When Hillsborough County, Florida – a community of nearly 1.5 million residents – decided to rethink how its waste and recycling carts are managed, it didn鈥檛 just go with the status quo. It redesigned the playbook entirely. Rather than sticking with the traditional model where haulers manage carts alongside collection, the County chose a smarter, more efficient structure – assigning cart management to a single, specialized provider across its three franchise hauler zones.
As of July 2, 2025, that provider is National Cart Services (NCS). The result: one site, one team, one standard – and a whole new level of efficiency. 鈥淲e鈥檙e averaging 400 orders per day and guaranteeing 48-hour service,鈥� says Dave Piejak, President & CEO of National Cart Services. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a unified, cost effective, integrated system that matches the scale and complexity of a large municipality.鈥�
A Smarter Division of Labor
Traditionally, waste haulers have been tasked with both collection and cart management. But this bundling often turns cart service into a nuisance 鈥� not because haulers lack goodwill, but because cart management simply isn鈥檛 their core business. 鈥淲ould you ask your mail carrier to repair a broken mailbox?鈥� asks Piejak. 鈥淥f course not 鈥� it would slow down delivery and it鈥檚 outside their area of expertise.鈥�
Hillsborough County took a different path 鈥� one that leverages specialization: haulers haul, and NCS manages the carts. This separation will result in faster service ticket closure, transparent order tracking and, ultimately, lower costs for residents.
NCS鈥檚 operation includes Field Service Technicians, a Yard Technician, and a Supervisor. This approach allows the drivers to be in the field for a full shift and standardizes yard operations. By centralizing inventory management, NCS will reduce unnecessary cart purchases and extend asset life – directly lowering capital expenditures for Hillsborough County.
A Scalable Model for Regional Success
This isn鈥檛 just a Florida success story. The Hillsborough model is scalable and tailor-made for small or mid-sized cities in a geographic area or regional municipal consortiums working together to lower costs and improve service.
鈥淐ounties and cities across the country are under pressure from rising collection and disposal costs,鈥� says Piejak. 鈥淥ur model helps them offset those increases through lower service costs, better inventory management, and smart asset reuse. And if they want to finance new carts and services, we can offer tax-exempt lease options to bundle everything into a single low monthly cost.鈥�
With over 8,500 service calls per month and growing, Hillsborough County is setting the standard for what鈥檚 possible when cart services are managed by a provider whose core competency is cart management 鈥� not as an afterthought. Other governments are likely to follow.