In a video interview (below) with letsrecycle.com, Mark Garvey said waste and environmental software is becoming increasingly popular among local authorities, brought on especially by the pressures presented by the pandemic.
Whitespace describes itself as a leading provider of waste and environmental solutions in the UK, aiming to deliver a more efficient service by “providing customers with the most innovative waste management software and environmental solution on the market”.
Software
The company’s software allows crews to use their in-cab device to receive and complete work, carry out daily vehicle checks, capture evidence of exceptions and navigate to job locations.
Other examples of solutions it provides includes software for waste collection authorities, which links to existing council software infrastructure and helps record missed collections, add ad-hoc requests to crews and automatically generate round sheets sent directly to the crews.
It lists its customers as including Serco, FCC and Birmingham city council.
Paperwork
By having information easily accessible, the company says customers can benefit from a significant reduction in administrative effort, reduced amount of paperwork and greatly improved customer service.
Mr Garvey explained that there is a “much greater acceptance” of remote working and of people requiring on technology to do the heavy lifting.
He explained: “The elephant in the room is the covid-19 pandemic. From what we have seen there has been a great uptake in the acceptance of remote working with our customers. There has been a much greater need for tech to do the heavy lifting and people want their technology to do more with the situation we find ourselves in.”
Data availability
Now that the technology is “well embedded”, Mr Garvey said that there is motivation to analyse the information coming in, in order to improve efficiencies of waste services.
An example of this is fly-tipping analysis, where Whitespace can provide councils with data on fly-tipping “hot spots”, and where it happens geographically.
“If a member of the public calls and says their bin hasn’t been collected, they expect tot the local authority to give a reason why”
Mr Garvey said that with this analysis, councils can then put practices in place to try and reduce the fly-tipping, by focusing on the hotspots, and sending officers over, or putting cameras up in the areas.
There is also great focus on data availability, and getting to the root of an issue straight away.
He explained: “If a member of the public calls the council and says their bin hasn’t been picked up, they expect tot the local authority to have the answer to whether the truck is only two streets away, or if they did miss them, and can give a reason why.”
Mr Garvey added that “availability of data is key” as it can draw solutions to problems reported by residents.
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