Commercial Waste Collection – Current Challenges

Exploring current challenges facing UK local authority commercial waste collection operations

“Its an increasingly competitive market” says Stuart Henshaw, Business Development Director at Integrated Skills and former Waste Manager of Selby District Council, “so councils that want to develop sources of competitive advantage against private sector operators must identify opportunities and capitalise on them to differentiate themselves”. The potential sources of competitive advantage can be within existing operational practices or in the market.

Stuart continues “Identifying and capitalising on additional income from side waste is one area I advise clients to look”. In years gone by crews would empty the bin and also collect whatever was next to it. Today, with mobile technology and software apps, crews can photograph side waste and log it as a potential additional collection opportunity that customer have to pay for. Conversely, customer can upload photos to their account in the waste management system via a web portal and request a quote for the side waste collection.

Automating internal business process to drive down costs is another source of competitive advantage. Where possible customer processes are automated, such as, new commercial waste customer sign-ups. However, there is a long  involved process here including the processing of duty of care and contract documentation, production of quotes by client type, waste type & location typically from a schedule of rates, data transfer from commercial waste management software with the finance (invoicing) and payment systems as well as the management of communication between the prospective client and the commercial waste team.

Applying various pricing strategies to maximise revenue is key to success requiring a functionally rich analytics and reporting element in the waste management software so that managers can apply price rises or discounts based on customer type, customer location, frequency of collections, and service history.

Operationally, software solutions need to have both in-cab and/or smartphone apps that incorporate both navigation and service verification to manage commercial (trade) waste services. Last minute requests for additional collections can be processed at HQ, including payment, added to the route sequence and downloaded to the device with additional instructions or the crews. Also, when clients have failed to pay their location can be added to the ‘stop list’ and crews alerted accordingly.

Private sector waste collectors invest in technology to derive a source of competitive advantage. Local authorities need to do the same to become competitive though technology is not the only lever: A well thought out pricing strategy is just as essential.