Case Studies
Our partnership with Ubico has created a reduction in their fleet, huge efficiency savings and a long-term relationship with ongoing room for development.
Beginning their journey with us in 2023, Ubico approached ISL to purchase our RouteSmart for ArcGIS software. They also requested support from ISL to expedite the creation of optimised routes for the 8 authorities they serve.
The Client
Ubico are a private company, owned wholly by 8 local authorities:
Ubico delivers environmental services for these authorities, covering huge swathes of the country. They provide waste and recycling, street cleaning and green space maintenance, employing over 1000 people. Their 1300-strong fleet of vehicles and the waste and recycling plants they oversee serve over 1300 square miles of the west of England.
Their Request
We first heard from Si Pocock-Cluley, Ubico’s Head of Operations, Value & Innovation, in 2023. He was looking for a route optimisation partner to provide him with a software solution to optimise and manage their waste and recycling collections. He also wanted a partner who could provide route optimisation services for them – modelling various scenarios and expediting the process.
His aim was to use strategic modelling to boost Ubico’s waste and recycling offering for each of the 8 authorities depending on them, with assistance from our consultancy team so that any potential savings could be realised as quickly as possible.
Si had narrowed his options down to 4 potential route optimisation providers and had settled on ISL as his first choice due to our data-led yet common-sense approach. He went ahead with the purchase of our RouteSmart for ArcGIS solution, but also asked our Client Services Director, Andy Clewes, to provide a team of consultants to expedite the creation of optimised routes.
First Steps
Training around effective data-preparation was top of our list. As with any route optimisation project, thorough data preparation is key, and Ubico fully understood this. They took data collection very seriously, and the results spoke for themselves.
The team at Ubico developed a comprehensive template which was used in our first project and in all subsequent project due to its simplicity and effectiveness. Created in spreadsheet form, the template captured everything we needed to know, including:
This wealth of data was manually populated for every project, based on information from their existing data capture sources. This meant that we always started from an informed position.
“Thanks to Ubico’s comprehensive data model, we’re able to work with highly accurate information, ensuring projects are based on solid & reliable intelligence.”
Andy Clewes, Client Services Director, ISL.
Modelling Exercises
As an Ordnance Survey partner, the data received was combined with our own Ordnance Survey street network data to enable the modelling of various scenarios. We started with a “3, 2, 1” modelling exercise for one of their partner authorities.
This provided data based on a 3-weekly residual waste collection service, a bi-weekly recycling collection, and a weekly food waste collection. This model falls in line with existing and pending Simpler Recycling requirements, including the introduction of weekly food waste collections for all households from March 2026.
We also modelled:
This wealth of information and detailed, potential efficiency savings, allowed Ubico to select the best course of action for each individual authority.
“Ubico and ISL have built a strong partnership, leveraging RouteSmart to explore a wide range of service options for ‘Simpler Recycling’ and to drive greater service efficiency.” Andy Clewes, Client Services Director, ISL.
Teething Issues and ROI
No project of this scale goes completely smoothly, but our work with Ubico only ever hit one particular stumbling block: change management. Si came up against some push back from staff reluctant to embrace change. Human nature requires consistency, so change management is always a challenge.
Despite these early issues, we have been privy to once authority’s enormous return on their investment following the roll out of one of our models and using ISL’s RouteSmart for ArcGIS software.
The roll out of the new service affected 70% of the area’s residents and resulted in:
Future Plans
Looking forward, Ubico remain open to further upgrades and in-cab services.
They requested a trial for the use of RaaS (Routing-as-Service). This is a cloud-based, system to system, route optimisation service developed by ISL business partner, RouteSmart Technologies. This solution is ideal for dynamic, operational route optimisation which can be generated as and when required with no user interaction.
The trial requested covered the routes required for Ubico’s bin delivery and maintenance service. These routes covered 40-50 address per week, and RaaS would be able to optimise these routes with minimal worker input. Si and his team acknowledged that this showed huge potential for significant efficiency savings and the system is being looked at for future use pending budget approvals.
A migration to the newer version of RouteSmart is also under discussion. The ArcGIS system is essential desktop-based and limited in it’s user-friendly capabilities. RouteSmart Online will take things a step further, streamlining their processes and allowing for more extensive use by in-house staff. As a more flexible version of the desktop software, RouteSmart Online has no limitations in terms of numbers of users and can be used to produce in-cab routing services.
“ISL are knowledgeable, friendly and apply both common sense and logic to their projects which is invaluable. Everyone else I spoke to during the procurement process applied only logic, but routing is both a science and an art, and ISL really understand this.” Si Pocock-Cluley, Head of Operations Value & Innovation, Ubico
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