In the solid waste facility of the future, integrated software will tie the front office to operations and drivers to customer service.

By Penelope Grenoble O'Malley

The emerging field of informal technology (IT) is making inroads in the solid waste industry with software programs to automate previously labor-intensive functions from weighing to billing to report writing. Large operations such as the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) in New Jersey have gone so far as to install IT departments, but managers of smaller operations can take advantage of outside consultants and custom software experts to help get them what they need from off-the-shelf programs.

Both software developers and users agree that the name of the game is integration, but two other observations are also clear: No amount of software is going to solve problems you don't anticipate, and whatever you buy will be more effective if you keep your entire operation in mind. Think outside the box, says Robert Garcia of Soft-Pak Inc. in San Diego, which markets billing software that comes with features in collection, dispatching, routing, inventory, payment processing, customer service, and what Garcia describes as productivity and profitability. "It's a pretty impressive package and it all goes together," he says. "You can't buy just one part."

Additional advice comes from Doug Kobold, solid waste planner for the Sacramento County Municipal Services Agency (MSA), who urges MSW managers to consider not only where they are now but where their organization is headed. "The first step is to evaluate what your true needs are on input and output," Kobold says. "Make sure the structure of the system meets what you need from the type of data you're going to be generating."

The Atlantic County Utilities Authority recycling center.

The recycling center scalehouse.

Tim Kaye, head of IT at the ACUA, agrees. "You don't want to buy one program and think that's it, because it's really just the tip of the iceberg. You have to outline your objectives for your various departments."

"What you choose depends in part on your volume," Kobold says. "If you're doing five transactions a day, a $10,000 software package isn't going to do you much good. But if you're doing several hundred transactions daily, you're probably wasting a lot of time doing double entry into a spreadsheet." The MSA does between 650 and 700 transactions a day between the landfill it operates and two transfer stations. That's 250,000 transactions a year, which, Kobold observes dryly, "wouldn't work on a spreadsheet." Other indications that it's time to get automated include the need to tie multiple sites together and requirements to generate regular reports for internal use and to satisfy regulatory agencies.

But as experience from operations elsewhere suggests, size is not all that matters when it comes to benefiting from IT. "We wanted more information," says Bob Thompson of Franklin County Transfer Station in Ottawa, KS, which handles between 100 and 200 tpd. The county agency installed WinVRS software from Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Company in Webb City, MO, to track vehicles and materials. Besides weighing individual vehicles and generating tickets, WinVRS for Windows 2000 and XP gives the agency the ability to automatically generate invoices and track material totals, a capability that Thompson says has helped get a better handle on operations. "We wanted a better way to track what we were doing," he says. "At the end of the month all our accounts are listed by the day each customer dumped along with the amount of tonnage. Before we would have done all this by hand." Given that Kansas is closing landfills and relying more on transfer stations, Thompson points out it's even more important to have a better idea of what's being processed. "Because we don't own the landfill," he says, "we have to be cost-effective in processing what comes in and what goes out at the transfer station." Thompson uses the totals WinVRS generates to track relative trends in materials handling, to project what's likely to happen in the future, and to forecast equipment purchases.

Joe Warwick, district manager for Waste Management Halifax Hauling in Nova Scotia, Canada, originally brought an onboard scale system from Xactec Technologies Inc. in Terrebonne, QC, to track his commercial loads. "We're dumping at a municipal landfill, and with the high disposal fees in our market area, we absolutely have to know what we're dumping," he says. Given its original purpose, Warwick says the system, which includes scale, management software, and microchips mounted on the collection containers, paid for itself the first year. But he says he has also utilized the data the scale generates in two additional management systems. With the ability to weigh accurately, he can bid on jobs more effectively, which he says gives him an advantage in a market where estimates are often seat-of-the-pants. And this in turn allows him what he calls "price integrity." He says he has also reaped goodwill by being able to provide feedback to his customers about saving money by diverting material away from the landfill.

ACUA recycling center collection.

At Cedar/Lynn County Solid Waste Agency (18 municipalities, 170,000 tons annually) in Cedar Rapids, IA, Office Manager Pat Myers reports she and Accounting Manager Tim Lukan chose the WasteWORKS receivables package from Carolina Software to consolidate data from two landfills and a pollution-prevention center. WasteWORKS reads individual vehicle weights automatically; computes charges by ton, cubic yard, or quantity; and prints tickets for cash or charge account transactions. The software computes pricing, including special contracts and discounts, customer billing, and financial reporting, and comes with built-in report-generating capacity. For Myers, the bonus was being able to provide faster account information to customers. "We get information daily from the three sites," he says. "We needed something that would allow us to do that easily without having to move data from one file to another. Originally we did this maybe every two or three days, but there are times now when I have to run a daily report for some of our cash-based customers." A Carolina Software WasteWIZARD adds further efficiency at one landfill, where it is set up to handle regular haulers.

Doing it All

Top: Inside the recycling center. Bottom: Compost facility.

