Prior to installing the system, it took too long for customer service representatives to retrieve this kind of information, Reed says. “Drivers would write the information in their logs, and we would have to wait for them to return to the office to respond to customers' questions. Now, we can resolve customer issues immediately and accurately, which has improved our customer retention rate.”

The system also has enabled Granger to convert delinquent accounts to good accounts. Reed says stop service orders often got lost in the old paper system. The new system makes it possible to mark delinquent customers on the drivers' lists with “stop service” stamps.

When customers call to complain that their trash wasn't picked up, customer service explains the problem. “We often find that customers are unaware of their unpaid service,” Reed says. “We have also discovered that these customers start paying their bills on a timelier basis, thus reducing our delinquency rates and improving our day's sales outstanding ratio.”

Smoother Billing

At Hillsboro Garbage Disposal Inc. in Hillsboro, Ore., seven automated side loaders collect residential trash while four front loaders handle the commercial work. Each truck is equipped with a Routeware onboard computer that is interfaced with a Tower 6.0 accounting system from the TransComp Systems Division of Oxford, Pa.-based PC Scale Inc. “The beauty of this system for our commercial work is that when [the GPS system] confirms that service has been performed, our dispatcher and customer service people will release the information to billing,” says Jason Barnes, Hillsboro's IT director.

More important to Barnes is that the interface speeds the creation of reports required by franchise agreements between Hillsboro and the county where it operates. “They have strict reporting requirements that include tonnages and numbers of customers for trash, recycling, yard waste and motor oil collection,” Barnes says. “When we first started, we were doing this by hand with averages. To save time we needed to automate.”

Hillsboro's GPS-based onboard computer system automatically records pick-ups and misses. The system senses when the arm on an automated side loader or a front loader lifts and dumps garbage into the truck and records the pick-up for the customer. If no pick-up is made, the driver uses a touch screen to select the appropriate reason why a pick-up is missed.

“It's more accurate because the driver doesn't have to remember to press the green or red buttons indicating a completed pick-up or a missed pick-up,” Barnes says. “The system does it for them. It's safer because drivers don't have to take their eyes off the road to use the green button. They do have to use the computer to explain a missed pick-up, but we want them to stop to do that.”

The enhanced touch screens are mounted within a driver's normal field of vision. Typically, residential drivers, for example, sit on the right side of the truck, taking their eyes from the road and looking to see where the trash containers and the side-loader arm are located. To prevent the need to look away from the road, Hillsboro mounted the monitor in the right-hand corner of the cab.

A Valuable Tool

Haulers have discovered that GPS technology can improve productivity in the field and in the office, and can promote accuracy in customer service, helping to satisfy and retain customers. The solid waste industry has a reputation as being slow to embrace new technology, but GPS has landed on waste firms' maps.

Michael Fickes is a Westminster, Md.-based contributing writer.