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 \u2014 and he\u2019s spent years thinking about where all that waste actually goes.<\/p>\n
We sat down with Nick to talk about what\u2019s coming for Routeware customers, what drew him to the waste industry, and what a typical Tuesday looks like for a TAM.<\/p>\n
Nick\u2019s path to the waste industry started with a simple observation: everyone has waste. It\u2019s not a seasonal market. It\u2019s not a trend. It\u2019s a constant \u2014 and managing it well matters for the planet.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cWe only have one planet,\u201d he says. The job felt meaningful from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe waste industry is full of some of the most kind and caring people I\u2019ve ever worked with. That\u2019s what kept me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2014 Nick Lidstone, TAM<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What he didn\u2019t fully anticipate was the opportunity for innovation. Waste collection has historically run on manual processes \u2014 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\u2019t just watching that change happen \u2014 he\u2019s actively helping deploy technology, gathering feedback from customers, and driving innovation across fleets of all sizes.<\/p>\n
A Day in the Life of a TAM<\/h2>\n
No two days look exactly the same, but a few things are always on the calendar. Nick works closely with municipalities \u2014 learning their departmental goals, understanding their constraints, and figuring out where Routeware can help them.<\/p>\n
Here’s some of his favourite daily activities:<\/p>\n
Customer meetings & check-ins<\/p>\n
Problem solving & support assistance<\/p>\n
Help articles, training videos & documents<\/p>\n
Sharing best practices across clients<\/p>\n
Logging product ideas & enhancements<\/p>\n
Internal training & guidance<\/p>\n
Nick focuses primarily on Routeware’s SmartCity suite, include snow and sweeper, which are waste & fleet solutions for public works teams and more.<\/p>\n
His favourite part? The moment a city shares its vision \u2014 their long-term waste goals, the problems they\u2019re trying to solve \u2014 and Nick gets to map that against tried-and-true technology solutions. It\u2019s strategic, it\u2019s consultative, and it\u2019s different every time.<\/p>\n
The Feature He Can\u2019t Stop Thinking About<\/h2>\n
Ask Nick what\u2019s coming that excites him most, and he doesn\u2019t hesitate: the Howen Camera integration with SmartCity, specifically automated image and video capabilities, capturing photo evidence the moment an exception event is logged.<\/p>\n
\u201cManually taking photos of exceptions can be time consuming \u2014 and in the field, things move fast. Automation closes that gap.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2014 Nick Lidstone, TAM<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Right now, when something goes wrong on a route \u2014 a missed pickup, an inaccessible bin, a contamination event \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
When an exception is triggered, SmartCity will automatically capture video and images tied directly to that event. Back-office teams \u2014 dispatchers, supervisors, customer service reps \u2014 get instant visual context to respond to resident inquiries or go-back requests without playing phone tag with drivers in the field.<\/p>\n
But Nick sees something beyond operational efficiency in this feature. \u201cDrivers are proud of the work they do,\u201d he says. Automated documentation gives them proof: the container wasn\u2019t out, the access was blocked, the job was done correctly. It\u2019s accountability that protects the crew as much as it serves the customer.<\/p>\n
WHY IT MATTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n
Faster resident response \u00b7 Driver accountability \u00b7 Exception documentation \u00b7 Back-office efficiency<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Best Part of Any Day<\/h2>\n
There\u2019s 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 \u2013 or inspiration \u2013 another has been searching for.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\u2019s ongoing employee spotlight series. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 \u2014 and he\u2019s spent years thinking about where all that waste actually goes. We sat down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resourcetype-blog","aud-government","loc-north-america","sol-business-operations","sol-collection-operations","sol-customer-operations","sol-specialty-services"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12480,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475\/revisions\/12480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}