Chichester District Council

Implementation of a managed system

In 2009 and following a successful pilot project, Chichester District Council chose Bartec to implement their ‘Waste Collector’ operations management software and in-cab system.

The Solution

Rugged in-cab computers, with integrated GPS, linked to the Local Land and Property Gazetteer, were fitted into the refuse collection fleet of 17 vehicles. The Waste Collector system was also integrated with Chichester’s Lagan ECM back office solution.

Driver reports via the touch screen terminal create, in real time, a case in the Lagan system with the information needed for the admin staff to deal with customer enquiries at the first point of contact.

Furthermore, mapping data enables the service to replay and analyse rounds to assess the most efficient collection route, and to advise a customer where a particular vehicle is at any one time. Where a bin has been genuinely missed, the admin staff are able to locate the nearest vehicle and request a collection.

The solution has driven efficiencies in other ways too: by creating a ‘case’ history against properties, the council has access to powerful patterns of information, offering opportunities for targeted service delivery, encouraging recycling, home composting, reductions in excess waste and more education around appropriate recycling. Properties may also be ‘flagged’, drawing attention to the crews of new services to particular properties e.g. new assisted or garden waste collections that have joined their round for the first time.

The Results

Results of the initial project were very positive. By integrating Waste Collector with Lagan ECM, Chichester District Council has:

• Saved £17,500 in staff time printing, collating and distributing 26,000 report forms each year and maintaining manual records for end of year returns
• Saved the equivalent of £37,000 in staff time supporting the previously bespoke database
• Avoided expensive integration into the Customer Service Centre CRM
• Provided frontline staff with real-time data to deal with the 16,000 enquiries received each year at first point of contact, significantly reducing the volume of follow up calls and call backs to help comply with NI 14 avoidable contact requirements
• Created a property history, enabling targeted, proactive service delivery
• Delivered integrated technology that will lend itself to supporting other mobileteams such as street cleaning, mobile wardens etc.

The automation of garden waste subscription and renewal processes was introduced through integration between Collective and Chichester’s new customer service centre and customer facing web portal supplied by Goss.

The Collective system was further extended in March 2016 with the addition of Collective’s Trade module to help manage Chichester’s growing commercial customer base. Through Collective Trade Customers are invoiced in arrears through automated processes, significantly reducing administration time. Collective Trade exports invoice files to Chichester’s Civica financials system and, in return, receives details of payments which update customer account balances highlighting those that have exceeded their credit limits.

Additionally, a new project is currently underway to implement the FleetRoute route optimisation system, fully integrated to Collective and supplied by Bartec.