Smart Displays in MSW Fleet Vehicles

Smart displays capture real-time information and typically feed this to a back-office dashboard. This helps to draw a visual presentation of performance measures letting operators identify trends in driver behaviour, track vehicles, service performance and efficiencies. Why smart displays are a ‘must have’ for municipalities?

Customer Service

Municipalities place the highest value on ensuring accurate service delivery and a problem-free customer experience. Smart displays will facilitate faster and more accurate responses to customer service issues. Smart displays typically have the ability to track and photograph any route or pickup issues, provide photographic evidence of services if required, and send video recordings or live camera feeds to the back office – all in real-time. They will further ensure real-time remote connectivity between the back office and each vehicle to facilitate prompt customer service follow ups.

Measuring recycling

Recycling program measurement is critical to municipal waste organizations. Smart display on-board computing solutions will track every pickup in real-time to measure participation rates and accurately tally any credits.

Complete visibility and oversight

Municipal waste and recycling managers need to have a complete view of all fleet, equipment and driver activity. Smart displays with fleet management software will ensure complete visibility into driver and truck activity. Smart displays provide a single point of interface between the driver, truck, back office and all communications. They further integrate multiple video and audio feeds in real-time, and ensure flexible and easy interfaces with the vehicle’s control system. It’s like having a supervisor in every truck.

Operate more efficiently

Municipalities are all about accountability, fiscal responsibility and operational efficiencies. Smart displays with fleet management software proactively track and monitor fleet activities in real-time. They will typically feed real-time reporting solutions to evaluate overall operational efficiency for driver activity, driver performance, driver scoring, fuel consumption and fleet performance. Vehicle reports will monitor vehicle usage for accidents, alarms, fuel tax and vehicle usage. Municipal managers can view all vehicles on a map to monitor bread crumb trails, alerts, excessive idling, hard braking and more.

Track Cards & Assets

A smart display powered cart management system provides municipalities with the most advanced solution for automated garbage collection and the management of individual carts and customers. Using RFID tags, each garbage can or cart can be associated with a specific customer address. Drivers can quickly verify cart specifics by scanning these with an onboard RFID reader or handheld device. Inventory management capabilities can update backend databases in real-time on service or replacement and repair requirements. With added GPS capabilities, fleet operations personnel can have real-time visibility into truck location and activity, verify service accuracy, and quickly identify carts that have been moved or stolen, or require servicing. Individual customer information – from damaged carts to insufficient cart capacity – is easily captured into a centralized database. This further ensures immediate and accurate information for any billing processes.

Improving Safety Measures

Smart displays provide key capabilities to make it easier for municipalities to implement and monitor fleet safety initiatives. A smart display-powered fleet management solution provides managers with real-time visibility into driver activity and behavior. By understanding individual driving habits, managers can better coach drivers on safer techniques and reward defensive driving behavior. Municipal managers can set alarm criteria to alert both drivers and managers when safe driving thresholds have been exceeded. In the cab, smart displays improve safety by reducing driver distractions and optimizing automation. Additionally, smart displays usually integrate with rear mounted cameras to enhance safety with a clear view of potential obstacles.

‘Greener’ fleet

Green fleets are focused on reducing fuel consumption, mileage and exhaust emissions, and on driving more efficiently. A must for every municipality! Smart displays help municipalities eliminate unnecessary emissions by improving fuel consumption management, reducing overall mileage and improving driver behavior.

Smart displays with driver direction capabilities let managers optimize each truck’s routes to reduce time spent on the road and the number of engine hours per day. They further help reduce the amount of fuel burned by the engine as it is being used by using alarms to monitor and reduce idling, identify aggressive driving patterns, identify vehicle maintenance problems, and collect the ECM codes so that engines can be repaired before problems escalate.

Driver behavior is fundamental to fleet sustainability. Even the most fuel-efficient vehicles will perform poorly with an inefficient driver behind the wheel. Municipal managers need the tools to monitor driver behavior to influence and educate drivers on more emissions-friendly driving approaches. Smart displays with fleet mapping and monitoring tools to allow fleet managers to work more proactively with drivers to ensure and reinforce greener driving behavior.

Driver’s Experience

It stands to reason that reducing driver distractions is essential for both waste fleet safety and for productivity. Smart displays make bilateral communications between drivers and dispatch (the back office) easy and intuitive. These smart displays typically provide a single point of interface for the driver, truck, back office and all communications. No more cell phones or other mobile devices.

A touchscreen display allows for real-time video and audio functionality, and flexible interfaces ensure easy interaction with the control system. Advanced smart displays will usually feature touchscreens that can be operated with gloves. Many are designed to be handsfree. They will typically ensure visibility even in harsh sunlight or snow glare conditions. They are usually installed ergonomically in the cab to provide quick visual references for route or customer information.

No more paper work; no more manual processes. Drivers can now focus on the road.