Right on Time with RouteSmart
Tech Trash Talk: Investing in Innovation for Safer Waste Collection
Join us as we explore how technology intersects with safety in the waste and recycling industry, featuring insights from renowned experts former SWANA CEO David Biderman, RouteSmart's Jessica Cearfoss and Danielle Baci, and Rumpke's Tim Bath.
This episode analyzes the critical safety challenges faced by the industry, from property damage and worker injuries to life-threatening incidents on collection routes. Our panel of industry experts discusses transformative solutions, highlighting how route optimization and telematics are essential tools in enhancing workplace safety.
As we approach the Waste Expo from May 7-9 in Las Vegas, let's celebrate the significant strides made by industry leaders and learn how these technological advancements can spearhead a safer, more efficient future in your operations. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises not just insights but a roadmap to a safer technological landscape in waste management.
Join us as we explore how technology intersects with safety in the waste and recycling industry, featuring insights from renowned experts former SWANA CEO David Biderman, RouteSmart's Jessica Cearfoss and Danielle Baci, and Rumpke's Tim Bath.
This episode analyzes the critical safety challenges faced by the industry, from property damage and worker injuries to life-threatening incidents on collection routes. Our panel of industry experts discusses transformative solutions, highlighting how route optimization and telematics are essential tools in enhancing workplace safety.
As we approach the Waste Expo from May 7-9 in Las Vegas, let's celebrate the significant strides made by industry leaders and learn how these technological advancements can spearhead a safer, more efficient future in your operations. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises not just insights but a roadmap to a safer technological landscape in waste management.
Amanda can hear, all right man.
Speaker 2:Amanda can hear yeah, she texted me good, good, good all right, welcome to another episode of right on time with route smart. Uh, you're listening to season four, episode two, and this one's titled tech trash talk investing in innovation for safer waste management. So waste expo is approaching in Vegas and I know a lot of you will be there. It's May 7th to the 9th and as we get closer to the event, it's crucial to focus on the role of technology in enhancing safety within the waste management industry. I'm your host, matthew Kemeny, and today we're diving into how technological innovations prioritize safety and how it's an essential aspect for industry professionals as they consider their tech investments.
Speaker 2:With us, our leading experts in their fields, we have David Biederman, the former executive director of Swana and now president of Biederman Consulting, of SWANA and now president of Biedermann Consulting, jessica Sierfass, senior business development manager of Routesmart, danielle Bocci, senior client success manager at Routesmart. And Tim Bath, director of hauling at Rumpke, a company at the forefront of waste and recycling in the Midwest, I believe, based in Cincinnati. So our conversation today will explore the critical importance of integrating safety-enhancing technologies into waste management operations. We'll discuss how these advancements not only ensure worker safety, but also improve compliance with regulations and overall operational efficiency. So, david, let's kick things off with you. With your extensive background and advocating for safety in our industry, I know you're very well known around the industry. Can you shed some light on how the primary safety challenges some of the safety challenges that the industry currently faces, and how technology can help address these issues?
Speaker 3:Sure, Matthew. Thank you very much. So there's a wide variety of safety hazards and challenges that we face on the collection side of the industry that we're discussing today. I put it in three central buckets. We have the challenge of third-party property damage claims, where our trucks are hitting both fixed objects like buildings or light poles or sheds, and we're hitting moving objects like cars and motorcycles or bicycles, and sometimes those objects are hitting us. And that is a constant issue in our industry, that we have this frequent cadence of property damage claims at companies both large and small.
Speaker 3:The second big challenge, I believe, are injuries. Workers collecting garbage are getting hurt frequently at above average rates compared to typical workers in the United States. The two most common injuries that I've seen are ergonomic-related injuries from repeating the same thing over and over again. Whether it's jumping off and on a truck, whether it's lifting heavy garbage, those result in back and shoulder injuries.
Speaker 3:The second leading cause of injury in the solid waste industry are slips, trips and falls, which come from a variety of places and, as you might imagine, when you're collecting garbage in the rain, at night, in the ice and snow, when people are rushing from stop to stop, they can forget some basic safety rules and therefore get hurt. And then the third category that I'll mention is simply workers dying on the route. They get hit by their own truck, they get struck by other vehicles, they roll the truck over. There was a terrible incident just south of Baltimore a couple of weeks ago where a driver drove the truck off of a ramp and put the truck 25 feet down on a railroad line. Those are the things that we're trying to prevent these property damage claims, these injuries and these, lastly but most importantly, these fatal incidents you're muted, matt, I can't hear you thank you.
