Verified accounts

Service verification can be as simple as getting a phone call flagging a potential issue and sending someone out to physically check for missing or blocked containers. For many years, that’s how most waste collection companies handled it. New technology is making it easier to manage service verification efficiently and transparently, though, and more companies are reaping the benefits, particularly from a commercial collection standpoint.

Scott Lukach, president of Parker, Colorado-based Apex Waste Solutions, an independent waste and recycling collection service company, says camera-based service verification systems are a critically important tool to operate in today’s environment.

“It allows you to be more efficient and confident that … we did what we said we were going to do because we have a breadcrumb that we know that person was there,” says Lukach, whose company handles residential, commercial and industrial accounts. “We always want to work with the customer. And if we missed it, we’re going to go back. But now we have a way to validate that with images and technology.”

Lukach bought the company, formerly known as Roll Off Solutions LLC, with fellow industry veteran Scott Jenkins about a year ago, and together they’ve led a push to integrate automated technology across Apex’s operations, from automated trucks to camera technology to an onboard computing system with tablets.

Apex first partnered with 3rd Eye, a Downers Grove, Illinois-based route optimization services company that is part of the Dover Environmental Solutions Group, in January of 2023. Apex had recently been awarded a contract with the city of Denver to pick up residential recycling accounts weekly, and installing cameras on trucks and outfitting the fleet with tablets helped in quickly familiarizing drivers with routes and ensuring the company was meeting or exceeding its contractual agreements.

Prior to installing Verif-Eye, 3rd Eye’s service verification system, whenever there were service issues along a route, Apex drivers would have to manually pull out a tablet, get out of the truck and take a picture, which often was a clumsy and time-consuming process.

The intelligent Verif-Eye system uses a tablet powered by Connected Collections, 3rd Eye’s digital garbage truck fleet management system, to simplify a driver’s workload by passively collecting service events and allowing drivers to focus on safely driving the vehicle, according to 3rd Eye. In the case of an overflowing container or another reason why the driver could be unable to service the customer, drivers only have to push one button to capture video and pull time-stamped, geolocated photos without leaving the cab.

All of the trucks at Apex’s Denver facility have been outfitted with multi-camera systems, including inside the cab, inward-facing, outward-facing and rear-facing. The system also includes backup cameras and cameras positioned down the truck sides.

After the 3rd Eye systems were installed, Apex drivers went through training to understand how the systems operate and how to use them. In addition to drivers being able to manually trigger the cameras, the cameras can be triggered automatically in certain safety situations, such as during a hard braking or turning event. Sensor-operated cameras on the trucks’ automated arms capture video each time the arm moves.

While the drivers initially were reluctant about the integration of so many cameras, Jenkins and Lukach say they quickly became supportive of the technology, appreciating it not only for the safety benefits but as a verification tool and a means of protection from inaccurate service claims.

For Apex, the technology has proved to help improve efficiency, productivity and customer experience.

“It allows you to have a different relationship with your customer because we can verify service and they can say, ‘Hey, if you came by, you missed me,’ and we can go to the camera. Our customer service team will have it within minutes, and you can say, ‘Well, we were there by 9 o’clock,’” Lukach says.

The system also provides an opportunity for a waste company to be proactive in adjusting the level of service long-term, Jenkins says. When a commercial customer is experiencing continual service events, the customer service team can document the details and share them with the customer as well as the sales team.

“It’s an opportunity to have our sales team go out there and say, ‘This container is consistently overflowing, we should increase [the] frequency or up the capacity [for] the account,’” Lukach says.

Sometimes what’s needed isn’t an increase in service but in customer service. In the case of an overflowing dumpster, Apex can identify the problem and potentially even go out and help the customer clean the area.

Ultimately, being able to share video links with both the customer and the drivers not only helps create transparency but also helps build trust among management, the customers and the drivers.

“That’s how we get great, strong relationships, not only with our workforce but also with our customers,” Jenkins says.

The author is managing editor of Waste Today and can be reached at smann@gie.net.