"The system has improved our profitability and customer service greatly."
AES is a leading provider of waste management and recycling services in Ireland. The collection routes used to be planned by the drivers, resulting in inefficient routes, missed bins and dissatisfied customers. AES decided to purchase Routeman Optimiser from AMCS. Now, transport optimisation is performed with Routeman Optimiser, resulting in spectacular cost savings and highly improved customer service.
Serving over 70,000 residential homes and 6,000 commercial customers, AES takes pride in being Ireland’s leading waste management company. The company handles recyclable, organic, and general waste, keeping the approx. 165 vehicles busy with 400-500 collections per route on average.
AES Transport & Logistics Manager Keith Brady comments, "At AES, we work with different visit patterns, not to mention individual drop-off sites for each type of waste. In combination with the large number of customers, these factors make the planning of waste collection a complicated task."
In Ireland, counties are not responsible for waste management, and the Irish customers are free to change provider if they are not content with the service. Keith Brady continues, "It is imperative for us at AES to be able to meet the expectations of our customers, and previously we were unfortunately not always able to do so."
According to Keith Brady, "AES practically never created new master plans before. The routes were not written down but simply planned by the drivers, based on local knowledge. Consequently, the routes were somewhat inefficient and very difficult to execute for temporary drivers, who often missed bins.
"Adding to the inefficiency was the fact that whenever we acquired new companies, the new routes were just added to the plan but never actually merged with it. Similarly, new customers were just inserted manually into existing routes without any plan optimisation. As the plans were not recorded in writing, new customers were often forgotten.
"When bins were missed, we had to organise extra collection routes. This resulted in overtime payment and mileage, and we therefore experienced significantly increased costs. However, this was just part of the problem. When bins were missed, customers were highly dissatisfied, and in some cases they even decided to terminate the agreement. This was especially the case with new customers who did not have their waste collected the very first time."
Transport & Logistics Manager Keith Brady explains, "We decided to follow a "learning-by-doing" approach by training ourselves in the user-friendly Route Planner system. We only asked for consultancy from AMCS when needed, and we started the implementation process with smaller depots to learn from the experiences made.
"And we did learn a thing or two during the process", elaborates Keith Brady. "Internally, we learned the value of communication and involvement early in the process. This proved absolutely key to getting the drivers’ acceptance.
"Externally, communication was also imperative, as we decided to go all in and evaluate all of our customers’ service days. This resulted in the fact that we changed approx. 80% of our customers’ service days. Naturally, there was a risk involved in such an action, as customers were free to switch service provider if it did not suit them.
"Early in the process, service day changes were not well received", recalls Keith Brady. "Many customers never got the message regarding the changes, and the outcome was numerous customer complaints about missed bins.
"Optimising service days was, however, crucial in order to achieve the best results, and, learning from our mistakes, we therefore changed our communication strategy and improved the acceptance of service day changes remarkably."
"The system has improved our profitability and customer service greatly", says Keith Brady.
Major benefits from implementing the system:
Keith Brady adds, "Now, the well-defined routes ensure the effective use of temporary drivers, decreasing the number of missed bins tremendously.
"We are now able to optimise more often, thereby improving our resource utilisation", concludes Keith Brady. "Due to better resource utilisation and a better overview of resources versus actual needs, we have been able to relocate vehicles to other service areas, making better use of them.
"The improved overview of resources and our ability to assess spare capacity has also enabled us to be more strategic about where to make sales campaigns. We now know exactly where we have spare resources and, consequently, where it would be extra beneficial to win new customers."