Automated route optimization is the next big thing for the waste industry,” says Tony Esposito, president and CEO of Odessa, Fla.-based C2Logix, a route optimization software vendor.

True, route optimization software has been around for years, but Esposito believes that most of the waste industry has yet to discover how regular, automated optimization can boost productivity and cut costs.

While there are no hard numbers to indicate exactly how deeply route optimization software has penetrated the waste industry, Esposito has a habit of asking for a show of hands when addressing groups. “Early this year, I participated in a webinar and polled the audience,” he says. “Thirteen percent — from companies in a variety of industries including waste — were using automated route optimization packages. Seventy-five percent were still routing manually.”

Many waste companies using automated route optimization haven’t taken the next step of auditing how drivers run the routes, says Richard Pearlman, product manager, logistics and network products, with Redlands, Calif.-based Esri, which markets a route optimization package called ArcLogistics.

This raises several questions. Are these companies running the optimized routes, or have they altered them in some way? If so, why? Is there something wrong with the optimization? Fleet management software packages can automate these audits.

“Companies that don’t track trucks and compare the optimized routes with the routes drivers are following aren’t realizing the full benefits of route optimization,” says Pearlman.

It also is true that experienced drivers can enhance the results of a route optimization effort. “You need to add a human point of view,” says Erica Bartlett, corporate training director with Advanced Disposal Services in Jacksonville, Fla. “Drivers will know which residential areas are near schools that will have to be serviced later in the day. Drivers will also be able to point out routes that will be delayed by morning and afternoon rush hour traffic.

“On the commercial side, drivers will know that the containers in this or that shopping center are located near restaurants that create a lot of lunch hour traffic. Maybe we’ll schedule these for service first thing in the morning.”

Most haulers ask their drivers to review software-optimized routes. Haulers that use global positioning system (GPS) software to track the actual routes followed by drivers can learn even more. After all, a driver covering residential routes with 1,000 stops or commercial routes with several hundred stops won’t remember everything when looking over a route sheet. If a GPS tracking system audits the route, the dispatcher can question the driver about each exception and fine tune the optimization, ensuring that the new route makes sense.

Tracking software will also highlight drivers who continually deviate from optimized routes, for whatever reason.

Comprehensive fleet management systems such as those made by Routeware of Beaverton, Ore., and Trimble Navigation Limited of Sunnyvale, Calif., track a host of other data points, supervising drivers in real time as they go about their work.

Routes change regularly. As residents move into and out of communities, some routes will expand with new stops while others will shrink. Commercial routes follow a similar pattern as businesses close one location and open another. Haulers must keep an eye on routes and rebalance or re-tune them periodically.