All over the world, SUEZ is known for intelligent waste and water management solutions. The Belgian Recycling & recovery branch uses our trackers for their trailers and special waste containers. In this customer story, Wim explains how they’ve seen their efficiency increase in the past year. Both in terms of allocating waste containers to projects and investing only in new waste containers when needed.
Optimizing ROI for waste container usage
In April 2019, SUEZ Belgium Recycling & recovery starts using our trackers. The initial project covers their trailer fleet but is soon extended to waste containers in August 2019.
Both projects essentially want to solve the same questions:
Where are my trailers and waste containers? How many of them do we have and are in use? And in what way can they be deployed in the most optimal way to reach our business goals?
Currently, around 1200 of their waste containers are equipped with our trackers. The waste container project involves two types of containers.
First of all compactors, containers you often see to squeeze waste like paper and cardboard boxes to smaller volumes. These compactors, installed at customers of SUEZ Belgium Recycling & recovery, are valuable and need a regular check.
So do the second type of containers in this project, containers containing hazardous waste. For this type of container water tightness must be guaranteed. Therefore, regular checks and maintenance are a must.
To get a full visibility on their waste containers, Wim decided to create a link between their existing fleet management system and Sensolus.
Wim explains, the compactors were already available in our fleet management system. We linked it with Sensolus to always have the last known location of a waste container in our fleet management system. In our case, this is an API integration that exchanges the data we need two times a day.
Nowadays, every technician in the field knows which compactor needs maintenance and can immediately go to the right location or send someone over in case of issues. In the past, we were never a 100% sure if a waste container was still at its registered location.
“In the past, we were not 100% sure if a compactor still was at its registered location. Now every technician in the field can immediately see where the waste containers that need maintenance are located.”
Besides the last known location, we also check the amount of waste container movements, Wim explains. If a waste container remains at a customer, you can check if it’s used intensively or not and how much time there is between the different movements.
Correctly estimating fleet investments
Besides knowing how the waste containers are used, SUEZ Belgium Recycling & recovery now knows how many waste containers of a certain type they have in their fleet.
Wim adds, the implementation of Sensolus is crucial to get a better view on our fleet. These insights are needed to create transparency on the amount of waste containers available, how they are used and whether new investments are needed or not.
Overall, SUEZ Belgium Recycling & recovery acquired more control over their waste container fleet. An aspect that’s crucial in terms of future investments.
Putting all pieces of the puzzle together
Furthermore, the API integration between Sensolus and SUEZ Belgium’s fleet management system provides SUEZ Belgium Recycling & recovery with high-quality, reliable data.
In the past, the transfer of a container from one customer to another was logged manually. If an employee forgot to log the change in location, it could take months before they realised this and could start the search for the new location of the container.
“The API integration between Sensolus and our fleet management system helped us get high-quality data about waste container availability. We allocate freed up waste containers to a new project faster.”- Wim Neckebroeck, Data Management Analyst at SUEZ
Wim adds, if there is a discrepancy or something that looks odd, we notice it immediately. This means you can solve it in a quick way and allocate the freed up container to another project. Therefore we avoid superfluous investments in containers. You know what you have and can allocate it in the best way possible, all because of better visibility.
By tracking their waste containers and integrating their existing fleet management system with Sensolus, Wim opened up the full potential of their fleet. Making it easy to maximize the potential of their waste containers and having full visibility in the field, based on reliable data.
