The use of automated vehicle location systems in solid waste collection operations

In November 2003, the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada equipped five solid waste collection trucks with Trimble Telvisant CrossCheck® GPRS 1900 Mobile data recorders. Three of the trucks are garbage packers, the fourth truck is a side-loading recycling truck, and the fifth vehicle is a 60/40-split co-collection truck equipped with a cart lifter. These trucks operated in a variety of situations, depending on the day of the week. The Global Positioning System (GPS) units sample the position, speed, and bearing of each vehicle at one-minute intervals. They also record certain “events”, such as when a vehicle crosses the virtual boundary of a user-defined geofence.