Speaker 2:So, david, you'll be in our booth next month, um, at waste expo. Uh, if you, you'll see there's a blog post about it on our website. Um, our booth number is, uh, 4017 if you're going to be there. Um, so, obviously, at waste expo, there's going to be a lot of talk about technology and how it relates to the waste industry. Um, david, can you, can you shed some light on how waste management companies can meet or exceed regulatory safety standards by investing in new technology?
Speaker 3:Sure, there's a variety of technical tools that can be used to improve safety performance and reduce accidents and injuries. To improve safety performance and reduce accidents and injuries, route optimization is one of the most obvious ones. If we can optimize routes so a truck is on the road for fewer hours, that reduces the overall risk profile for the workers on that truck because they're literally on the road for less time. Telematics in the truck that allow you to monitor the speed at which the truck is going, whether the truck is making hard right turns, whether the truck is braking too hard those are tools that can be used to monitor driver behavior and also improve our safety performance.
Speaker 3:And a lot of companies are linking that with in-cab cameras, where they have a camera facing the cab, the driver and the helper. And when that happens, you see improved behavior by workers, including wearing safety belts and not using the cell phone as often, although, believe it or not, there are many, many times when, even though they're on camera, they're happy to continue talking on the cell phone, even though it violates federal law and company policy. And then the simplest level of technology is the continued introduction of automated side loaders replacing manual rear loaders. Manual rear loaders that's not technology in the high-tech Microsoft kind of space, but that is a use of a technology that can be used to reduce the number of workers on the truck and reduce the number of times a worker has to get in and out of a truck or pick garbage up and put it in the back of the truck and thereby reducing the safety risk for that worker.
Speaker 1:Mute, you're muted.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to keep it off mute. My brain is not functioning today, apparently. My brain is not functioning today, apparently. Jess, you've been with RouteSmart for over 16 years and obviously you've seen so many changes in the waste industry and you've also seen you've seen some improvements as far as safety is concerned. We know that safety is a top priority when we develop these route planning tools, but can you talk about how route smart products and services are aimed at enhancing safety?
Speaker 4:Sure. So I would say one of the biggest collective improvements that I've seen is embracing more of a safety culture in general within the industry. We can offer tools to groups and companies, but unless it's prioritized that decisions are made based on safety, that element of the value is out the door, in the sense that once companies started to embrace that, for example, we could make the quickest route, it may not be the safest route. That's kind of one of the first things that we see and that's when companies embrace that they need to take into account safety above just productivity at times. I think that's one shift in the industry.
Speaker 4:Tools that we offer that are geared specifically towards safety is, as David said, route optimization in general. Instead of just sending trucks and drivers out to figure it out, which you know in a truck is not the best option during the route. Or you know in a new section of the route to just figure out where heavy traffic is, or sharp turns or restrictions that they shouldn't be there, that sort of thing. That's not the time to learn that the route planning process takes into account things like the service side. Even if you have a rear loader, you know for safety reasons you don't want personnel going across streets. We're thinking about turns, we're thinking about traffic patterns, intersections maybe they've historically been where accidents have happened or they're dangerous and you don't want them at a certain time of day or at all.
Speaker 4:You know those sorts of settings can be calibrated within the software to ultimately create to contribute to safety and the overall route optimization planning we do offer onboard. I know we can touch on that a little bit but a lot of groups they want to plan and consider safety in mind. They don't want to back out of streets or back down streets. We hear that there's safety considerations having to do with alleys and how they're included in the routes, you know, in certain directions or just certain restrictions that are incorporated. But at the end of the day we also get a lot of questions about trying to put a tool or device in the vehicle for the drivers to have the plan that has now been thought out, to have that followed exactly. So there's also kind of hand-in-hand technology to make sure that the vehicles are driving the actual routes that you've taken all these safety considerations into when you design them.
Speaker 2:Danielle, you work directly with the clients. Do you have anything to add to that as far as how important safety outcomes are for our clients and what our tools do to ensure positive safety?
Speaker 5:I think Jessica covered it pretty extensively. I would say that our biggest push in the last probably two years has been all of our considerations that we do with turns. So we have numerous behind the scenes settings where we can automate how turns are considered. For instance, we can make sure that we're avoiding making left hand turns across traffic whenever possible unless we're inside a residential neighborhood. So you know, we will encourage our algorithm to make rights and avoid having to cross traffic when possible for certain vehicles and that doesn't require any additional work on a user side to be adding all of those considerations. So, understanding how garbage trucks, I like to say, are not your Honda Accords on the road and we might need some additional intelligence behind the route planning. That understands that, I think, is what sets Rotsmart apart.
