Ten to fifteen years ago people figured out that commercial accounts generate a lot of cardboard and that a separate bin for OCC would be a good idea. A front loader would go out and collect trash followed by a separate route to collect cardboard alone.
Commercial collection is usually handled with one of two pieces of equipment, according to Frank Kennedy, sales director for Curotto Can. Curotto Can is a Sonoma, California manufacturer. They make tools to help those in the MSW industry to do their jobs. Customers come to them and they help them solve their problems.
There are two streams that are currently being source-separated. One includes a single-stream recycling in a commercial application, another bin being put out and all the containers and waste paper can be collected. “The biggest challenge moving forward is source-separated organic waste, from a commercial aspect,” explains Kennedy. “To get to the next level of recovery, above the past diversion rate of 50%, you’ve got to go to organics. How do you best manage source-separated organics to get that next level of recovery?”
Typically organics now consist of food waste. How to separate this out is an emerging challenge, according to Kennedy. One of the things they do is give the customer a tool which attaches to a commercial truck allowing a smaller bin to be picked up.
“Many customers working in a food waste or organic recovery system don’t need a huge four or six cubic yard bin because the bulk density of this material is heavy and with a very high moisture content,” adds Kennedy. “Most customers would separate their food waste and would like to use a standard cart such as one used in typical curbside collection. Frontload garbage trucks haven’t picked up carts until now because we have the tool that allows them to do that.”
Kennedy feels one important part of the story now is how, in commercial collection, do people handle this new stream called organics. “That’s really the next trick, how to help people manage that. You can actually manage it with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology or other tools such as our Gripper or our Slammin Eagle products.”
Keeping it all in Perspective
Don Ross, Director of operations and project manager with Kessler Consulting, Inc. in Tampa, FL considers a number of factors when looking at commercial: operations, customers, and the equipment and resources to do the job as well as people to execute the plan, but he boils it down to three key elements. “The goal is to keep the wheels turning,” says Ross. “You need high productivity, safe operations and excellent customer service. Productivity is about having the right equipment and training to do the job; the front end loader is the most productive mechanism for picking up high volumes of garbage quickly.
“But you can’t solve everybody’s needs with one particular type of equipment. There is always going to be compromise and some hybridization. But overall the front end loader is one truck that can do a lot of things and does them well. You get a great payload, a fast cycle time, it’s maneuverable and can service a wide range of containers – typically anything from two yards to eight yards.
“Attachments really leverage the usability of the equipment in all different types of situations. The Curotto-Can has really provided great tools to service multiple customer segments with the same vehicle platform. Now a hauler doesn’t need two or three different types of trucks and can standardize on a front end load platform to service not only commercial but residential as well. This platform standardization is where I see the industry going.”
Front end loader trucks typically costs $250,000 each, according to Ross. The more things that that truck can do productively, the better. These trucks have a lot have a lot of benefits but they’re not the silver bullet in all markets and there sometimes is the need for a hybrid system where you are forced to have different kinds of truck platforms. “But these things that are hitting the industry now are allowing folks to do more with fewer vehicle types,” adds Ross.
“Where there is a need the industry addressed it and met that need.”
The other element is customer service. The industry has to do what they do well. “A famous saying in the industry is we’re only as good as our last missed pickup. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a real missed pickup or the customer thinks he was missed, a miss is a miss; it’s perception.
“If the customer thinks he was missed, it’s a miss. I’m a big believer in the concept that solid waste is really the fifth utility, behind water, wastewater, gas and electric. We put the garbage in the dumpster and want it to go away; we don’t want to have to think about it. I dial the number on the container and tell them it’s full. I don’t want to hear the driver was here a half hour ago, the guy moved out next door or some other excuse. Make my problem go away. Even if there have been no problems with the container for ten years, if there was a problem yesterday and someone asks about your garbage service, that’s what the customer is going to mention.”
