With rising steel costs, landfill fees, and fuel costs, container identification has become a hot topic for many of our customers.
If this is the first time you have considered implementing a container identification system for your company or if you are in the process of trying to improve your current identification system, you may be asking “What system works best?”
Well, in acknowledgment of the political season where most statements are specifically unspecific - The best container identification system is the one that works for your company.
Seriously though, rather than recommend a “One Size Fits All” approach, I am recommending that you following the approach that many of our customers have taken - Identify 1 or 2 major operational issues you face and then use the container identification system to solve those issues.
Here are a few examples of what our customers have done to solve their operational issues:
Issue: Free Garbage Pick-Up - When a driver is filling in for another driver on a commercial route with several stops in the same alley, the driver filling in on the route picks up all of the containers in the alley instead of just the containers scheduled for that day.
Solution: Schedule Identification Decals - A company that we service had issues with its substitute drivers picking up trash for free because the company had 10-15 cans in each alley and it was easier for the substitute drivers to pick up all of the cans instead of cherry picking at the containers and potentially missing one or two stops. To resolve this issue, the company purchased 4″ circles with their logo in 7 different colors … for example Monday=Black, Tuesday=Blue, Wednesday=Green and so forth.
If a container was only supposed to be serviced on Tuesday, a blue logo was put on the top right, front corner of the container to identify it as a Tuesday stop. If another container was supposed to be serviced on Monday and Wednesday, 2 logos (one black and one green) were placed on the container so that substitute drivers were able to distinguish that that container needed to be serviced on those two days.
Measuring Success: The program worked well for the customer since the logos could be seen by the driver from inside of the truck. In addition, the color coding eliminated language barriers and the program was easily communicated to drivers.
Schedule Identification Decals - Each Color Represents a Day of the Week
Issue: Tracking Cans and Dispatching Cans During Dark Winter Mornings - Our customer was concerned with the safety hazard that existed for its drivers during the winter months when the drivers had to get out of the truck to locate a dispatched container. The customer needed its drivers to be able to distinguish the container size and container number in low light levels.
Solution: Reflective Letter/Numbers Combo - This customer went with 4″ high reflective letters and numbers. To distinguish the container size, the customer went with: “C2″, “C4″, “C6″, “C8″, “R20″, and “R30″. After the container size, there was a dash and the container number followed.
Measuring Success: The letters and numbers can be seen from inside of the truck and the drivers do not have to leave the vehicle at any time so our customer eliminated the safety hazard for its workers. Because the numbers were die-cut from reflective material, there is no fading so the numbers have lasted for the life of the container.
While these two examples are just a sampling of the identification programs that we have produced for our customers, if you need an idea on how to resolve an operational issue through an identification program, do not hesitate to contact us. We would be more than happy to help you develop a successful identification program.
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