Another advantage the organization was looking for was ease in generating reports such as the monthly accounting it provides to Iowa's Department of Natural Resources, which gets a portion of landfill tipping fees. Myers says in selecting the WasteWORKS program she and Lukan weren't necessarily looking for dollar savings but benefits in terms of time and personnel efficiencies. Besides billing and reports, the software has also helped streamline the agency's composting operation. "Anything that crosses our scale in or out we record according to product code," says Lukan, who uses WasteWORKS to generate the monthly accounting required by the agency's board of directors.

Before the MSA purchased WasteWORKS, which it uses in combination with Crystal Reports Software from Business Objects, the organization was making do with an outdated custom-written program. "I'm a big advocate of off-the-shelf software," Kobold says. "Once you know what information is going to be regularly required of you, you can structure how you want your data to look, and nine times out of ten you're going to find a software program that's doing that." Beware, however, of vendors who respond to your request for proposals by assuring you they can custom-design a program or tweak their standard package once you've signed a contract. "You want whatever system you buy to already be doing what you want it to do," Kobold says, "in part because you want the vendor to be able to support what you've bought, and so you're not at the mercy of individual programmers."

Cardinal Scale's WinVRS vehicle recording system is useful in MSW operations for tracking truck scale operations.

Kobold's primary goal was to track transactions at the agency's three facilities (a landfill and two transfer stations) and to generate data for reports required by the California Waste Management Board as well to meet state requirements for reporting the origin of the waste it takes in. The landfill that the agency operates, the only MSW landfill in the county, receives about 2,000 tpd. One of the two transfer stations is open to the public and brings in approximately 1,200 tpd. Another serves only agency vehicles for another 150 tpd.

Cardinal Scale’s low-profile PRC truck scale in operation at the Conway, AR, city landfill.

"WasteWORKS works well for us," Kobold says, "because we were not necessarily focused on how the data is put into the system, but the specific kind of data we needed and how we wanted to extract it. Where the kind of customization we were after comes in is in the output. You don't even have to have WasteWORKS installed on your system as long as you have the databases it uses. And as long as you have all the data and all the fields you need, the sky's the limit. A query software like Crystal Reports, which we bought in conjunction with WasteWORKS, allows you to go into just about any data-based format and pull information out. Then, based on your filtering criteria and on the structure of your report, you can present it however you need it. So the message is to make sure that the structure of whatever system you choose meets your needs for the type of data you're going to be putting out. I was amazed, for example, how many software programs don't have an origin field, which is very important here in California because our annual reporting relies on this disposal reporting to show what our diversion tonnage is."

Over in operations, Senior Office Specialist Felix Gregorcyk gives high marks to RouteSmart for keeping collection vehicles moving. "We recently did a countywide reorganization of our routes," he says. "Using the old system where supervisors manually handled given areas, this kind of reorganization would have taken six years. We did it in six months with RouteSmart." Gregorcyk says he can also see how this kind of routing software could be used as an aid in bidding, given that the program can provide an exact customer count in an area as well as a breakdown of costs, and, with a little tweaking, for can inventory.

Spurred on by Growth

Inefficiencies in collection and accounting so bugged Pat Fahey of Southern Oregon Sanitation in Grants Pass that the company developed and is marketing its own software, Accu-Trax. "When we were picking up 200 to 300 customers a day with a rear- or sideloader, the administrative burden for the driver wasn't that heavy because we didn't have many route changes or new starts or discontinues and so on," he says. "But when you're up to 800-, 900-, 1,000-route events, which is getting to be normal for an automated system, the administrative burden is much greater. What we wanted was to find a way to shorten the amount of time the driver spent looking at his notes, keeping track of the stops in the course of the day and recording extra service and noting things like when the cans weren't put out. So we decided to put a computer in the truck. For the first generation of the system we used laptops.

"Every day the driver wirelessly transmits his route for the week from the billing system—and not only his route but everybody else's—so that if for some reason the driver shifts off his route to somebody else's this gives him all the information he needs, including the customer notes. We noticed right away drivers would pitch in and help each other because they had what they needed to do that.

"On a typical day, on a thousand-customer route," Fahey continues, "we would get 40 to 60 route events, including new starts and new service charges, which is a lot of information for the driver to carry around with him. We set it up so the notes that correspond to these route events come up first on the screen, so before the driver can start his route, he has to look at these and acknowledge them, after which the notes come up sequentially in the course of the route as he works through it.

"Then, instead of all this information being written on scraps of paper for the office staff to transcribe, it's all wirelessly downloaded into the main billing system. The office staff reviews it for anything out of the ordinary and then processes it in a batch. As a result of instituting this system, the office staff overhead has gone way down, and we found a 30% increase in recorded extras, which the driver can do with a push of the button. Our revenue went up enough to pay for the laptops."

The program Fahey designed and markets through Pacifica Systems also allows drivers to use the three-camera setup on their vehicles to record a route event instead of keying the information into the computer. The image is downloaded directly into the billing system, which gives the office staff an exact view of what the driver encountered. These time-stamped images are then available for customer service queries, allowing customer service representatives to verify, for example, that a can was not at the curb when a resident claims it was.

