated hauling route or meeting its pickup and disposal deadline, the driver can relay a verbal description of what is preventing the truck from doing so. This information (road construction zones slowing traffic, frequency of vehicle accidents that affect road movement, etc.) is also added to the fleet database and worked into its route planning and scheduling. GPS units can even operate as anti-theft protection systems.

Why Telematics?
These technologies allow the use of real-time data management from the field to the supervisor’s office. They can also potentially provide data to other interested stakeholders if required. Selected data can be forwarded to dispatchers, fleet managers, landfills, or other types of terminals, customers, or interested parties—all in real time, and with relevant information pertinent to each. Data can also be prepared for review by government agencies such as municipal sanitation departments or state departments of transportation.

Not only do these technologies improve operational efficiency, they can also improve vehicle safety. In addition to tracking truck movements in coordination with known traffic patterns, more integral safety data (such as truck tire pressure), J-bus, or electronic on board recorders (EOBRs) and driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) ensure safety compliance can provide safety-related data. This allows drivers to meet Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) requirements so that “prior to requiring or permitting a driver to operate a vehicle, every motor carrier or its agent shall repair any defect or deficiency listed on the driver vehicle inspection report, which would be likely to affect the safety of operation of the vehicle.”

These systems allow for the automation of driver dispatching of loads through polygonal geofencing. In polygonal geofencing, a polygon is drawn around the route or area. Using this method, GPS Tracking devices can be tracked, inside or outside of the polygon. When the geofencing device enters or exits the area, a notification is created. The notification can contain information about the location of the device and can be sent to a variety of receivers, including individual cell phones.

Given its significant value, GPS-based telematics has been thoroughly adopted by the waste management industry. But each industry adopts new technology at a rate determined by its unique economic and technological pressures. Oil and gas, for example, are under greater pressure to gain efficiencies since they are undergoing rapid expansion and have limited qualified manpower and other resources. MSW haulers are more motivated by the constant need to reduce operating costs. The increased efficiencies, improved safety and higher cash flows velocity drive the MSW industry like any other industry. Usually the technology expands by example. When landfills see what waste haulers can do with this new software and hardware, its advantages become obvious.

But financial considerations, such as ROI, are not the only factors affecting the decision to adopt this new technology. In broad strokes, this statement is a universal truth, but each industry operates under a unique business model. So this technology will have different impacts on different bottom lines depending on whether it is being use directly by landfills, waste collection truck fleets, rail haulers, or transfer station trailers. Often, this return is difficult to quantify in the long term and can have a ripple effect throughout the operation, leading to other aspects of the business operating at higher efficiency and increase profitability as well.

So there is nothing simple about waste collection and hauling. It’s not just about going from A to B, to C to D, and back again, collecting waste and disposing of it along the way. Laying out an optimum waste collection and hauling route is an iterative process that has to take into account dozens of factors for waste quantities to weather conditions. The software used for routing and tracking lays out the most efficient work plan and then continuously evaluates its current layout, adjusting and tweaking it until optimization is achieved. But once achieved, this optimized route and its continuous evaluation with telematics systems results in decreased costs, timely deliveries and pickups, controls crew operations, balances workloads, and optimizes labor resources.

Telematics can provide significant benefits no matter the size of your operation, no matter if you’re a nationwide corporation or a local community. An example of the former is industry giant, Waste Management:

After a flurry of acquisitions and a merger with USA Waste, WM found itself with a large fleet of vehicles whose routing, dispatching, maintenance, and management were decentralized. WM recognized that it could reduce operating costs by improving its use of assets. It contracted with the Institute of Information Technology to develop WasteRoute, a comprehensive route-management system that took into account WM’s specific routing concerns and provided broad benefits. . . . The system reduced operating costs, provided better customer service, and determined appropriate prices. . . . By the end of 2003, WM had 984 fewer routes, saving $18 million. –“Routing Optimization for Waste Management,” Sahoo, et al. 2005.

An example of the latter can be found in Redlands, CA:

The City of Redlands, California was interested in using a geographic information system (GIS) to help determine cost savings for the collection and transportation of its solid waste. Studies have shown that 60–80% of a municipality’s waste budget goes towards the collection and transportation phase. . . . This study used a GIS to model current and proposed collection patterns using Esri’s ArcGIS Network Analyst software. The software was used to determine optimal routes for small collection groups and outlines the workflow and best practices for future analysis throughout the city. –“Solid Waste Collection Vehicle Route Optimization for the City of Redlands, CA,” O’Connor, D. L. 2013.