“One of the big things we find when evaluating collection operations, is that people are performing services and they’re either not getting paid for the services or it doesn’t tie to their billing systems. Because the driver is often servicing a container bigger than what the customer is paying for, the industry is starting to develop systems and tools to do a better job of making sure the trucks are picking up exactly what the customer is paying for. This is true for the big players. Large private haulers have invested in revenue systems to manage the process of insuring they bill for all services performed, but until recently, these systems still require some level of manual input.
“But for the little guys, small municipalities, they’re dealing with utility systems managing consumption in gallons and they’re still struggling with managing all the solid waste data. There needs to be digital checks and balances in place to make sure those common mistakes aren’t being made, and this is where some cities struggle.”
Commercial can be an area of focus for cost cutting, because a missed pickup can have a tremendous ripple effect. Chasing misses, whether actual or perceived, comes at a much higher cost of operations, so investment in technology to stem missed pickups is a good one. “But be forewarned, customers don’t care about all the bells and whistles, they just want their stuff picked up.”
These tools are out there to not only help you get it done but to make sure you are billing for all your services as well as making sure you know where all your trucks are, and that they are where they need to be, doing what they need to be doing. GPS, RFID, and J-Bus interfaces are quickly becoming an extension of your route management staff. “I think the next five years are going to see some amazing changes. We’re on the edge of that right now and have finally been able to get reliable digital equipment on these garbage trucks, something that’s notorious for shaking things apart.
“Try to put a computer in a garbage truck ten years ago? You had no chance of that. Now companies like Sonrai Systems are using military-grade hardware, stuff that’s not rattling apart. You can bolt a reliable touch screen device in a cab, pump the route data to the truck, tell the guy this is where you’re going next, the truck hits the container, reads the tag on the can, corrects inconsistencies with the office and issues will get settled once and for all. Tools like RFID have finally given our industry, or fifth utility, its own meter.”
There’s a lot that’s asked of commercial front loader drivers so you might not even want them interacting with computers in the cab. Remember, a front end loader spends half its day going backwards. They’re already asked to hit the road at three in the morning or sometimes even midnight. In addition to this they’re expected to drive a piece of heavy equipment in inclement weather, do their work quickly, have a clean drivers’ record and operate a vehicle whose performance gets worse throughout the day. A heavier truck combined with hot brakes means a greater stopping distance is required. As a result, the industry is working on collecting on-route data passively rather than asking the driver to actively collect data. This is the future.
Safety is the third leg of the table, and absolutely the most important element, according to Ross. Safe operations are a direct result of solid, repetitive training to make sure employees know how to use their equipment and what to do when things go bad. Diligent accident review committees to understand what went wrong coupled with re-training is all part of this step too.
But in an industry that is in the midst of a shift from the management of waste to the management of resources, knowing what’s in your commercial garbage is becoming even more important. Ross is part of a company that specializes in waste composition studies. Kessler’s extensive waste comp data identifies for its customers the resources that are fast becoming their next commercial collection program and as a result Kessler is focusing on the collection and processing of organics, including food waste. “It’s the next big thing, and it’s coming fast,” adds Ross.
A Better Container for Recycling
Creative Systems produces the Madroc roll off container which is made for recycling. Scott Elliott is a general contractor in Lynchburg, Virginia who was doing a LEED for home project and found that they really needed a system that would work for being able to recycle materials on the jobsite. They’d always used conventional roll offs and really felt that the market could stand to have something that worked more along the lines of the user, the builder, apartment complexes and school systems; there are a variety of things that they have found the Madroc could be used for.
But basically it was finding a conventional truck that they could use in a whole different way than it was designed for originally. Elliott mentions that despite the current hard times they’ve been selling units. They teamed up with WasteQuip for manufacturing of their units and partnered with others in the industry, finding that with budget concerns that there are definitely municipalities out there that are hurting.
“Overall I think that recycling is a great thing and we need to be doing our part as individuals and businesses” says Elliott. “We need to take just a little bit extra time to ensure materials are recycled and make a difference for future generations.”
