Scales and Software

It is through his company 5280 Waste Solutions in Denver, CO, that Bill Bradley developed awareness for the need for software solutions addressing transportation planning, management, and logistics to address the inefficiencies he sees inherent in solid waste operations. Bradley represents a multitude of operations seeking to turn the numbers into useful data for systems management and billing efficiencies.

A software professional by trade, Bradley purchased the waste recycling business nearly four years ago with a partner. 5280 Waste Solutions provides roll-off services throughout the Colorado Front Range, focusing on LEED construction projects and recycling. “All we do is run open-top and closed-top roll-offs, C&D, and asbestos,” says Bradley. The company has 24 trucks and 1,200 containers.

“The profound inefficiencies became painfully obvious to me after we acquired this business,” he says. “One of the inefficiencies existing in our market is the difference between what we pay to tip a container in town at a convenient transfer station and out of town at a full-fledged landfill. It can be as much as a 300% difference.”

On a lighter container, the difference is indiscernible, but costs add up for heavier containers, Bradley notes. In-house analyses showed that the company, in paying per ton, shelled out $14,000 more during July 2015 for hauling it to a Denver transfer station instead of trucking the waste to the landfill.

“Even accounting for additional truck time, labor, and fuel, we still could have saved close to $10,000 that month,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Bradley sought to address the challenges by building his own software product for an expected January 2016 release that provides a complete business process automation for the roll-off industry: Western Star, which delivers solutions through its Starlight software.

The software is being used on CleralUSA scales integrated into each roll-off truck and could be used on other scales, says Bradley. “The scale accurately and quickly determines the net weight of the container contents,” he says.

Information is communicated via Bluetooth from the scale to a driver’s phone, which relays the weight value over a cellular network back to company servers. The software is run as a service in The Cloud.

“Depending on the threshold business owners set for weight decisions, the value that comes from the scale on the truck may trigger a decision on where to take that load,” says Bradley, adding his company sets a three-ton threshold.

In his company, a dispatcher and truck driver takes the load wherever they deem best if the weight is below the threshold.

If the weight value exceeds 3 tons, the software immediately alerts the dispatcher of the vehicle’s location on an electronic map, as well as the three closest disposal facilities that accept the material

on the truck and the disposal costs for the material based on the per ton charge to tip at the facility. That, plus trucking costs for a total cost to dispose, offers the dispatcher information on the best disposal choice.

The dispatcher clicks the desired facility, which instantly updates the work order on the driver’s phone and instructs that driver to go to a specific location.

Bradley developed the software to address end-to-end needs to mitigate problems he saw associated with “mix and match” software approaches. His waste company, which beta-tested the software, has achieved “complete mastery” over its order system, he says.

“From work order distribution to the drivers, we can manage driver efficiency and disposal efficiency,” says Bradley. “We have complete billing integration and detail carryover to our accounting system. We’re completely paperless. The cost savings has been tremendous.”

Cleral’s on-board scales are designed to work on a variety of axle configurations. Howard Baker, managing partner for CleralUSA, the US distributor for Cleral Inc., points out that the next era of onboard weighing will focus on using the weight data to properly distribute weight on the axle groups and control certain truck functions.

“Most companies using scales now are primarily looking to monitor axle weights on the truck to be legal on the road,” notes Baker. “It’s moving in the direction where the weight that was picked up is what will determine the economical disposal site to save money and trips on the road.”

Baker uses the term “mechatronics” to describe the new systems, which includes Sentinel, a wireless onboard axle weight monitoring system for trucks and trailers. The handheld monitor displays real-time gross and axle weights with distribution simultaneously within a radius of 800 feet from the vehicle. Weights can be displayed in net (payload) or gross (GVW) and other selected units. Up to eight channels—axle groups—can be displayed.

Although CleralUSA is a preferred partner with Starlight software for the industry’s roll-off sector, Baker says his company can work with any software to provide scale protocol and enable the technology to interface with the scale system.

Creative Microsystems’ LoadMan offers both on-board truck scales and LoadMan Load Management (LLM) software. The company works with third-party software vendors Soft-Pak, Trux, and Geo-Tab when the application requires features not offered in LLM.

The University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) uses LLM for its closed economic system to capture and report all data within a confined campus. Senior Superintendent of Grounds Services Roger Edberg notes that his department is the material handler for UCSC, which serves an estimated population of 17,000. The operation has three front loader trucks and 250 Dumpsters for trash, cardboard, and mixed recyclables.

The operation has historically tracked a significant amount of data regarding each dumpster stop made through visual estimations for billing purposes, says Edberg. “They’ve recorded that just for diversion rates and to try to bill off of that,” he adds. The campus operates according to a University of California mandate that its 10 state universities and five medical centers aim for zero landfill waste by 2020.