Major Suppliers and Developers
Fleetmatics is the largest supplier of fleet management solutions in the western hemisphere. The “Fleetmatics WORK” field service app technology applies telematics to the improvement of truck fleet operational efficiency. WORK is an Android or iOA (Apple) compatible application that allows for the easy exchange of data and information between trucks in the field and the home office. WORK automatically stores information in the operator’s system, eliminating extensive paperwork, and allows for the creation of client invoices with the captured client signature. Without placing or receiving a call, truck drivers can accept a job, send status updates, and even close a work order. WORK can be simply loaded to any tablet or smartphone. WORK allows drivers to receive job information, send and receive details and updates, view job schedules, receive directions to the next job, invoice clients directly from the mobile device, receive alerts, receive job alerts in multiple formats (SMS, e-mails, or push notifications), and record and store images of the jobsite. It’s basically the Swiss Army knife of telematic apps.

The GPS Fleet Solutions Fleetistics GO Series software is used by five of the 10 top truck fleets in the US. This fleet management software allows for productivity tracking, fleet location sharing (via ­MyFleetView), dispatching, second-by-second GPS tracking (using ExacTrax technology), collection of engine performance, and safety data. Not only does its smart tracking update vehicle position, its telematics monitor vehicle behavior. A built-in accelerometer monitors sudden movements such as harsh braking, swerving, fast starts, and engine revving. Its database can manage information from both simple highway miles, to complicated stop-and-go city driving. Armed with this information, fleet managers can focus their driver training on accident avoidance, efficient driving, and meeting customer response times.

Since it was first introduced in 2005, GPS Insight’s customizable fleet tracking software for fleet-based businesses, including waste haulers. Combining vehicle tracking with historical fleet data, it is fully integrated with Garmin and can use mobile app interfaces. Its “Dashboard” interface shows the locations of trucks and other assets in real time along with their current status—the entire truck fleet can be controlled form this one screen display. Display flexibility is provided by “dashlets” showing vehicle location lists, alerts, graphs, messages, landmark visits, and such.

Its mapping function can utilize Google Maps or 3D Google Earth. Map views include standard, satellite, terrain, traffic, and “Street View” (street level photos). It supports thousands of vehicles and designated landmarks for route guidance, as well as visual analysis of the truck fleet’s speeding, odd-hours usage, and idling incidents. The truck fleet’s historical activity can be displayed in a time-lapse video.

Messaging capability allows for automatic issuance of proactive messages and customizable alerts (speeding, excessive idle time, long stops, odd hours of operation, and diagnostic trouble codes) to management and drivers. Direct SMS text messaging and queries are available on any mobile device or Garmin display. Integration with geofencing creates alerts when trucks leave designated operational areas or approach designated landmark locations.

GPS Trackit provides fleet tracking and driver accountability software. What makes its Fleet Manager 3.5 unique is how it introduces a waste hauling workforce. The training emphasis is on coaching. The approach minimizes future disciplinary actions, because it helps to get employees take voluntary ownership and get actively involved in addressing any challenges or changes to be made. Instead of imposing standard and procedures from above, coaching allows the driver to assume ownership, which leads to addressing problems at the roots. The interactive process of coaching itself improves manager/employee relations and leads to greater retention (and cost savings).

For over 35 years, Martindale Associates has solved automation and control challenges for the solid waste industry. These solutions include mobile data collection for household and hazardous waste, recycling tracking systems, inventory management and automated vendor collection, reporting software, and vehicle tracking. The product line includes mobile data collection systems, handheld computers and PDAs, RFID systems, and wireless networks. The Martindale Vehicle Tracking System automates the vehicle tracking process. Employing advanced RFIS technology, the tracking system collects data from vehicles entering the facility and records it to a database, uses the information for reporting and billing, and validates and authorizes the hauler (while recording the date, time, and scale readings). The hardware servicing of this system includes Cisco ­Aeronet wireless LAN, Tagsys RFID tags and readers, ­Transcore RFID tags and readers, and Psion ­Teklogix RFID.