Fahey's collection vehicles are equipped with a global positioning system (GPS), which records latitude, longitude, and speed every 15 seconds—information that has come in handy when the office staff is faced with a reported accident involving a company vehicle. Recently added is the ability to record voice conversations into the database file and transmit them via e-mail, which can then be forwarded as documentation to municipalities the company has contracts with.

Fahey says drivers have picked up the system easily and continue to suggest improvements—the ability to query the cart inventory, for example, to determine where a lost cart should be relocated. The version being implemented now is touch screen. The third revision will include the driver's logbook. "I always say," Fahey says, "that I'm a garbage man who took up software as a hobby and it stuck. The other thing I say is the guy who makes the decision about equipment purchases should have to spend a year out there on the route."

Challenges of Integration

At the ACUA, where IT serves both solid waste and wastewater operations, Database Analyst Kevin Lee agrees that information technology is becoming more and more attractive for integrating systems and functions in service industries. But there are challenges, he cautions. For one thing, he says, don't get carried away. "Never lose sight of the goal," Lee says. "Make sure the operational staff needs whatever you're suggesting. We've set up committees with the operational side to tell them about what we have to offer and how it can work for them. We've also made it as simple as going to people and asking them what kind of data they want and how they want to use it.

"For example, as part of our operation we sell mulch and recycled products such as lumber, and I worked with the employee in charge of that operation to design a database internally to handle the delivery process. I've ticketed WasteWORKS software information and merged it into his database so he can see what's being picked up in the WasteWORKS database and compare it back into his scheduling. He also uses it to pull from the customer base that exists in WasteWORKS so he can determine, for example, whether a customer is tax-exempt. In the operations side, we set it up to generate reports on a regular basis that identify who's coming into the transfer station so we can report when a hauler is overweight, including the name of the hauler and the license plates of the truck. We've automated our driver's log. We're pulling information from WasteWORKS and merging it into an access database where the drivers can enter times in and out. We're tracking our routes through GPS on all our trucks and we're going to generate routes using our GIS [geographic information system], based off the data that we collect. Ultimately, we will merge the GPS package with WasteWORKS, so we can track individual trucks and what they're hauling."

Another plan for the future is posting individual accounts on the ACUA Web site so customers would be able to get real-time data on their accounts, plus e-mailing customer statements (an application Fahey also has in mind). "The integration points are there," Lee says. "What you have to identify is where the problems are. You have to ask people what their biggest bone of contention is with the present system. And if there isn't an IT person onboard, hire a consultant, a systems analyst, or a database analyst, not only to help you decide what to buy, but to make the most of what you decide on."

Kobold agrees. "If you don't have the technical expertise in-house, find it. Don't spend a lot of money, but find someone who can help you sort out what you need. Maybe all you want is a simple database platform that will keep your data whole and allow you to send out bills."

Plan Carefully

Advice of another sort comes from Scott Killough, vice president of sales for JWS Corp. in Shawnee Mission, KS, which specializes in bulk materials weighing. Killough advises facilities considering an unattended scale \to screen the potential users ahead of time. "There's no magic bullet when you put in this technology," he says. "You've got to have a plan. For example, you may want to give the technology for an unattended site only to your best customers. I've seen people have to take this away from customers because they abused it or couldn't work with the system.

"It's also important to remember that we're not just talking software. Connectivity is a big issue. If you don't use fiber optic or wireless, you're going to find these devices aren't reliable. Traffic flow is another huge issue. The minute you go to automation and run some lanes unattended or an express lane, you've got to start controlling your traffic. And there are some sites that don't work for automation without a huge investment."

Among the innovations JWS is offering are cameras to eliminate the need for drivers to sign weigh tickets. "The camera takes a picture of the vehicle number and the driver and we put the ticket information up there also, which eliminates the driver getting out of the truck. We also have a setup where the driver swipes his driver's license, so the facility can protect itself from liability if an unlicensed driver dumps at their site."

Among other applications, Ron Rickets at Cardinal Scale says he sees clients using traffic control and security add-ons to weighing systems, lights, and gates, for example, plus radiation detectors, which he notes are all important given the current emphasis on homeland security. Rice Lake Weighing Systems in Rice Lake, WI, has recently introduced a PC-based weight indicator (VIRTUi) that makes its weighing system legal for trade and streamlines operations. "So instead of having two boxes on the desk, one for the PC and one for the scale indicator, you eliminate a piece of hardware," says Joe Grell, vice president of emerging technology. AWS (Advanced Weighing Systems) in Chippewa Falls, WI, has developed software that automates the weighing, ticketing, and information ties into Rice Lake Weighing's unattended system.

"The MSW operation of the future is going to be integrated via software," says Garcia at Soft-Pak. "You're not going to have a route program and a scale program. The data is going to be swapped back and forth. Sharing data eliminates redundancy and the extra work you have to do at the end of the day."

Journalist Penelope Grenoble O'Malley writes frequently on environmental and MSW concerns.

MSW - January/February 2005