01 Tipping point: Setting the stage for smarter waste management
Step-by-step guide to improve your garbage trucks’ utilization rates
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Keeping trucks ticking: Maximizing garbage fleet longevity Reducing waste in your waste operations: From routing to right-sizing Fueling efficiency: Slashing costs and emissions in your waste collection fleet Clean record, clean streets: Avoiding legal landfills from liability and risk
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Identify what’s most important Which utilization equations are most critical for your waste and sanitation company to know the answer to? Calculations like individual vehicle utilization rates, your overall fleet utilization rate, average miles per driver and total mileage capacity may be important to keep track of. However, with telematics, you can do away with manual calculations and easily see what your most and least used vehicles are. Pinpoint the most essential metrics your organization needs to track in order to optimize asset utilization and reduce waste.
Set utilization benchmarks Identify long-term utilization goals and short-term ones that are more attainable. Many fleets strive to reach an 80% vehicle utilization rate for peak efficiency, but if that isn’t feasible right away, shorter-term wins may help you make incremental progress toward this loftier goal. Once you’ve set your various utilization benchmarks, you can move to the next step, which is to measure your garbage trucks’ current utilization with telematics.
Assess current vehicle usage Pinpoint over- and under-used vehicles (and the reasons why they might be) using your fleet management software’s utilization dashboard. Doing so can help you identify gaps to your target benchmarks and help inform your strategies to curb uneven usage. It’s important to not just identify the gaps, but also look for patterns in usage that provide deeper utilization insights. By holistically studying your trucks’ utilization rates, you’re in a better position to make informed operational decisions.
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The last stop: Moving toward a leaner, more efficient waste management fleet
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Develop improvement strategies Once you’ve identified where over- and under-usage is occurring in your fleet, you can create targeted interventions to help your waste and sanitation fleet make progress toward its benchmarks. These strategies can range from alternating routes to right- sizing. For example, if one garbage truck usually has further distances to drive than others on its daily collection route, consider switching its route with another truck’s shorter route once every other week. Over time, this can help reduce chasmic gaps in your trucks’ overall usage and prevent excessive wear, maintenance and high costs.
Optimize and adjust The last step of the utilization improvement cycle is to constantly measure your fleet’s progress toward its benchmarks. Are you continuously getting closer to your goal, or is it remaining elusive? To optimize utilization, make sure to consistently check your key metrics using your telematics platform and always remain on the right trajectory toward your benchmarks.
DID YOU KNOW?
Geotab’s Asset Utilization dashboard contains everything you need to know regarding your vehicles’ usage rates. Study your most utilized and least utilized vehicles, as well as total drive times, total utilization percentages, total distances and the number of days driven.
Cutting costs, not corners 10
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