Working to Stay Ahead of the Hauling Curve
One of the biggest things that Bucks Fabricating™, Hadley, Pennsylvania has been involved in this past year is supplying containers to an expanded industry base, including the oil and gas industry, according to Matthew Wilson, President of Bucks Fabricating. “The way that we’ve tried to handle things, in the midst of this tough economy is to diversify, we have looked into different products we can fabricate and different industries that we can make products for,” explains Wilson.
“Then we approach our existing customers and we introduce those products to them. Even if they’ve mostly been working in hauling municipal solid waste, if they have the proper equipment and it can handle these different containers, we have a chance to help them diversify their business. This in turn makes them – in our mind – a healthier company that can better handle the ups and downs in the economy.
“Our customers tell us our containers will last three to five years longer than some of the competition. Our advice to customers is even if you’re buying fewer containers, buy quality, something that’s going to last 10 years for you instead of five.”
“Trying to understand our customers and giving them the best opportunity to succeed is something we really like to do. Many of our products are roll off-based. The great thing about the roll off is you can do many different things with it.
“When problems arise, that slow down your core business, there are other things you can do. “You can tie in with some of the scrap haulers, tie in with somebody that does a different type of recycling, go after other contracts or work with people who haul liquid or other types of waste that your truck is fully capable of being partnered with. Pairing your existing truck with another piece of equipment can really diversify your business.”
Bucks Fabricating teaches their sales people to not just try to sell a product but to try to sell a service. They feel the better they understand their customers, their markets and their challenges, the best products they can put them into. “A healthy customer means the world to us,” adds Wilson. “If we work together from the start and understand their business needs, there is no reason we shouldn’t be business partners for years and years.”
Their dewatering containers enable customers to be able to take a slurry or any other mixture of different things, place it in one container and the liquid will settle out of that. Their Mini Frack tank is used for storing liquid from the oil and gas industry. A sequence of theses containers will be connected in series as part of the fracturing process. The water storage container is essentially a water storage tank that will go out to any sort of jobsite around the country where there is a need to store water.
“In that, somebody who hauls municipal solid waste or any sort of residential waste can commercialize their business a bit by pairing up with an outfit such as a pumper company, collecting a number of different liquid wastes such as that from shared grease traps behind restaurants. With a roll off truck and a vacuum box they’re able to haul four times as much waste or grease that they are pulling out of those pits. By doing that there doesn’t have to be as many trips to the dump, processing center or wherever they are taking that material. Vacuum boxes are something that has really helped a lot of our customers to diversify. It keeps the pumpers from having to make too many trips and for haulers it gives them another business line or
offering that they can use to diversify their company.”
The quality of their products and service starts with them understanding the customer’s needs, according to Wilson. “We stand behind our products and we are not just going to sell you what we have here in the lot. We are going to listen to you as far as what your needs are currently and what you want to achieve in the future and we will suggest to you the best product available; in some cases that might not even be our product. We will recommend at that opportunity the product or service that we’ve seen through our many years in this industry, to help you be successful.”
Innovation Assists With Rise in Waste Food Organics Recycling
John Samborski and his brother Lenn are co-owners of Samborski Garden Supplies, Winnipeg, Manitoba. They do organic collection from restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses. They’ve found the Currotto Can a very versatile piece of equipment that gives them the flexibility of using 64 gallon totes picking them up with a side loader like AutoCab and gives them the opportunity to utilize the Currotto Can off the loading dock. By placing the can on the ground and being able to dump the totes off the loading dock and into the can. “The versatility of the can has given us the freedom to expand our business,” says Samborski. “We figured out it was a solution. We had one rear loader packing unit and it just wasn’t the right fit. It does ok but not as good as this Currotto setup on a tandem axle. We’ve got a Mack MRU with a 32-yard McNeilus packer and the Currotto Can. For our application I made the mistake and didn’t investigate thoroughly when we started it; we started on a budget and bought a single axle truck with an 11-yard rear packer.
There were challenges collecting food waste if you’re to get it to the front of a rear-load packer. “Another important part of the story is Bill Cummins of London Machinery. He is the dealer for McNeilus and Currotto who opened our eyes to both products.”
