The waste industry has changed immensely over the last decade. Waste management companies are more regulated than ever before which, along with growing tipping fees, means that tight financial management has never been more important.
In tackling the scourge of overweighed bins, JM Waste Management earlier this year brought in MOBA’s mobile weighing and RFID technology and is already seeing significant financial benefits. Dan Stone, the company’s Director, reports that “we’re seeing an immediate 8-10% improvement in margins which is a huge game changer for us”.
Many firms only find out how much waste they’re disposing if they can find an available weighbridge beforehand or, for those that can’t, when the bill comes in after the event. The problem of overweighed bins, therefore, present both serious financial and logistical and issues.
“If the bin lid doesn’t fully close then our operatives can immediately guess that the bin is overfilled” says Dan. “However, up until now we’ve not been able to accurately measure the weight to determine if the customer has exceeded its contracted allowance, and means for each over-filled bin emptied we’d potentially make a loss”.
The company, with its main office in Bexhill and waste transfer site in Eastbourne, provides much of Sussex with a range of waste management solutions including commercial, food, hazardous and clinical waste collection as well as a skip hire service.
Recognising that it needed to address the issue of overweighed bins, the company went about looking for a bin weighing technology supplier.
“We did have an older truck fitted with another brand of mobile weighing but we weren’t happy with either its reliability or the support”, explains Dan. JM Waste Management turned to MOBA, and quickly like their approach and how “What we liked most of all”, says Dan, “is that all of its hardware and software technology is designed, manufactured and installed in-house which, if issues do arise in the future, are more likely to be resolved quicker than if there are multiple parties and products involved”.
The first truck has now been fitted with MOBA’s Dynamic Mobile Weighing and RFID technology, with the latter becoming fully operational once all JM Waste’s bins have been chipped later on this year.
Every binned is now weighed, including any additional loose bags that don’t fit in the bin, with the data accessible immediately. “This not only means we can monitor if weight is exceeded but gives us the ability to be more flexible with billing”, says Dan.
So, for example, if a customer is consistently under its usual 80kg allowance, JM Waste can negotiate a better quote based on the lower amount, which many of its competitors are unable to offer. Similarly, for every new customer it can tailor the contract to its specific waste needs, rather than providing a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
“Being able to negotiate creates a whole new world of opportunities for us based on what the customer wants – this is hugely sellable”, comments Dan.
RFID is coming soon and JM Waste are excited about the benefits it will bring. “Our operatives know the round backwards but they don’t have real-time information about who’s paying and who’s not, or even if they’ve lifted the correct bin” explains Dan.
“With MOBA’s RFID, as soon as they present the bin to the lifter they can immediately see if the bin is valid or not, and can stop the lift if it’s not. This means we’re not taking any more waste than we’re being paid for. This will present another massive improvement to our profitability”, added Dan.
Reliability and accuracy of the weighing system and the subsequent data is critical and it’s here where MOBA really excels. “If we are presented with disputes over collections, they can be quickly resolved because we’ll have the data to prove it”, enthuses Dan.
Two more brand-new trucks are soon to be added to the JM Waste Management fleet and, with both fitted with MOBA technology, the partnership between these two companies is only likely to grow further.
This story can also be viewed on CIWM.
