The City of Spokane, WA partnered with Rubicon on a solution that provided them with a leaner and more efficient operation, while also improving customer service to its residents.

 

In the city of Spokane, WA, the Solid Waste Collections team is responsible for yard waste, recycling, and standard waste collection and disposal for its 88,000 citizens. The department runs more than 100 heavy-duty vehicles and employs more than 150 people.

Shedding Manual Processes and Paper Records for Solid Waste Collection

Until recently, Spokane’s large, complex operation ran almost entirely on paper. All service information for customers was kept in a giant rolodex. The city staff filled two full boxes of paper records each week, requiring them to store these records in a separate storage facility, adding another line item to the budget. In all, the city was spending a staggering $25,000 a year in printing and paper costs to print paper route sheets—not to mention the environmental impact. Erica Jacobo, the Senior Continuous Improvement Analyst for the city of Spokane, notes, “A great deal of time was spent on manual processes, which was creating a strain on our resources.”

The City needed to digitize their sanitation operations, which simultaneously presented an opportunity to find a solution that could improve all aspects of their operation—managing missed pickups, identifying route efficiencies, and communicating with customers—to boost the overall efficiency of their solid waste operations.

In May 2018, the City of Spokane released an RFP looking to digitize their paper routing system and drive overall operational efficiencies within the Solid Waste Collection Department. Rubicon responded to the RFP, was shortlisted, and selected as the winner of the contract in the fall of 2018. The City and Rubicon then entered into a three-year contract. “It was clear from the beginning that Rubicon’s solutions could bring value to the city of Spokane. Not just in terms of cost savings, but also in terms of their day to day solid waste collection,” said Conor Riffle, Vice President of Smart Cities.

Paperless Operations Take the Weight Off

Rubicon provides cities like Spokane with technology to help improve waste and recycling operations. They understand the importance of a city’s waste management system and they know the vital role telematics plays in a successful rollout. As an official Geotab Marketplace partner, Rubicon knew the value Geotab could bring to the solution they were building for the City of Spokane.

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The solution was simple: place Geotab GO devices into each of the city’s waste trucks and provide drivers with an iPhone or iPad loaded with the RUBICONSmartCityTM software. This technology provides a full-service routing and work-order management solution for vehicles and fleets that can be managed from any device with an Internet connection. It also gives an end-to-end route and service management solution for refuse collection, including paperless routes, and real-time communication of all information between vehicles and back office. The flexible platform also ensures that your city is only deploying technology that is actually needed, enabling organizations to do more with less. The telematics data gathered from the GO8 device is sent to an online portal allowing the operations team to effectively manage their waste collection and disposal services and integrates with the Rubicon software to automate processes to improve efficiency.

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With Rubicon and Geotab providing the technology, the team in Spokane can now confirm when a particular waste bin has been picked up. The technology also allows the driver to document issues at the curb, like blocked or broken bins, speeding up the City’s response to these issues. Drivers use the technology to document extra set outs, accounting for approximately $2 million in revenue each year. And the city uses Rubicon’s portal to manage all aspects of its daily collection operation, including re-assigning drivers, optimizing routes and supporting customers with disabilities.

“The process of transitioning from paper to digital took time, but with the dedication and support of Spokane, we were able to accomplish most of the process in about three months. We continue to focus on discrete and complex areas. Training is a core part of Rubicon’s role, and has been an ongoing process throughout the life of the partnership to ensure that the Spokane public works team knows best practices to complete their jobs,” says Riffle.

Automated Processes Are Icing on the Cake

The joint Geotab/Rubicon solution has helped to transform Spokane’s Solid Waste Collection operation from a paper-based solution to an entirely digital one. “The savings in printing and paper costs alone are in the thousands of dollars per year, plus we’re reducing our environmental footprint,” explains Jacobo. The operation is leaner and more efficient, while also providing improved customer service to its residents. Route optimization and integration with the city’s new billing system are estimated to save hundreds of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the contract. Ultimately, the city is now saving up to $25,000 per year in printing costs as well as saving thousands of hours of cumulative staff time is saved through the improved processes.

Michael Allegretti, Chief Strategy Officer for Rubicon, comments,“RUBICONSmartCity helps city governments enhance and digitize their solid waste operations by harnessing the power of technology to drive more efficient and effective service. Especially in the midst of the pandemic, being able to operate digitally is essential. Rubicon’s partnership with Geotab allows cities to be proactive, transforming their fleets into roaming data collection centers, in order to transform basic data collected around a city into actionable insights.”

RUBICONSmartCity™ is a smart city technology suite that helps city governments run more efficient, effective, and sustainable operations. A SaaS offering originally designed for waste and recycling fleets, this full-service technology solution can be deployed in almost any fleet to help reduce costs, improve service, and contribute to quality of life. For more information, visit www.rubicon.com/smart-city/ 
Geotab is advancing security, connecting commercial vehicles to the internet and providing web-based analytics to help customers better manage their fleets. Geotab’s open platform and Marketplace, offering hundreds of third-party solution options, allows both small and large businesses to automate operations by integrating vehicle data with their other data assets. As an IoT hub, the in-vehicle device provides additional functionality through IOX Add-Ons. Processing billions of data points a day, Geotab leverages data analytics and machine learning to help customers improve productivity, optimize fleets through the reduction of fuel consumption, enhance driver safety, and achieve strong compliance to regulatory changes. Geotab’s products are represented and sold worldwide through Authorized Geotab Resellers. For more information, follow them @GEOTAB and on www.linkedin.com/company/geotab/or visit www.geotab.com.

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