IMPROVING COLLECTION OPERATIONS WITH GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) ROUTE OPTIMIZATION SOFTWARE AND GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS (GPS) IN A MEDIUM SIZED MUNICIPALITY

摘要

Improving the efficiency of waste collection operations is providing waste management organizations with significant cost savings, in addition to, benefits with improved customer service, enhanced operational management, and reduced vehicle air pollution. Enabling these route optimizations and efficiency gains are newly developing technologies of route optimization software using geographic information systems (GIS Routing Software) and automatic vehicle location systems using global positioning systems (AVL/GPS). These two technologies have different purposes and solve different problems. This paper presents the experiences of the City of Edmond, Oklahoma in implementing both GIS Routing Software and AVL/GPS for their residential solid waste collections operations. With only 34,000 residential carts to collect, the City of Edmond would not typically be the size of organization that one would expect to be at the forefront of implementing the latest cutting edge technology. However, they have done it. Their experience provides lessons for organizations, both large and small, on what these technologies can accomplish and what to expect in their implementations.