Keeping track

The workday for most drivers at Carolina Waste & Recycling begins at 2 a.m., long before the sun rises. As the day progresses, workers of the North Charleston, South Carolina-based company efficiently maintain their collection routes through various ways.

From using tablets and computers to employing other technological developments, Carolina Waste & Recycling owner Scott Fennell says his company has embraced advances in technology to get the job done. Taking advantage of these advancements not only helps workers get through their days with fewer mistakes, it also provides data that help the company analyze its effectiveness.

With 125 employees, 70 of whom are drivers, Carolina Waste & Recycling has quite a bit of information to track. The company’s services are split into three divisions: Carolina Waste & Recycling, Carolina Processing & Recycling and Carolina Landfill. The company collects materials from 15,000 residential homes, 4,000 commercial entities and 500 construction customers. Carolina Waste also collects trash for a number of local municipalities, including the state’s capital, Charleston.

Fennell says recycling has increasingly become part of the business, making up 15 percent of the 250,000 tons of light, dry materials Carolina Waste collects and processes annually.

Through its recycling division, Carolina Waste & Recycling accepts asphalt, old corrugated containers (OCC), carpet and padding, concrete, block, brick, plastic, glass, metals, paper, pallets and wood debris, yard debris, food waste, sheetrock, shingles and tires.
 

As more companies move toward zero-waste initiatives, Fennell says he sees opportunity for vertical growth. In addition, as customers launch green initiatives, Fennell says Carolina Waste & Recycling has expanded to meet those opportunities by gathering, collecting and sorting through materials at its Carolina Processing & Recycling facility. That is where workers separate concrete, bricks, blocks, metals, cardboard, plastic, tires and wood, grinding what they can and transporting the rest to the company’s landfill.

Three on-site grinders stay busy, with one grinding more than 400 tons of wood per month for reuse.

“Grind, shred and destroy,” Fennell says. “If a client asks us to recycle an item, we don’t ever tell them no. We find a way to make it happen.”

That has been the company’s approach since Fennell and his father, George Fennell, launched Carolina Waste & Recycling in 2002. The elder Fennell founded Fennell Container Co. in 1973. He sold that company to Republic Services in 1995. When the father and son pair started Carolina Waste “from scratch,” they exceeded Fennell Container’s revenue in half the time. Today the company sees annual revenue of more than $25 million, all part of Carolina Waste’s organic growth, Fennell says.

He explains that the dedication of the employees and management team have made the North Charleston company the largest independently owned waste hauling entity in the state. The company operates throughout coastal South Carolina.

“I try to instill the philosophy of starting the day with a good attitude, and hopefully that positive message will spill out to [employees’] interactions with our customers,” Fennell says. “If you’re doing your best, even if things aren’t perfect, your customers will understand.”
 

Pinpointing problems

Carolina Waste & Recycling handles commercial, industrial, residential and municipal contracts. To serve its various routes, which collect more than 800 tons of material daily, the company manages two separate fleets. Drivers collect material from the company’s commercial customers using TerraPro front loaders from Greensboro, North Carolina-based Mack Trucks.

The TerraPro features a stand-up driving option, the largest cab door openings in the industry and a catalyzed exhaust aftertreatment system, according to Mack Trucks. The manufacturer says offering four driving configurations—stand-up, seated and left-hand or right-hand steering—allows for a more comfortable ride.

Carolina Waste & Recycling drivers perform daily pretrip and post-trip inspections. Fennell says reporting any issues as they occur gives workers a chance to deal with problems immediately.

Fennell says he finds embracing advances in technology valuable in terms of safety and customer service. Each of the company’s collection trucks are equipped with a tablet-driven route management system. This system allows drivers to not only record service calls but also to take photographs throughout their shifts. Photos displaying overloaded containers or vehicles blocking containers can support a driver’s claim that previously might not have been open to dispute.

In addition, the table-driven route management system gives drivers the opportunity to send data back to the office before their routes are completed. Having all of this data at hand has been good for business, and workers have adjusted well to the new technology, Fennell says.

He says Carolina Waste & Recycling’s maintenance workers have become familiar with the high-level technology and Fennell anticipates they will continue to perform most maintenance in-house.

Although he is happy with the specifications of his current fleet, Fennell says he always is looking for ways to enhance data collection.
 

Software solutions

Mack Truck offers such services through its GuardDog Connect application. As an extension of the company’s Pedigree Uptime Protection integrated customer support platform, GuardDog Connect gives drivers a copilot that is dedicated to keeping them on the road, Mack says. This advanced telematics network identifies fault codes, diagnostic needs, maintenance milestones and solutions.

GuardDog Connect links a driver’s truck to a 24/7 network of support staff and repair centers. If something happens to a truck on the road, GuardDog Connect detects the problem instantly and calls it in, the manufacturer explains. If the issue needs immediate attention, GuardDog Connect contacts the company’s OneCall customer center with the fault code. As the truck manufacturer describes, a team of technicians evaluates the fault code and identifies the issue and repairs needed. The driver is then instructed where to take the truck. Upon arrival, the dealer and technicians can get right to work, since the OneCall service forwarded all the necessary information—including parts needed, service instructions and diagnostic information—to get drivers back on the road faster.

The company’s truck supplier offers other software tools to assist customers and technicians in performing their own diagnostics on trucks and components.

The Premium Tech Tool (PTT) is a Windows-based diagnostic application specially designed to test, calibrate and program engine parameters. The company’s Truck Diagnostic System is a PC-based software solution for the diagnosis and maintenance of US07, US10 or US13 model Mack truck engines. Used in conjunction with an RP1210A-compliant vehicle interface adapter, Truck Diagnostic System software reads vehicle controllers on the truck and displays detailed fault codes and component data in a snapshot format—all in less than one minute, according to the company.
 

Equipment matters

For Carolina Waste & Recycling, software helps to keep drivers safe. Fennell says he hosts monthly safety meetings where he shares industry information and asks employees for their input.

Equipment reliability is equally critical to the company’s success, he says. With 60 trucks in the company’s fleet, Fennell says he sees Carolina Waste bringing on more technology—and trucks.

“We’re very familiar with this marketplace,” Fennell says. “We’ve grown up in this marketplace all our lives, and we know the people and know the area. I would hope to say in 10 years that we could double our size.”

This article was supplied by Mack Trucks, Greensboro, North Carolina. More information is available at www.macktrucks.com.