Speaker 2:So, tim, kicking it over to you. Um, I know Rumpke has a big commitment to worker safety, but what specific technologies, including your use of RouteSmart, have you found most effective in reducing risks on the job among your workers?
Speaker 1:I think, when it comes to routing, our biggest factor is that we're trying to limit the number of left-hand turns and using a routing solution for that. We're trying to limit the number of left-hand turns and using a routing solution for that. One of the things we've worked on over the last couple of years with RouteSmart is the ability to do cart and container delivery via the RouteSmart online platform.
Speaker 1:That was a big one For many years from a routing perspective. Your front-load route, your rear-load route, they were the same route every day but the cart and container delivery drivers were kind of left to fend for themselves. They're still driving a big truck To be able to use that technology as a whole to help us not only gain efficiency but gain safety. We rolled that out over the last six months to our entire organization. It was a big win for us. We thought it was a huge advantage and our drivers have been very appreciative. So from that side, using that technology for that, outside that on the technology front, we're really focused on the automated driver stuff with AutoCar and being able to actually use it to help us stop when there's a car in front of us, similar to what your personal car does, and some anti-rollover technology. But the adaptability of taking not making left-hand turns using the routing that's given to us, then tying it together with the automated driver system really has a huge benefit from a safety perspective.
Speaker 2:So how do you balance the implementation of new safety technologies with the ongoing training and development of your workforce?
Speaker 1:I think for the majority of us it is, at least at Rumpke, and I think what should be the industry standards is talking to our drivers. I've set a personal goal to reduce one driver accident a day. If I can do that, then I get a driver that goes home to their family without stress Everybody likes to talk about. They don't get to go home. Let's eliminate that one. But let's look at any incident as a stressful event for our employee and if we can address one stressful event for an employee a day, then I think we've won. So while implementing the technologies, you work with them to explain to them why, with open and transparency, we don't hide anything. We tell them very honestly why we're doing it and that really Matt from a long-term benefit. It gets the driver buying and they're committed to the success of it and it ultimately drives a lot more success in one less incident a day, multiple less incidents, but that means there's a lot less stress for our employees.
Speaker 2:So we talk about innovations and I know Jess touched on this a little while ago but our in-cab device, smartsuite, smartsuite Mobile and Web how does that help contribute to positive safety outcomes? Jess or Danielle, you can take this one.
Speaker 4:I'll jump in A lot of groups. They want to. First of all, they want to ensure that the routes that they've taken the care to plan and have these elements incorporated. They want to ensure that they're followed, or maybe even the term would be, they give it the opportunity for the drivers to have them provided in a more convenient way so they're not reading paper or flipping through anything in a vehicle. That's pretty obvious with respect to risk inside the vehicle. So it's probably the number one question after we talk to a group that's looking into a software digital route planning solution, is they wanna know how a driver can consume the route.
Speaker 4:So we've evolved from and we still do have reports and all of those sorts of things that you can use for analytics. But being able to push it digitally into a device spoon feeds the driver the route plan so they're able to do what they need to do to drive the vehicle. We don't require constant interaction. In fact, by design, we just want the driver to go in and select the route and he or she can go. Occasionally. They might want to interact if there's a reason that they want to report on, but it's passive in that sense if they just receive the visual and the audible or audio what Tim was saying. In the route plans and in the field where the plans that are provided to the drivers, if they trust them and they follow them, that's the well-oiled machine, because then they get them delivered digitally and there's less reason to deviate or to run the routes how they used to run the routes. You know they trust the efficiency efficiency.
Speaker 5:I will add to what Jessica said in that the onboard device follows our planned travel path, which is very different from a lot of other onboard technology that many companies use, our clients included. The SmartSuite mobile device is not used in the majority of our waste clients. It's definitely out there for some, but for many they've had onboard technology before our SmartSuite mobile device was even created. So they've had licenses with other technologies for many years and you can take our stops and our routes and put them on any device. But once that information leaves the RouteSmart umbrella and it goes into somebody else's platform and they provide turn-by-turn directions, they're usually only taking in the sequence order of the stops but not the actual travel path. So it might say you know you go from stop 21 to 22, but it's not telling them how to get from 21 to 22, the way that was designed in the Route Smart software. And that's where I think a big difference comes in between SmartSuite Mobile or some of the other devices that are out there. You can say that you don't want to make left-hand turns all day inside Route Smart, but the second those sequence order goes into somebody else's device. They can tell you how to get to each stop and if they decide that they want to make a left-hand turn they can.
