Waste360: Routeware’s Heather Martin on Using Municipal Fleets as Mobile Data Hubs

With the help of AI-enabled cameras, sensors, and in-cab technology, municipal fleets are becoming a powerful source of street-level data that cities can use to improve operations far beyond sanitation. With the help of data collection, these vehicles are gaining new value with every innovation. In this Q&A, Heather Martin shares how municipalities can leverage fleet-generated data to support smarter decision-making across city operations.

Heather Martin, Director of Product Management at Routeware, sees collection vehicles as an untapped asset for local governments looking to modernize without adding new vehicles, staff, or routes. By treating waste and recycling fleets as mobile data hubs, municipalities can break down departmental silos, improve coordination across public works and infrastructure teams, and move from reactive to more proactive planning.

Martin brings more than 15 years of product leadership experience across utilities, telecommunications, mobile devices, and waste technology. In her role at Routeware, she works closely with cities to help them maximize the value of existing fleet assets, using data-driven insights to improve efficiency, safety, and service delivery.

Waste360: Municipal collection trucks already operate on predictable, citywide routes. Why are these fleets uniquely positioned to serve as a street-level data resource for local governments?

Martin: Municipal collection trucks are uniquely positioned as a street-level data resource because they are often the only vehicles that travel every street in a city on a consistent, predictable schedule. This makes them natural “eyes on the street” for municipalities looking to better understand conditions across their communities. With advanced onboard cameras and sensors, these trucks can identify issues such as potholes, graffiti, or illegal dumping that would otherwise require separate inspection vehicles. Automating the capture and sharing of this information with back-office systems and other city departments allows municipalities to address problems faster while reducing the need for additional vehicles, labor, and fuel.

Waste360: What types of conditions or insights can AI-enabled collection trucks capture that municipalities may be overlooking today?

Martin: AI-enabled collection trucks can capture a wide range of operational and street-level insights that municipalities often lack the capacity to gather today. By combining cameras, sensors, telematics, and driver inputs, AI software can rapidly process large volumes of data and turn them into immediately actionable intelligence. These insights include driver safety trends, vehicle maintenance indicators, service verification, exception logging, and visual records of service issues. When this information flows to the back office, AI-powered tools can enable advanced reporting, optimize routing with real-time adjustments, generate vehicle and service reports, support customer service interactions, and even automate fees and charges—unlocking efficiencies that would be difficult to achieve manually.

Waste360: How does treating waste and recycling fleets as mobile data hubs change the way public works, streets, or stormwater departments can plan and respond to issues?

Martin: Treating waste and recycling fleets as mobile data hubs shifts city operations from reactive to proactive planning and response. As trucks continuously collect and share data, public works, streets, and stormwater departments can use it to model scenarios such as optimal routing during storms or to track debris cleanup that occurs outside normal collection schedules. This shared visibility allows departments to quickly identify emerging issues and coordinate responses across teams. With accurate reporting on what works—and what doesn’t—cities can better plan ahead for labor needs, vehicle maintenance, expanded routes, and additional collection or cleanup requirements.

Waste360: From your experience, what are the biggest operational or cultural barriers that prevent cities from sharing data across departments, and how can those barriers be overcome?

Martin: Historically, cities have faced operational barriers such as legacy analog systems or digital platforms with unstandardized data fields that make sharing information difficult. Cultural barriers also exist, as departments often operate with different budgets, leadership priorities, and objectives, which means they are not always aligned on what data matters most. These challenges can be addressed through the growing trend of centralized IT teams, shared data pools, and centers of innovation that create common standards and governance. Waste and recycling fleets are well positioned to pilot cross-department data capture initiatives, demonstrating clear value and helping build buy-in for broader data sharing across city operations.

Waste360: In what ways does route optimization and in-cab technology support more reliable and actionable data collection during daily operations?

Martin: Route optimization and in-cab technology make data collection more reliable by reducing the burden placed on drivers during daily operations. By guiding drivers through optimized routes and automating much of the data capture, these tools allow drivers to focus on safe driving and successful route completion rather than manual reporting. As fleets have moved from paper-based processes to digital systems, data has become more consistent and complete, and increasingly autonomous technologies now require minimal driver input. The result is time savings for drivers, more structured and analyzable data, and real-time visibility into route progress, service exceptions, and operational performance.

Waste360: Can you share examples of how municipalities are already using fleet-generated data beyond sanitation to improve broader city services or decision-making?

Martin: Routeware works with a range of waste fleets (recycling, organics, site services) as well as snowplow operations and street sweeper fleets. All of these fleets benefit from truck data to improve the efficiency of their routing, the safety of their drivers, the communication available to their back-office teams, and the overall satisfaction of their residents. Additionally, this data is making reporting internally or externally easier, with clear recommendations for uncovering cost savings, balancing driver hours, or improving sustainability efforts.

Waste360: As cities look to modernize operations, how should leaders think about maximizing the value of assets they already own, such as collection vehicles and fleet technology?

Martin: As cities modernize operations, leaders should focus on getting more value from assets they already own rather than trying to transform everything at once. The key is to not boil the ocean—start by identifying a few unanswered questions or gaps in street-level intelligence that directly impact service delivery or costs. From there, cities can test targeted digital technologies on existing collection vehicles to capture and analyze that information. This measured approach allows teams to prove value quickly, save time and money, and build momentum for broader modernization efforts.