Garbage Truck Routing Software

Ready To Optimize Those Residential Waste Collection Routes?

First, Know the Pros and Cons of Software-Based Route Planning…

Then, Call Route Optimization Consultants for your FREE Initial Consultation!

If you’ve done any research at all into routing software for garbage trucks, you already know there’s no shortage of route optimization software products available on the market. This poses two problems: (1) waste routing has specialized problems that most routing software cannot solve; (2) there are products that manage routes and fleets, but do not provide route optimization planning.

There are many similar types of software that may sound like route optimization software, but is actually a solution for a different problem. For example, fleet management software typically refers to fleet maintenance and asset management, but may have additional functionality for that provides field operations solutions for routing or dispatching. However, fleet management software is not the same as route optimization software, which is used to plan routes.

In fact, there are hundreds of route optimization software options, but few for waste collection management. Waste management has three types of routing challenges: residential, commercial and industrial. Residential garbage truck route planning use high density routing algorithms. A problem referred to by academics as the Chinese Postman Problem. It may also be referred to as arc routing, because the “stop” is actually all of the stops on that side of the street. High density routing suffers from unusable travel paths, because of the challenge in routing the service of both sides of the street in one ore more passes.

Commercial waste uses point to point algorithms, which may also be referred to as the traveling salesman problem . These are the most common. The vast majority of the applications on the market solely use point to point routing. For commercial, the challenge entails planning route schedules, especially for multiple collections per week or month. For example, when you have collection twice a week and you operate five days a week, your options are Monday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday. You could group all these in regions to be more contiguous, but then you also have five times a week stops that messes up your regions requiring the truck to visit every area every day.

Industrial waste or roll off services use paired routing algorithms. You have a compactor that is owned by the grocery store and must go back to that store after dumping. The stop is paired to the disposal. It’s difficult to determine which route planning software package is right for your situation. There are also many ways to help reduce routes and fuel consumption without buying software….using open source software tools.

That’s (part of) what Route Optimization Consultants are here for: To assist our customers in the implementation of waste management routing software – and to guide them in the analysis of the data insights that software provides.

Let’s take a general look at some of the positives and negatives of routing applications for garbage trucks – then we’ll provide the rationale for choosing ROC to help you maximize the operational efficiency of your waste collection routes.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Trash Truck Routing Software

You Can Create More Efficient Routes, But the Software Solutions Are Often Exceedingly Complex

When your company is in the business of waste collection, route productivity is absolutely paramount. Any inefficiency is inherently costly. If your drivers and vehicles are out longer than they need to be, that’s money out of your pocket – and that’s unacceptable to you and your stakeholders.

So you need to create routes that will optimize the time your drivers and vehicles spend on the road, thereby reducing working hours and increasing cost savings. The solution is route optimization logistics.

Performing a level of mathematics no human could possibly perform, garbage truck routing optimization software is a tremendously effectively way to increase the route productivity of any waste management company. However, the software holds a secret. Drivers typically never use the travel path provided by the software. After manually modifying the travel paths created by the software, a good driver can shave off 5-10 minutes of drivetime from what the travel path from the software would provide. Businesses which choose to use such software are rewarded with optimal routes that enhance their ability to set priorities, maximize efficiency, and serve customers. There’s no replacement for the solutions such software provides.

But routing software is not as simple as plugging in some numbers and letting the algorithm crank out real-time data, for several reasons:

• the input data needs to be highly accurate in order for the output data to be at all useful;
• there are a veritable infinitude of variables that enter into the equation, such as strict time windows, limited vehicle capacities, and driver skills;
• typically, waste-collection route planning software uses several algorithms simultaneously, meaning the solutions may not be intuitively obvious

Waste collection route planning software is a powerful tool to optimize routes – but only if your company can harness the full potential of that power. Many waste management businesses are too focused on their daily tasks of picking up waste, managing drivers’ time, and meeting customer expectations to perform in-depth research on routing software.

So one issue we at Route Optimization Consultants commonly see is companies being unable to utilize the software to its fullest capacity – simply because, well, that’s not their job . . . it’s ours.

We Know the Ins and Outs of Route Optimization Software

Create Realistic Schedules for Your Waste Management Fleet With Specialized Software – and Help from Our Specialists

What we do is right there in our name: Route Optimization Consultants. We consult with waste collection businesses – both in public works and the private sector – to help them optimize routes in real time so they can improve their operations, lower their costs, track their drivers and their fleet, and meet their customers’ demands for better service.

We don’t produce or supply the routing software, but we do help you use it. The team of experts at ROC is highly qualified, experienced, and equipped to assist your business when you need greater efficiency of your garbage truck routing.

You can do it yourself, but we wouldn’t recommend it. It’s difficult enough to manage a waste collection fleet on a daily basis, given circumstances like drivers’ working hours, unplanned or winter maintenance, the temporary closure of major roads, and separate route planning for your trash collection vehicles and your recycling collection vehicles.

Adding the job of increasing route productivity on top of all those tasks? It’s more than many waste collection fleet managers can realistically handle.

That’s where Route Optimization Consultants (ROC) come in. We provide the necessary expertise that help companies and public works organizations devise solutions for efficient routes that, in the long run, speed up collection operations and save on costs.

Need Solutions For Greater Efficiency? Go With Experience

We’re Established in the Business of Waste Collection Fleet Management Services

Some things never change. Our company has been helping customers manage their fleet and save on costs for some 20 years now – and there’s still a huge demand for our services.

In those two decades of service, we’ve developed sustainable, workable solutions for dozens and dozens of waste collection businesses. Some are public works entities who need to optimize routes in order to provide the best possible service to their customers; others are private agencies who need the ability to dispatch and track their drivers in real-time.

No two solutions are exactly alike. Indeed, the route planning solution we devise for your business is very, very likely to be quite different from the solution we come up with for another business. In fact, planning solid waste collection routes for residential areas is more complex than planning routes for other services, due in part to more frequent stops is more taxing on drivers running the service.

Whichever route optimization package you choose, the team of experienced, knowledgeable, technically savvy experts at ROC is ready to help you achieve your goals of efficiency, safety, sustainability, and improved service to your own clientele.

Contact Our Route Optimizing Experts Today

Talk With ROC About the Best Routing Software on the Market

Any change in your waste collection routing carries some risk to your business. You have to maintain realistic schedules. Your drivers have to adjust. You have to continue to meet customer expectations. People tend not to like it when their trash isn’t picked up.

Route Optimization Consultants can help smooth over any bumps in the road on the way to better route productivity. Whatever your scenario, ROC has encountered it before and knows how to harness the power of route optimization software for garbage trucks so that your dispatchers dispatch smarter and your drivers drive better routes.

Take the Next Step Toward Better Routes and Better Service

Phone, Email, or Contact Us Online So We Can Get To Work For You

If you are not optimizing your routes on an annual basis, you are likely spending 10% or more than you have to do the same work running efficient routes. The solutions provided by ROC are immensely valuable to your company’s bottom-line in solid waste collection operations. We always do a deep dive into the specific parameters, physical environment, operational costs, labor availability and skillsets, of your routes and crews, taking all variables into account. Plus, you can be assured that whatever waste management routing problem you have, we’ve solved it before.

So reach out to ROC and request your free consultation with our recognized routing software experts. Call us at 571-316-0676 or submit the easy form online on our website.

When you’re ready for enhanced optimization of your company’s routes to improve waste collection efficiency, we’re ready to talk. Reach out to Route Optimization Consultants for unparalleled customer service and industry-leading technological expertise in waste collection routing.