Speaker 5:We took as a test once a very small, you know, two-stop route almost. Then we put it in Google versus inside RouteSmart and looked at the difference between the travel paths and RouteS smart had zero left-hand turns across traffic. It was all rights and it was. You had to kind of go in a loop when it sequenced and when we put the same order inside google it showed you turning at those two different stops and a left across traffic to get back and the difference was it saved 15 seconds of time according to Google, because they're assuming again you're in a Honda Accord and you can make a U-turn anywhere in the street and it's not a big deal. They don't realize the time that was in that took a lot more than 15 extra seconds right for that vehicle to try and maneuver that sequence. So you know that's the big difference. You're still doing the stops in the same order. It's.
Speaker 5:The key to the safety is how you're traveling between those stops and I think that's a big difference between Smart Suite, mobile and some of the other devices is where are your trucks going during the day? What is their path on all of those streets. The order of the actual streets and turns, not the order of the containers that you're servicing per se, that make the difference of that day and the safety. And in SmartSuite Mobile you're not having to confirm and touch a screen constantly at every container. You know it's automatically assuming that if you pass the container that you serviced it unless you made an exception, and hopefully those exceptions are not happening that often. So there's minimal, you know, interaction with the device that keeps the driver's eyes on the road and not on screens.
Speaker 2:That's a great explanation, thank you. I mean, I grew up in New Jersey and if you know anything about New Jersey, you can't make a left hand turn there. Anyway, I mean you, I mean, I didn't know how to make a left-hand turn, I don't think, until I moved to Pennsylvania, but it's all, it's all jug handles and um, you know, when I got here, they were like oh, we have circles. I was like yeah, I know, I've, I've been through them a few times.
Speaker 2:Um, but you have to go right to go left, you have to go right to go left. Exactly, exactly so, david, as everyone knows, you've served as executive director at Swana for years, so you've obviously become a safety expert. Can you talk?
Speaker 3:about how attitudes towards investing in safety technology have evolved within the industry over time. Sure, I think that we've seen a growing recognition that safety isn't a program, but safety has to be a core value at a growing number of organizations, both large and small, in both the public and private sector, and that technology isn't just something you have to figure out to try to improve your safety program, but it can actually be a core part of your safety program, whether it's OSHA reporting, whether it's telematics, information, transportation, the use of technology. As the average age of the owners of companies becomes younger, right as people who are, you know, 60 and older retire and they're replaced by people in their 30s and 40s and perhaps 50s, who are more digitally proficient, digital natives. We're seeing a rather rapid embrace of technology in the cab and behind the scenes, in the back office. That allows collection companies and local governments to better monitor and evaluate their safety programs and it isn't a black box to these folks anymore, because they grew up with technology, so they're much more comfortable using it.
Speaker 1:You're on mute, Matt uh, thank you, david.
Speaker 2:That's a great explanation, um, do you feel like it's? You've seen some improvements in that regard?
Speaker 3:absolutely I do. I do work currently for a variety of companies, small and medium-sized. Uh, some of these companies did not have any technology other than routing seven, eight years ago and now they've got analytics telematic systems on the trucks they're embracing using iPads and other devices in the cab as opposed to routing sheets. They're not all there yet on that piece of it, mostly because the drivers aren't all there on that, but we're in the middle to later innings of the embrace of technology, I think on the collection side in the solid waste industry.
Speaker 2:Tim, have your workers, have they embraced safety culture there at Rumpke?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have, and I think we attack it a little differently. We're not on to the onboard tablet movement yet, but we're also very focused on safety and being safety first. I think when you look at ours, we look at what can we do to help our drivers and to coach or any of our employees. We're very focused on the coaching and the interaction. I think it's a very tricky, tricky situation today's day and age with everybody. You know a lot of work from home and those things. Obviously, in the waste industry we don't get that opportunity, but we still do have people that do. But it's really still staying connected with the drivers and I think with with um, with covid, there was a disconnect of our employees to our managers and I think we really refocused and I think that was that was not just us, that was across the entire world.
Speaker 1:Um, everybody's scared to get close to each other and getting back and actually talking, communicating. We focus a lot on that. Uh, you know it comes to routing. It's talking through our routing and allowing our drivers to have a say to go. Hey, I understand why I did this, but here's the risk it's presenting. You can use the best technology you have, but you still have to be able to communicate with your people. I think that's what we're still focusing on. Is that communications piece? Because, as with any AI, the more information we give back to our routing stuff the better it gets.
Speaker 2:Have you seen?
Speaker 1:firsthand how route smarts technologies have been integrated in your operations and the impact it's had on safety. Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, we were talking about the container delivery side. We've seen a big impact on that. Um, one of the things you know for a long time in our industry, productivity and safety couldn't exist together. Uh, that was, that was the mantra, and the truth is that's complete opposite. Safety is a necessity for the maximum productivity. Um, because every time you have an incident or anything or an accident, it's hours out of your day, so it affects your productivity, right, so we're able to using the RouteSmart platform and the directions it gives us and the sequencing.
