Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council - UPRNs make waste collection operations more efficient

Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council - UPRNs make waste collection operations more efficient

Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council’s use of Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) is helping to transform its Waste Services operations.

Although OS MasterMap® Integrated Transport Network™ datasets and the Local Land and Property Gazetteer had been in use for a long time, much of Waste Services operations is still a paper-based operation. Teams draw on local names for streets and areas, and its Area Managers personal knowledge of routes to organise waste collections for residents.

These manually-driven collection rounds made it hard to organise and reform. It also made it difficult to gauge how much waste needed to be collected, where, and it presented problems in measuring the efficiency of the Waste Services operation overall. Statistical data needed to influence collection times, sizes, rates and more efficient routes was unavailable.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council decided to revolutionise its Waste Services operations, using UPRNs to plan improvements at an individual property level, using software provided by Webaspx. The result will provide an all-round better level of service for residents, and a great step forward towards a greater improved service overall.

By using UPRNs to visualise and plan waste collections more efficiently, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is transforming its Waste Services operations.

Linking UPRNs

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is implementing a complete package for waste management: Waste Manager Solution provided by Webaspx.

Integrating with that solution, the first stage in transforming the operations involved fitting four ‘InCab’ devices to vehicles in a pilot study. Three vehicles collecting approximately 30,000 properties food waste in Cynon, with one unit covering more isolated properties.

The InCab devices use UPRNs to link properties with crews’ observations on issues, contamination, or remarks as and where needed. With this data, the Waste Team is able to plan improvements to the service, to measure efficiency, and, aims to provide a more robust service to the public making enquiries about waste collection.

The devices also feed real-time information on collection progress and status, collection rates, time taken and tipping information back to the depot.

Delivering results

By linking feedback from individual properties using UPRNs, Rhondda Cynon Taf’s Waste Services is implementing the Waste Manager Solution to provide a greater improved service which is expected to deliver a number of benefits:

• UPRNs increase efficiency: significantly reducing or eliminating time-consuming cross-referencing with paper-based processes; minimising errors and cutting down on ‘double entries’; automating tasks with confidence.

• UPRNs improve teams’ performance: the Waste Services team can track the location, progress and status of crews in real time, helping them to deal with issues and guiding them with satellite navigation – particularly useful for agency drivers and new crew members.

• UPRNs can reduce costs: the InCab ensures cost-efficient routing, reduces fuel bills, and helps to streamline resources responding to requests for missed bins (negating the need return visits).