When Edberg came on board, he noted the system was dependent upon guessing and did not favor the quality of the data. In 2010, he began exploring other ways to measure the fullness of a dumpster. The choice: LoadMan on-board truck scales and load management software. LoadMan’s weight-based system on the forks provided the desired components: data collection, GPS, and cellular connectivity to a central collection of data.

Edberg secured nearly $20,000 in seed funding from the college’s sustainability office to invest in the operation’s first set of forks and software. “We set up a new truck with LoadMan at the time of purchase and then we got another new truck replacing an old fleet. You couldn’t even put scales on the forks of our old fleet, but as we got new trucks, we got them with scales. Now all of our three front loader trucks are equipped with LoadMan forks and LM400 with GPS.”

LoadMan LM400 is an on-board computer for fork-based, commercial refuse trucks that incorporates a touch-screen graphical user interface and a Route Assistant application for waste and recycling. The dumpster identification comes from georouting, enabling the database to collect billing information at a Dumpster location. As each route driver completes the route, the Dumpsters are identified, weighed, and the data is sent to the central computer.

Edberg’s department had conducted a financial analysis of going to a weight-based system. “We were running both sets of data, the volume continuing, and we had the weight-based data and could project how it would work financially to go to a weight-based system. We run it price per pound so we could model with real-time data how it would work at our proposed rates, and then set up projections for the campus customers. We showed them the models of what it would look like, and got approval to go to weight-based billing.”

The program was initiated July 1, 2015. On-demand dumpster collection is another benefit of weight-based billing, Edberg points out. “We started experimenting with on-demand collection routing where we only picked up dumpsters when they were above a certain threshold. We didn’t pick up empty dumpsters. The only way we could make that work financially is if we were billing by weight because if we reduced the amount of billing by pick-up, then we reduce our income, or we’d have to vastly increase our volume unit price in order to make that work.

“It still didn’t seem like a good idea,” he continues, “so we are now using Compology camera-based sensors on all of the dumpsters on campus. That records the fullness level in each dumpster and sends that to a dashboard and pads in each of the trucks or a computer dashboard in the office.”

The alerts help the operation develop a daily route list based on picking up dumpsters that are 60% full or greater. “We base our routes on the fullness level, and we bill by the weight,” says Edberg. “When we’re billing by weight, it doesn’t matter if we pick up the same amount of weight in three trips or one—we still get the same income from that, but we reduce our expenses by picking it up just once.”

The information imported into LoadMan is exported into Excel spreadsheets; billing is developed from that. The Compology data used as a route developer enables the operation to double-check its data. The drivers still log their routes.

“We have three ways to check what happened in the field,” notes Edberg. “If we lose a point of data from one of the systems, we can usually back it up one way or another.”

Carolina Software’s WasteWORKS features fully integrated billing and reporting, says Jon Leeds, company vice president. “There is no requirement to move or post data to another system to make it useful,” he adds.

WasteWORKS provides for balance forward accounting, open invoice accounting, or a combination, says Leeds.

The reporting function includes a range of built-in or stock reports. “Data doesn’t have to be exported to utilize these stock reports,” he says. “For customers who want customization, the software has external tools such as Crystal Reports and Microsoft SQL Report Builder.”

Automated delivery addresses end users’ needs for daily reporting that encompasses specific data in targeted formats. WasteWORKS collects the ticketing data and delivers it according to customer specifications, explains Leeds.

Case in point: A solid waste supervisor may want a daily mail at
5 a.m. to review the previous day’s tonnages. That is delivered through the automatic e-mail module and provides automated report/ticket/billing delivery to an operation’s staff, customers, or other needed regular report information, Leeds adds. Images and scanned documents also can be imbedded in the ticket and report documents.

Tracey Lodato is the fiscal manager for Florida’s Lee County Solid Waste, where she has been using WasteWORKS with Fairbanks Scales for years through its various upgrades. “It collects all of our data—all of our inbound and outbound material,” she notes. “We’re able to pull from the system each customer’s activity and a statement form, and run [multiple] series of different reports using Crystal Reports.”

Lodato’s advice to choosing the right software for a waste operation is to “make sure it’s going to offer up what is needed and what efficiencies they want.”

Lee County’s operation is set up to send electronic statements, freeing up staff time.

Vulcan Onboard Scales’ refuse industry solutions enable users to use and add various modules to meet technological and budgetary needs, says Eric Elefson, Vulcan Onboard Scales’ director of sales and marketing.

The self-sustaining scale system provides local data or data remotely to other platforms “or grander decision-making platforms that could involve us or not, depending on what they’re trying to do,” says Elefson.

The technology ties into roll-offs, front loaders, rear loaders, transfer trucks, transfer trailers, side loaders, dump trucks, and hook lifts, Elefson says, adding that “even though they are all scaled differently, the information would be piped out in the same way.”`

Vulcan Onboard Scales’ technology enables operators to “do the daily work of obtaining weights, making decisions on the fly for safety and economic reasons, but also to have that data typed out of the back of our electronics in a non-proprietary, open architecture stream that could then be used for different types of packages.

