LOST BINS A PROBLEM? TERBERG SOFTWARE MAKES IT MANAGEABLE

Over the last 20 years, the widespread adoption of wheeled bins across the UK has undoubtedly reduced the health and safety risks for collection operators and increased operational efficiencies for both private and public sector organisations.

[UKPRwire, Tue Mar 24 2009] Alarmingly though, for local authorities and private contractors, the tendency for bins to go ‘walkabout’ has also increased, one would assume, primarily due to the ease in which bins may now be wheeled around. The extent of this mobility was illustrated perfectly recently when one local authority was surprised to receive reports that one of its 240 litre wheelie bins had been spotted in Bulgaria being used to mix cement!

The cost of replacing lost bins or repatriating bins that have drifted from their original location is increasingly a major concern for many local authorities and private contractors operating both domestic and commercial collections.

No matter whether bins are lost or moved through vandalism, through late night alcohol-fuelled jokers taking them for a walk or cheeky householders wanting a second bin, the resultant cost is huge and it’s our councils that have to foot the bills. These frequently amount to tens of thousands of pounds, Peterborough City Council for example, quoted their outlay at over £75,000 per year, more recently, Preston Council stated they currently spend £60,000 per year replacing damaged, lost and stolen bins.

Terberg Matec UK Ltd., a leading supplier of binlift and recycling body equipment to the public and private municipal sector, has now developed a range of ‘muni’ solutions designed to assist waste and recycling collections. More specifically, Terberg are able to offer a solution that gives you the ability to track individual or grouped bin collections over time and identify those bins that have ‘wandered’, they call it their ‘Bin Drift’ report and it is available to existing and future Terberg bin lift customers alike with RFID tagged bins, a tagging service is also offered by Terberg for those customers whose bins don’t currently have RFID tags.

Terberg’s ‘Bin Drift’ solution works equally well with RFID only or their Dynamic Weighing system with RFID, because it doesn’t have to include weighing the solution steers clear of the controversial “pay as you throw” agenda and offers genuine revenue savings for those Local Authorities with un-utilised RFID tags that have been struggling to see how they would ever get a return on their investment.

The powerful ‘Bin Drift’ function is integral to Terberg’s muniDATA reporting and analysis software which together with their unique muniTRACK hardware (necessary to provide positional GPS and time/date data) offers a potent solution to control, maintain and drastically reduce losses in your bin register. This is performed in ‘real-time’ with collection data being relayed back to muniTRACK’s database using GPRS data streams via the mobile phone networks.

Driving the ‘Bin Drift’ function is surprisingly straightforward via muniDATA’s web-based interface, enter a date range and a maximum distance deemed as normal ‘bin drift’ then a simple mouse click results in a detailed ‘Bin Drift’ report being displayed on screen.

The report contains ‘hyperlinks’ to crucial information, but keeps things simple initially by showing a list of bin collections that have strayed more than the maximum distance allowed and brief details such as RFID number, address and ‘drift’ distance for each bin.

Hyperlinks from the ‘Bin Drift’ report allow further analysis and show bin details such as size, colour, asset number, waste type, collection history and even accurate GPS maps showing how the bin has moved over time. A simple click on the address from the ‘Bin Drift’ report quickly displays the full contact details for each address, its associated history and a record of all the bins registered to that address, particularly useful for trade collections.

With the cost of Terberg’s combined muniTRACK and muniDATA solution being a fraction of the costs associated with lost/misplaced bins, Terberg expect most councils to recoup the 3 year ‘fixed fee’ installation and maintenance outlay within the first six months.