Route Redesign Using GPS

1
Route Redesign Using GPS

• A case study on Claremore, OK
• Presented by Tim Miller
• Director of Utilities
• Claremore, OK

2
Why Redesign Routes

• Routes were done in an employees head, no formal
  routes were written down.
• Employee turnover meant that new hands were
  trained on what previous employee could remember
  about route and many things were forgotten as
  information was passed down.
• As new employees learned routes, each driver had
  preferences on where to start and where to
  break-off to go to the dump. With little to no
  standardization, drivers were constantly changing
  routes to fit their personal desires and in many
  cases, duplicating work.
• As a result there were 4 trucks needed and we
  received many complaints about missed trash and
  untimely pickups.
• In addition to customer complaints there were
  regularly large amounts of overtime, making the
  operation too costly to continue in this same
  manner.

3
How to Redesign Using GPS Tracking

• Set GPS units on vehicles to track their daily
  routes
• Units can be installed simply with 12-volt power
  and antenna space
• Compile raw data to analyze routes
• Determine where routes overlap
• Intersection crossovers
• Streets used more than once for travel instead of
  pickup
• Duplication of routes and areas covered in more
  than one manner (i.e. 2 drivers covering the same
  road).
• Utilize professional route optimization company
  to redesign routes
• Benefits Specialized company redesigns routes,
  ensuring accuracy and feasibility
• Constraints Professional optimization is
  costly, smaller cities may not have funds for a
  project of this nature.
• Using a GPS system to do In-House routing is a
  one time event, the system will not update itself
  or compile routes for you.
• Software can be purchased for the types of
  operations.

4
Route Redesign Parameters

• Routes must be designed for success. Use some
  simple mathematic formulas to ensure that your
  proposed route will be feasible.
• Utilize raw data to redesign routes
• Work with route drivers to redesign routes
• Utilize driver knowledge and experience to ensure
  feasibility of redesigned routes, making sure
  that you are interpreting the map in the same
  way. This keeps you from assuming a street is
  connected where is it actually a dead end.
• Gauge average waste per household (WPH) to
  determine roughly where the break-off points
  will be
• These will be determined by the carrying capacity
  of your collection vehicle (CCV) divided by the
  WPH.
• CCV/WPH of average households vehicle can
  carry
• Example Vehicle holds 8 tons, WPH 30lbs.
  (Claremore avg.)
• 16,000/30 533 Houses per load (average)
• Use national benchmarks to ensure that vehicles
  have enough time to pickup their route stops
• National standard ranges from 2.5 to 1.5
  households per minute
• Factor in dump time for each vehicle so that
  employees are not working overtime to complete
  standard routes.
• Get routes as even as possible so that workday is
  constant throughout week and vehicles are not
  overweight on roads.
• Example 8-1.25(dump trip time) 60 405 route
  minutes
• 4051.5 607.5 households per day Collection
  vehicle holds 533 houses so plan for excess of 74
  households or 1.14 dump trips per vehicle per
  day.

5
Contingency Plans

• Developed for worst case scenarios to ensure two
  backup plans are in place because trash must be
  picked up each day
• Plan 1
• If a truck goes down, the routes can be completed
  with only 2 residential trucks, but 3 hours of
  overtime per truck will have to be used
• Plan 2
• If 2 trucks go down, the commercial polycart
  truck will be utilized to pick up the rest of the
  route. Overtime will depend on the amount of the
  route left to complete. The commercial polycart
  truck has a lifter arm on the back and the
  polycarts have wheels so there is a reduced
  chance of a workers comp injury during this
  process

6
Route Redesign Results

• Reduced active automated route trucks from 4 to
  3.
• 4th vehicle is for contingency plan and to rotate
  vehicles on maintenance schedule.
• Increased profitability of department by over
  200
• FY 05/06 Profit - 248k
• FY 06/07 Profit - 550k
• Profit increase was through reduced operational
  costs, not increased rates or new accounts.
• Reduced sanitation rate by 8
• Introduced Senior Rate at 1/Mo. Lower than
  regular residential rate.
• Reduced employee overtime