The City of Waterloo, Iowa had long experienced ongoing problems reconciling its billing and inventory systems with the reality of carts in the field. When resident disposal behaviors changed drastically due to stay-at-home orders in March 2020, the City’s waste issues only compounded.
Public Works Director Randy Bennett and Sanitation Director Scott Brunson knew their trucks were collecting more trash than was being billed, but they didn’t know how many carts in the field were not accounted for. They also knew that carts had moved around neighborhoods over time. For example, a neighbor who wanted a second cart might take one from a recently vacated property — and the city had no way to track whose carts were whose.
It was time to turn to technology to help manage carts and collect appropriately for waste services rendered. In 2021, the City implemented onboard computers, truck cameras and fleet automation software from Routeware.
With radio-frequency identification tags installed in carts and tied to cart serial numbers and geospatial data housed within the Routeware Control Center, the City discovered that about nine percent of serviced accounts had errors. In one outstanding case, a single household had been using two carts since 1998 without ever being charged.
With information gathered through Routeware, the City generated an accurate cart inventory and reconciled billing across routes, recouping over $11,000 in solid waste fees every month. They also started saving $2,600 in monthly landfill tipping fees.
“A lot of our savings came from recouping carts we were servicing but that were not being paid for,” said Brunson.
In addition, digital routing created efficiencies, allowing services to scale, and RFID put a stop to further cart migration.
Plus, Routeware’s photo service — which captures address, account number, time, date, and latitude/longitude — enabled the City to enact and enforce a new ordinance around cart use and abuse, ensuring program sustainability and ongoing high levels of customer service.
“When a cart isn’t out, the driver taps ‘skip,’ it takes a photo, and the office knows we don’t need to go back,” said Bennett.
In October 2022 the Iowa Recycling Association presented the City of Waterloo with its Community Award for the City’s sustainability efforts, including the implementation of Routeware. The award was presented at the Iowa Solid Waste and Recycling Conference in Bettendorf, Iowa.
Learn more. Is it time to get a handle on cart inventory, billing, and go-backs? We can help. Let’s talk.