Speaker 1:It may seem slower, but if it's safer, which we have found it is, the improvement in productivity is not because we drive faster, we're getting faster, we're actually doing things slower, but we're more efficient. Not because we drive faster, we're getting faster, we're actually doing things slower, but we're more efficient, and I think efficiency is critical in nature to being successful. I think that the best drivers, obviously, and the safest drivers, are efficient. They're not fast, they're not out of control, but they're running at an efficient level. Everything has a purpose and I think, when you look at it. When it comes back to routing, everything has a purpose. So as we use the program, that's what we're looking for is to make purposeful impact on our drivers' lives.
Speaker 2:Great, excellent, excellent. So we're at about 25 minutes right now. That's like the drive time, podcast time that you want to aim for. Does anybody have anything to add about safety or Waste Expo in general? I mean, I think we covered a lot today. Do you have a go-to restaurant you're looking forward to dining at in Vegas? Yes, I know you have a list.
Speaker 4:Whatever one we can be together at right. Yes, it's not have a list. Whatever one, we can be together at right.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's not easy to get a group reservation in Vegas. Yeah, I think you know, Matt, as we talk about Expo and what's coming up a lot of exciting things as you go out there, right, we get to celebrate our drivers of the year, operators of the year, those going in the Hall of Fame. Fortunate enough, my CEO is going in this year. So congratulations to Bill. He's a tremendous man. He's been at the forefront of our industry for a long time. But I think it's an opportunity to really get together and talk with our other colleagues. And safety should be at our forefront. Technology should be at our forefront.
Speaker 1:Yes, everybody's got their company name and logo on, but the reality is we're out there doing it for our people. And how do we improve things for our people? So I think when we talk about Expo, it's really coming together to improve the overall industry. You know, we long, long ago learned that or I long ago learned that when there's one accident to any company in this industry, we all suffer. When it's a major event, None of us want to see that.
Speaker 1:So this is our opportunity to come together and make a difference in our people's lives.
Speaker 4:Well said Tim.
Speaker 3:Thank you, tim. That's a great point. We work in the seventh most dangerous job in the United States. Waste collection is a very dangerous profession, occupation for the men and women who drive the trucks and are helpers, and Waste Expo provides sort of the ultimate shopping mall experience for folks looking for both technological and non-technological solutions in the safety space, and I hope that people who are watching this podcast take full advantage of that, especially by coming to the Route Smart booth.
Speaker 4:Danielle and I will be there, several others. Come, put a face to the name. We'll show you our room.
Speaker 2:Booth number 4017. Is that right? Did I get that right again? All right. So as we wrap up today's episode of Right on Time with RouteSmart, I want to thank our guests, david, jessica, danielle and Tim for sharing their essential insights on integrating safety technologies into waste management practices. It's clear that, as we move forward, embracing these innovations will be crucial for not only enhancing safety, but also for driving efficiency and compliance across the industry. But also for driving efficiency and compliance across the industry. For those of you heading to Waste Expo in Las Vegas beautiful Las Vegas, where they seem to have at least three conferences a year we look forward to seeing you there. It's a fantastic opportunity to see these technologies in action and to further discuss how we can continue to improve safety standards in our field. Don't miss our booth. Come by booth number 4017. Everyone will be there, everyone. Well, tim will be at his I'll stop, don't worry, I make plenty of rounds over there Right, go see the Rumpke booth too.
Speaker 4:David will be joining us as well. Well, so anybody that needs to tell safety or ask questions of david, he will be in the booth as well.
Speaker 2:So and if you hit the casinos, I mean good luck to everyone. I mean I don't know if you're gamblers or not but, um, I don't know. Craps is never my thing, but I'm more of a roulette person than myself, but blackjack too. But then if I make a bad decision I screw up the whole table and make it all bad.
Speaker 5:As many times as I've been to Vegas, I have yet to gamble. That was recently discovered by my boss here at Routesmart, who says that it's everybody's responsibility to get me to spend some money lose some money at a table somewhere.
Speaker 2:There's. You know, there's a first time for everything I'd rather lose it on other things. Whatever you do, don't play the slots at the airport, though I speak from experience.
Speaker 5:Those are those are great.
Speaker 2:So thank you everyone for tuning in to this episode of Right on Time, we're out smart. Be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Catch all our future discussions. Until next time, stay safe and stay informed, thank you.
Speaker 4:Bye everyone.