So often we find ourselves feeling under constant pressure to catch up or keep up with an increasing number of trends, changes, and regulations that are being introduced monthly in the waste industry.
Specifically with driver compliance and accountability, you are seeing more technologies that can help you manage your fleet and drivers. If you have not heard of the term “Smart Fleet” it is a term that incorporates various technologies to do a myriad of fleet and driver management activities like:
- Communicating with the office real-time
- Tracking both trucks and containers real-time
- Allowing drivers to perform a host of event-driven actions that syncs with the office system
- Updating office staff on route information and progress
- Notifying management when trucks are out of sequence, off-route, or speeding
- Reporting necessary information like pre/post trip data or efficiency/profitability of route…and more.
Historically, such features were a luxury for haulers and municipalities whereas now they are a necessity. Before you comb through all the industry periodicals for the most up-to-date information on Smart Technology, here are some questions you might want to ask yourself:
Do you have real-time access and transparency to your routes, drivers, and trucks?
Do you know where each and every one of your containers are located and how frequently they are being utilized?
Can you generate operational, efficiency and profitability reports on your routes and containers? What about city, county and/or state compliance reports?
Are you minimizing human interaction and human error in the system by utilizing touch technology and a user-interface that captures data automatically?
Are you missing opportunities to capture extra revenue or customer information that is critical to your operation?
Creating a Smart Fleet is not the responsibility of a consultant or a software company…it is your responsibility. It starts with being aware of the benefits of having such an integrated system and ends with taking steps to implement it. Like any worthy endeavor, it takes one step at a time. To fully quote a famous proverb, “Rome was not built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.” While awareness is the first “brick”, the second one would be finding a partner that understands what your “Rome” is actually going to look like when it is finished.
Alpine has been serving the Waste Industry for over 40 years and would love you help build your Smart Fleet Management System with cutting edge, usable and affordable software. For more information, go to www.rams-pro.com or give us a call at (888) 852-7267.
So, what’re a few steps that we can ensure will help us work/produce the smartest?
Remember a second ago when I mentioned the need to “be aware”? Well, first things first, as a waste management company, you need to be readily aware of your software and as often as possible ask yourself, “Are we providing the best, safest, and most up-to-date service available to our customers?”
Once aware, the next question that should come to mind would be, “Is the software we have providing both our customers and us the most accurate data and real-time transparency?”
The better you know your business, the better you know the solutions available. It behooves you to make decisions that will help you reach your business goals.
Alpine asked these same questions when we put ourselves in Haulers’ shoes. We understand the growing needs and demands – we’re proud to have such extensive knowledge and drive to be the one to/who sets the highest standards in the waste management software business.