As their business grew a little more and they started looking at their next truck, Samborski took a hard look at just about everything and anything he could see on the market. “I saw the innovation of the Currotto Can to give us the flexibility that if we ever have customers that we want to use the frontload truck, we’ve got that option. I’m very happy with the product. Currotto is a good bunch of guys to deal with.”
They had some issues with some controls and some switches on the outside of the vehicle. “They stepped to the plate, realized it was a problem, redesigned it and then sent me some marine-grade switches that work better in the outdoors and I haven’t had a problem since then.
“What they have for operating the Currotto Can is an option to run the unit off of one of the arms of the front loader as well as the end cap controls. The switches that they were using weren’t a marine grade, even though according to their guide they were told that they were all weather switches; in no time at all we needed new switches for use out in the elements. I talked to the guy, they looked into it at their end, did some research and within a month they upgraded theirs, sent me some switches to change out the others with. Those have been on the unit, trouble-free. They’re always working on making a better product.”
Samborski has a company policy that their trucks get washed every day. He suspects that may have been the problem, that the vehicles and the switches had been over washed. “We are very concerned about our image up here, how our trucks look,” says Samborski. “We try our best to keep them clean, especially in the winter when there is a lot of slush and it’s imperative that we make sure our trucks are clean. If you keep on top of it, it’s a little job. But if you let it build up it can be a challenge.
“It was another design issue at the beginning because our weights with food waste is a little heavier than what the Curotto Can was designed for because garbage and home pickup with a 64 gallon, their capacity of 300 pounds – or more -can be reached in the course of a day. Most of the Curotto Can totes are rated 200-220 pounds.”
Samborski has a fabricator who re-designed and repaired the container, passed that information on to Frank Kennedy. Kennedy pulled out his engineering drawings and then told Samborski that they’d just re-designed theirs almost identical to what Samborski had just done. “It was great that we’d thought alike. It shows that if they’ve got a problem they’re on top of it, not blaming the customer as a lot of companies do.
Food waste is a growth market. As the kids and coming new managers now realize that green is good. “It comes with a cost. A lot of areas don’t realize just because you have a large landfill and potential to bury this stuff, that there’s an alternative. We’re in an area that has relatively low tipping fees. We’re able to grind away and make some changes, however our city needs to step up to the plate. If you put a value on a product someone can find in that something to recoup and reuse. We have enough space in our landfill for 200 plus years. Like everywhere else it’s becoming a challenge to get the permits to open a landfill. You should look after the ones you’ve got, but in order to do that you’ve got to restrict what’s going into them.
“If there’s a value to something keep it out of there and only the bare minimum should go in there. We’ve been in the soil and composting business for many years going on to the fourth generation with it now. The food waste grew out of a lot research and how we could make better compost out of our horse bedding and yard waste. We take that and blend it in with other manures from feedlots and riding stables, making good compost and turning it around and reselling it.”
Keeping a Lid on It
Replacing dumpster lids in the field can be costly. Using a dependable lid that lasts 5 times longer any other lid on the market saves considerable amounts of time and money. Plus Impact Plastics pays the hauler to pick up their old plastic lids, carts and plastic containers. That plastic in turn is manufactured into new lids. This recycling program reduces the hauler’s tipping fees, frees up their yard space and “closes the recycling loop.”
Another way to reduce tipping fees is to use a water-resistant dumpster lid which keeps trash in and water out of the dumpster, according to Impact Plastics marketing manager, Michele Todd. “By using this new Everdry lid, the hauler will have up to 81% less water weight in their dumpster, have fewer trips to the landfill and less rotted container bottoms due to reduced leachate and less wear and tear on the trucks,” says Todd.
“I feel the biggest challenges will be the increased initiatives to reduce waste, including recycling and food diversion. Another ongoing headache for the hauler is the fuel prices.”
Impact Plastics offers an Organics Waste Lid that is sealed and watertight, so it keeps odors in and pests out, according to Todd. “Our unique lid-in-a-lid system lifts easily with one hand for food disposal. We also provide a full line of recycling chute lids which encourages customers to recycle. Impact Plastics introduced a “green” truck canopy that is 25% lighter than other canopies since it contains recycled plastic. This means better fuel efficiency for the hauler.”