MotionLink provides mobile workforce management platforms including vehicle tracking as well as scheduling and route optimization. The platforms for waste management trucks are integrated solutions that track and optimize crew operations, containers, and vehicles. It records and saves performance data concerning vehicles, drivers, containers, and customers. It manages pickup requests without extensive paperwork. Route and schedule optimization is performed by advanced algorithms accessing a configurable constraints leverage data system. The platform allows for real-time dispatch and route modifications. Driver performance is tracked and monitored, using geofence monitoring to issue driver behavior alerts and notifications. It takes this accumulated data to analyze and report on productivity, performance, and customer satisfaction

PragmaTech Ltd. offers Pandora intelligent networks tailor-made for the waste management industry, especially facilities utilizing compactors and balers. The system allows for better control of hauling practices, and thus allows for reduction in service disruption while optimizing overall service. For example, Pandora will schedule pickups only when the compactor reaches a specified fullness level, eliminating costs for unnecessary collections. It uses machine-to-machine wireless communications allowing individual machines to remotely indicate they are working correctly and efficiently—without human oversight. It also tracks performance information of compactors and bailers (ram pressure, operating time, number of bales, cycles, etc.), making it accessible to multiple stakeholders in real time. Operational data allows for the scheduling of service calls based on actual operational cycles and in advance of a potential breakdown.

Developed and managed by waste industry professionals, RouteOptix Management ­Systems provides customer management, vehicle routing, mapping technology, and billing software. It tracks customer data and provides customer service (including creation of work orders and billing), and also ­allows for visual dispatching. RouteOptix provides real-time status of completed and scheduled pickups, dynamic tracking of haul routes, and immediate updates based on performance statistics. It utilizes MapPoint technology to graphically analyze business operations based on multiple parameters (service type, sales rep, frequency of pickup, quantity, type of waste, etc.).

RouteSmart Technologies Inc. and the RouteSmart for ArcGIS software allows fleet operators to balance route assignments (based on trip times, number of vehicles, number and location of service stops, vehicle capacity, and optimization of sequenced stops). It automatically selects optimum disposal and unloading sites. The telematics portion of this system is the RouteSmart navigator. This is a dashboard mounted in vehicle navigation system fully integrated with RouteSmart for ArcGIS.

It has industry specific settings such as being set to announce service containers for waste collection. It can create in-route reports that provide information concerning changes in service locations of roadway construction zones. It also guides drivers through the RouteSmart-optimized route using advanced video and audio cues. Driven by the Nexcom VMC 1000 touchscreen Windows system with GPS and integrated cellular communication, it can send updates to devices in vehicles via integrated cellular service.

Spireon Inc.’s multiple award ­“Goldstar CMS” GPS vehicle tracking system is designed for simplicity of operation. FleetLocate products are configurable and scalable, and can provide information on driver performance, fleet utilization, and profitability. Enterprise Fleet is designed for large (1,000+ vehicles) truck fleets and is a highly scalable GPS fleet tracking package. The series includes the ­FL18Z, designed as a universal solution for 24/7 visibility and continuous tracking, and the larger data capacity FL600 that includes accurate tacking of vehicle performance and driver compliance (speeding, idling, used off-hours, or at undesirable locations).

The Local Fleet management solutions (2–500 vehicles) are for small- to mid-sized hauling firms. The FL18 is designed with Code Division Multiple Access technology, allowing on-demand location of trucks and loads. Working in conjunction with its telemetric software, Spireon’s FL11 Trailer & Equipment fleet management hardware provides small- and medium-sized businesses with the tools for efficient fleet management. At the smaller end of the scale is the FL700, a pure battery-powered CDMA GPS tracking device. It allows for asset management where power isn’t available. The VehiclePath VP2500 Series uses both CDMA and GSM technology for greater operation and communication flexibility.

Fleet management software from Collective Data provides the tools need to optimize waste collection and hauling. These tools include: detailed fleet equipment tracking, fleet maintenance scheduling, shop and work order management, part inventory tracking, and fuel management. As a scalable program, the collectiveFleet 6 can accommodate changes in fleet organization over the long-term.

Desert Micro’s “Recycle Manager” software is the industry’s only software package exclusively devoted to managing the hauling of recycled materials. As an integrated tool for the tracking of recycling materials from generator to market or mill, it allows for automated management of each stage of the process. The “Recycle Manager” software allows the user to see all sides of brokered transaction from the load screen. It specifies the generator and grade of the load, while automatically populating the price each generator is paid for a particular grade of recycled material. It then details the destination or mill the load is being sent to, automatically calculating the fees associated.

InSight USA is a provider of multi-functional solutions that provide fleet managers with real-time visibility concerning vehicle operations and work patterns. Named by “CIO Review” as one of the year’s “20 Most Promising Logistics Tech Solution Providers”, InSight USA’s software package “StreetEagle” enable