John Paglia, III
In what ways do my employees compliment route optimization technology?
Routing is an integral part of every waste and recycling company鈥檚 daily operations. Routing efficiencies directly affect the bottom line of your company鈥檚 P&L statement. Safety is positively affected when routes are optimized with safety as one of the main components.
Route Optimization
There are a number of products on the market today that offer automated route optimization. While some are more complex than others, in essence they are doing the same thing.听 These programs vary in price and effectiveness. You can guide the program with rules and restrictions allowing it to work within a certain criteria. While these products continue to evolve on their effectiveness, I have yet to find a one size fits all solution. Depending on the application (residential or commercial) you are applying this technology too; there is still a need for human input. Without the human element involved, in my opinion a route cannot truly be optimized for success.
Profitability
There is, and always will be a need for human input. Routes change daily when a stop is added/deleted or depending on weather conditions. Having your driver trained on the route, who understands how to read a map/grid system is always a plus during the hiring process. With my experience, drivers who can learn and follow a route without being dependent to a GPS are generally a more seasoned, safer driver. There is a fine line between human input and micro-managing. If you had to micro-manage trucks on a daily basis that too would be an issue.
Safety Minded
Unfortunately computer generated routes cannot route completely safety minded. They generally take all the stops on the route and spit out the shortest calculated timed or mileage route. Yes, as I mentioned before, you can give it a criteria to work with but it still never gets it totally correct.听 Without human input I鈥檝e seen these routes dead end at streets that do not exist, cross over double yellow lines from stop to stop, go down a wrong way on a one-way street. In cases like these, if not caught beforehand, it puts your driver in a panic situation and forces him to make a split second decision. Having a route supervisor monitoring routes on a daily basis is a must if total profits and safety is the overall goal.
Employee
Let鈥檚 just say for the sake of this argument a route is optimized for both safety and profitability. Together with a supervisor鈥檚 area knowledge, and use of technology, together they have created a safe and profitable route. Just because this is done, doesn鈥檛 equate just yet to success. You have to ensure the employee is going to follow it. Training a new guy on an optimized route is easy. Training a seasoned guy a new way to do 鈥渉is/her route鈥� in a new way is a different story. They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. I believe you can with the correct management style. Once again, routes change daily. So if the employee is not following the route correctly the more changes from day to day increases a snowball effect in inefficiencies as days pass.
Time=Money
Our industry costs are relatively calculated on a cost per hour basis. 10 minutes lost here, 10 minutes lost there, per truck, per day, per week, adds up in the company鈥檚 total cost on labor, maintenance, equipment, etc. The fine mixture of getting your trucks off the streets and back in the yard the fastest and safest way together is what you want. You do not want one without the other. The fast employees may offer short-term profitability, but will destroy the numbers in the long term. Generally, the fastest employees are the ones who are incident/accident prone, do things their own way and do not buy in totally to management. Creating and carrying out a safely optimized route is not something that is built in a day. It is just a part of your ingredients for success. It is no more or less important than hiring the correct person for the job, the training process, sales, management or safety. It is a mere link in the chain of the company that must be able to hold together when the chain is called to be tested.
These are only a few beneficiaries of a properly optimized route. It is very easy to just settle in at the end of every day and become complacent that 鈥渢he garbage is of the streets鈥�. Going beyond this simplicity, by putting forth extra effort to ensure routes are optimized for safety and profitability, consistency will become evident in your safety record and the company鈥檚 bottom line.
听
John Paglia, III is a 4th generation garbage man. Before he climbed the ranks to become Florida Express Environmental鈥檚 General Manager, he had a successful career in college and professional athletics. John has been around the garbage industry since his car seat days. Currently, John is focused on growing his company and offering the highest level of customer service and prolonging the world we live in today. John wakes up every day knowing the impact professional haulers have on their community is far greater than most realize. He can be reached at (352) 629-4349, e-mail [email protected] or visit .
听
We want to hear what issues you may be facing. If you have a question for our 鈥淔rom the Experts鈥� column, contact Angelina Ruiz at [email protected] for an answer in a future issue.
听