Impact Plastics has been an industry leader in providing superior quality, environmentally friendly solutions for the waste industry since 1999, adds Todd. “Focusing on supplying long lasting parts with exceptional customer service, Impact Plastics guarantees unsurpassed quality, reliability and performance in the field. And we continue to launch new generations of products to match the needs of our valued customers. Our other products include, dumpster lids and parts, casters & wheels, container bottoms, roll off parts and quite a bit more for all our customers with a job to do-and in hurry.”
Surveillance Helps Save Money
SafeComm Services Safety Management Services, out of the Nashville area of Tennessee does safety surveillance for the trucking industry in 48 states, serving such private companies as Waste Management and Republic Services. They work in a vehicle equipped with police video and radar equipment inside, blending in with the regular public traffic. Wherever the commercial trash truck driver is, they are there viewing the driver’s habits and how well they do their work in traffic conditions.
“A truck backing up with a helper on the steps is obviously a big problem and a violation of the regulations,” says Steve McCharen, president, SafeComm Safety Management Services. “That is probably the number one rule in the waste industry, often broken during collection. If you hit a stationary object, the person in the back could be injured or killed. Unknown to the driver, the individual could also fall off.
“We’re there on a regular basis; the drivers know that we come and review what they’ve done once or twice a month. They are able to view the video. It is a good teaching and training tool.”
McCharen drove in the trash-hauling business for 20 years before starting this business 13 years ago. Now they are involved in the industry only on the safety end of the business. Other rules areas they cover include on-road safety, following distance speed, not zigzagging or avoiding collecting trash from the wrong side of the road.
SafeComm follows the driver for about 30 minutes. “He’s not likely, except maybe for one in one hundred events, to know we’re back there,” adds McCharen. “We’re going to get true driving and work habits, instead of if you rode with one of your drivers and he was on his best behavior. The serious violations captured on video are immediately uploaded the day of service and that afternoon the driver will have a review with his supervisor. He gets to see himself in a mirror, so to speak as he’s going through the day doing his work.”
This is a chance for him to improve because this is a training opportunity. Also, and importantly it is a deterrent to future unsafe behavior if they identify it because the driver knows he’ll be evaluated again later. They are looking for observing the driver during the course of a normal day. This is a way to be certain that not only federal traffic laws are being followed but also the rules dictated by the company. If that is not expected from the drivers, the company cannot expect very good results from such evaluations.
The vehicles used for this service are ordinary-looking vans containing police video and radar equipment – the same thing that law enforcement agencies use. “There is no way you can tell from the outside that this vehicle has equipment in it, looks just like a mom taking her kids to school. This way the driver doesn’t know when his day to be evaluated may be. You get true driving and work habits. It’s what you have to look at to create safe behavior and to be a safe company. You have to be able to observe your drivers in that type of environment. This is a unique product. We don’t have any competitors right now.”
There are other ways to track driver behavior using all kinds of other technology, according to McCharen. These include GPS or driver cams that only engage when there is a g-force such as a hard braking or steering maneuver that would trigger it. “That’s good for documenting things,” adds McCharen. “But it doesn’t document everything. Among the highest costs in the waste industry is workman’s compensation. Work habits are what you really have to watch out for, how a driver and a crew work together. One company we worked with was actually spending more money out of pocket for accidents than they were gaining in new revenue every year; growing a company’s customer base was negated by the cost of accidents. It’s a serious matter where any improvement is going to go straight to the bottom line.”
The most important thing they do is to be an ongoing presence, according to McCharen. Even though, in evaluating some 100 drivers, they’re not observing 50 percent of the entire staff of drivers, the other half that was not observed is still affected by the results of those who are observed. “They know that someone is out here on a regular basis. They’re going to be more aware of what they’re doing, thinking ‘that vehicle’s been behind me for the past ten miles; that could be one of SafeComm’s vehicles’. But he doesn’t really know. I guarantee you he’s going to see it and it effects his driving as well as that of the person that actually was observed.”