“That could be all the way from productivity and efficiency relating to the economic viability of the business to safety tracking of who is overweight the most by how much, where, what accounts are heavy versus others and doing statistical analysis,” says Elefson.

The company has seen programs “come and go” and currently is doing projects with Routeware, FleetMind, Geotab, and Zonar Systems.

“We provide the packet they can use to do whatever they have to do,” notes Elefson. “It might have to do with an accounting or productivity function. Some people use our data to set pricing levels or at least develop a pricing matrix where they know who the heavies and the lights are and even all the way down to tracking drivers. If you have a fleet of 20 and there’s one specific area that is an overweight issue, it can track and analyze that data.”

The Solid Waste Authority of West Palm Beach in Florida analyzes the data to help make decisions in rotating equipment in and out through multiple sites and multiple lanes per site, says Elefson.

“A lot of times in our industry there are trade-offs among accuracies, installation ease and price,” says Elefson. “We try to work with the end user to go through two or three options to figure out what they’re trying to do, which could be from controlling weight precisely to only worrying about not being heavy.

“We keep the data lanes open so that they’re not stuck with one provider. There is strength in having two or three software systems that are strongest in their field.”

The benefits of an integrated approach to operational software include having one database and one set of reports to manage, points out Scott P. Fisher, national sales director for EnCORE financial and operational software for CORE Computing Solutions. EnCORE software is an integrated system incorporating the needs of a hauler, recycling operation, landfill, transfer station, or MRF, says Fisher.

The enterprise-class suite of software is built on one centralized Microsoft SQL Server database. It is designed to capture information on a truck scale, floor scale, onboard truck scale, and inbound and outbound scale, as well as a multiple facility inbound and outbound scale, material re-grading, and material inventory by yard or location.

The Core Office Application enables the tracking of customer service, billing, collections, dispatch, scale ticketing, productivity, and financial reporting. It also features a customer Web portal.

“With an integrated system, the routing and hauling associated with the material ticket is completely seamless,” points out Fisher. “The truck comes across the scale. It knows the route and/or work order, the customer identification, the material, and the rate associated for the material. This speeds up getting the truck across the scale. Time is money at any scale location.”

EnCORE’s integrated Scale Module is NTEP-certified, PCI-compliant, and legal for Point of Sale for buy-back centers.

The software manages LEED-certified projects and allows for material loads to be graded with multiple materials so the load composition is tracked and LEED reporting can be automated, says Fisher.

It also manages the material’s origin, including multi-state and province, a key issue when reporting to municipalities and with state line issues, Fisher says.

Each stop’s weight is recorded on an onboard Android tablet. The software ties directly onto the onboard scale via Bluetooth from the scale head to the tablet PC, Fisher says, adding it’s a useful function for route audits.

“Onboard scales are not legal for point of service transactions as they are not yet considered to be accurate enough,” he adds.

Qv21 Technologies provides a multi-faceted Cloud-based transportation logistics system, The LogisticsFramework (TLF), a SaaS solution used in a multitude of applications, including MSW.

It incorporates trucking dispatch, mobile communications, GPS tracking, data synchronization, and D.O.T. compliance through electronic onboard recording and driver vehicle inspection reports.

The software is designed to address the challenge of drivers having to fill out or obtain paper tickets for each load, be it picking it up from the transfer station, taking it out to the landfill or doing work in a landfill, says Kurt Brown, Qv21 Technologies’ regional sales manager.

“Whether it was the weight or the quantity that they hauled or the miles traveled, they needed that ticket information back at the office in as accurate as a format they could get and as quickly as they could get for invoicing, as well as accurate information for future planning and routing.”

Another benefit is the ability to manage truck dispatching and location in such a way as to “very carefully” manage relationships with unionized labor, Brown adds.

Additionally, the software was designed to “extend the visibility of the workforce accurately and quickly to get data to the back office in order to do a better job with payroll and invoicing and an improved cash flow and to do a better job of planning for drivers, labor, dispatchers, maintenance, and market planning,” says Brown.

The software can go on any Android device and can be used with any scale system, he adds.

Ease of use is important when choosing software, Brown points out. “If a system is not easy to use, it doesn’t matter how good it is on the back end or how sophisticated the analytic reports are or how amazing the accounting system is,” he says. “If you’re not collecting accurate data from the field, it doesn’t matter.

“You have to provide your employees easy-to-use technology that they will use so that you are sure you’re getting good data in from the system to begin with,” he adds.

Brown also suggests that software decisions should not be solely in the hands of senior management, but also should take into account those who are going to use it.

“Let them use it, get their hands on it,” he says. “That will tell you right away what kind of adoption you’re going to have on the front end of the systems.”