Key Points
- Single solution to manage service data, automate business processes and provide crews with In-Cab information.
- Supporting over 70 vehicles servicing almost 100,000 households.
- Over 70,000 issues logged on the system within the first 12 months.
Background
With nearly 100,000 households, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council (RCT) is one of the largest local authorities in Wales. To improve efficiency and move away from paper-based processes, the waste and recycling team use Digital Depot.
Prior to the introduction of Digital Depot, most of the council’s waste management business processes were paper-based. Drivers were given printed round sheets and maps, which needed to be reproduced every time something changed.
Crews reported issues on paper forms that needed typing up by support staff, and the handwritten notes were often illegible with names often spelled incorrectly. Customer issues that came through the website had to be printed out and handed to staff.
Pilot Phase
As the first stage of their implementation, RCT ran a pilot of the system on three of their food waste vehicles and one recycling vehicle. Feedback from these first implementations was positive, with crews finding it quick and easy to use and much better than taking notes by hand.
As the pilot went on, other crews became keen to join in as they saw the benefits for their colleagues.
Tracking Performance with In-Cab
Following the pilot phase, the system was rolled out to all 71 of the council’s waste and recycling vehicles. Every crew is now able to log issues such as contamination or parked cars (RCT logged over 70,000 issues in the first 12 months) and this information is immediately available to the depot team and the contact centre.
Supervisors can track the progress of rounds on their dashboards, allowing them to see where vehicles are and what issues they have been reporting, so they can better support crews that are struggling.
Help-out work can be shared on the In-Cab units, so that supporting crews have all the information they need about the streets that they will help collect.
Reducing Calls with Online Forms
Digital Depot links to the council’s CRM system (Lagan) to automatically capture requests from both online forms and the contact centre. This is helping to reduce the number of calls that come through to the depots.
To support the launch of their new nappy recycling service in 2019, the council website was connected with a digital workflow for their nappy registration process.
After one of the best social media campaigns that the council has ever run, RCT received over half of the expected 8000 registrations within the first week, all of which could be processed much more efficiently than with paper-based administration.
And by connecting with other systems, such as Enforcement and Customer Services, the council will also be able to reduce the volume of calls and emails associated with sharing information with colleagues.
Automating Back Office Processes
To improve efficiency in the back office, the system automates many of the processes that would have previously been done on paper. For example, when a new bulky waste or nappy collection is registered it is automatically added to an optimised round.
Within seconds this is available to drivers on the In-Cab system, providing them with details of the job and navigation if required, along with the ability to log issues against the job if they were unable to complete.
Single Version of the Truth
Digital Depot is a single source for consistent and up- to-date information for RCT. Staff are able to update collections, such as adding an assisted collection or an extra bin where permitted, and this information is then shared with the In-Cab system within seconds.
Information is also passed back from the In-Cab devices, so that the issues crews record in the course of each round are logged against the individual properties. This can be used almost immediately by staff in the contact centre or the depot to respond effectively to enquiries at the first point of contact.
About Routeware
Routeware is a leading technology company for the waste and environmental services sector. In the UK, our software and services have been used by over 200 local authorities and most of the leading waste and resource management companies, helping save an estimated £100M+ for UK local government.
