The City of Columbus is Ohio’s state capital and largest city, with more than 900,000 residents in the city limits. The City’s Department of Public Service, Division of Refuse Collection manages residential waste collection for 344,000 households, including up to 12,000 bulk pickups per month.
Given this size and the volume of work, the Division of Refuse Collection prizes efficiency. In 2021, the Division identified a big opportunity for efficiency in its bulky waste collection operation.
Residents were dialing 311 to call in bulk waste collection requests; this data went straight into the City’s Esri ArcGIS mapping software. Employees would then have to manually enter this data into the City’s waste collection operations software, RUBICONSmartCity™, requiring an additional hour per day. In fact, some employees had to come in early to ensure this was completed in time for the begi.ning of the work day. If employees were out sick or otherwise occupied, residents waited longer for their bulky collections. It was an opportunity for efficiency too good to pass up.
Shortening resident wait times by two-thirds
In 2022, the City of Columbus, Esri, and Rubicon joined forces to solve this problem.
The Division retained the workflow that dropped bulky waste collection requests into Esri ArcGIS. Rubicon and Esri created a feature service integration that sends these requests into Rubicon’s system every night. Every morning, the previous night’s requests are available in RUBICONSmartCity, where City staff can analyze the requests, then create optimized routes. These routes are then automatically available for drivers when they log into their tablets. No more manual entry. No more delays for residents. And more than 300 hours (or approximately two weeks) of staff time saved per year.
The integration created an application to help the Division of Refuse Collection shorten resident wait times for bulk collection from three weeks to one week, save four hours of time weekly by eliminating manual request updates, and increase the efficiency of routing.
Rubicon works closely with cities to integrate its software suite into daily operations and ensure strong partnerships from the beginning. Prior to Rubicon, the City of Columbus was challenged with data tracking for residents, time-consuming manual operations, and route efficiency. Rubicon helped the City shorten wait times for refuse collection, improve data tracking, and optimize waste collection routes. As a result, the City of Columbus has seen a reduction in total monthly bulk waste collection stops, and eliminated the need for employees to come in early to perform manual route data entry, saving time, money, and resources.
If you would like to learn more about how Rubicon can help your city maximize resources, optimize routes, and become more proactive, visit rubicon.com/governments.
