Driven by Purpose: A Conversation with Nick Lidstone, Technical Account Manager

Not everyone can trace their career back to sorting recycling with their parents. Nick Lidstone can. As a Technical Account Manager (TAM) at Routeware, Nick spends his days helping cities and waste haulers make the most of their technology — and he’s spent years thinking about where all that waste actually goes.

We sat down with Nick to talk about what’s coming for Routeware customers, what drew him to the waste industry, and what a typical Tuesday looks like for a TAM.

What Drew Him In — and What Kept Him

Nick’s path to the waste industry started with a simple observation: everyone has waste. It’s not a seasonal market. It’s not a trend. It’s a constant — and managing it well matters for the planet.

He grew up sorting recycling with his family and genuinely wondered where it all went. That curiosity evolved into a professional conviction: waste needs to be handled efficiently, disposed of properly, and managed with intention. “We only have one planet,” he says. The job felt meaningful from the start.

“The waste industry is full of some of the most kind and caring people I’ve ever worked with. That’s what kept me.”

— Nick Lidstone, TAM

What he didn’t fully anticipate was the opportunity for innovation. Waste collection has historically run on manual processes — paper-based, radio-dispatched, experience-over-data. That creates genuine space for technology to make a difference. In his role as a TAM, Nick isn’t just watching that change happen — he’s actively helping deploy technology, gathering feedback from customers, and driving innovation across fleets of all sizes.

A Day in the Life of a TAM

No two days look exactly the same, but a few things are always on the calendar. Nick works closely with municipalities — learning their departmental goals, understanding their constraints, and figuring out where Routeware can help them.

Here’s some of his favourite daily activities:

Customer meetings & check-ins

Problem solving & support assistance

Help articles, training videos & documents

Sharing best practices across clients

Logging product ideas & enhancements

Internal training & guidance

Nick focuses primarily on Routeware’s SmartCity suite, include snow and sweeper, which are waste & fleet solutions for public works teams and more.

His favourite part? The moment a city shares its vision — their long-term waste goals, the problems they’re trying to solve — and Nick gets to map that against tried-and-true technology solutions. It’s strategic, it’s consultative, and it’s different every time.

The Feature He Can’t Stop Thinking About

Ask Nick what’s coming that excites him most, and he doesn’t hesitate: the Howen Camera integration with SmartCity, specifically automated image and video capabilities, capturing photo evidence the moment an exception event is logged.

“Manually taking photos of exceptions can be time consuming — and in the field, things move fast. Automation closes that gap.”

— Nick Lidstone, TAM

Right now, when something goes wrong on a route — a missed pickup, an inaccessible bin, a contamination event — documenting it often falls on the driver. That means fumbling for a phone, capturing the right angle, and making sure it gets logged correctly. The new integration changes that equation entirely.

When an exception is triggered, SmartCity will automatically capture video and images tied directly to that event. Back-office teams — dispatchers, supervisors, customer service reps — get instant visual context to respond to resident inquiries or go-back requests without playing phone tag with drivers in the field.

But Nick sees something beyond operational efficiency in this feature. “Drivers are proud of the work they do,” he says. Automated documentation gives them proof: the container wasn’t out, the access was blocked, the job was done correctly. It’s accountability that protects the crew as much as it serves the customer.

WHY IT MATTERS

Faster resident response · Driver accountability · Exception documentation · Back-office efficiency

The Best Part of Any Day

There’s also something he finds genuinely valuable in the cross-pollination of ideas. When one city figures out a smarter approach to a persistent problem, Nick brings that learning to the next conversation. The best practices that emerge from one municipality often turn out to be the solution – or inspiration – another has been searching for.

 

Nick Lidstone is a Technical Account Manager at Routeware, where he works with municipalities to help them get more from their waste management technology. This post is part of Routeware’s ongoing employee spotlight series.