From Chaos to Control: How Software Can Transform Your Sanitation Business

Pete: 00:00:16

Hello and welcome to Get Flushed, the Sanitation podcast. My name's Pete. So far in Get Flushed, I've taken a very hands on approach to my analysis of the industry. I've enjoyed a ride along with some drivers.

I've spoken to suppliers and manufacturers, and I've built a toilet. I've looked at pumps and tanks, toilets and paper, and I've heard from a new entrant to the industry, Ryan Granger at Arcadian Sanitation.

This week, I want to think about the role of information technology in the way you manage a portable sanitation business. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed quite a few chats online about the software and systems that operators use.

People have typically asked, what systems do you use? How much do they cost? Is it easy to use, and does it actually help?

Now I've been thinking about how to approach this subject for a while, and those conversations have pushed me along and given me the momentum to put this episode together.

I can't promise that I'm going to give you a definitive solution, and I probably share more questions than I answer, but it's a really important part of the industry that I haven't mentioned yet. Now, in greek mythology, Pandora's box appeared to be a valuable gift, but it actually turned out to be a curse.

I don't want to sound cynical or sceptical, but I sometimes think that's a good way to describe modern technology. It's supposed to make things easy and save us time and effort.

But unless it's really well produced and you know how it works, it can cause more dramas than it solves.

Now, I'll qualify that by saying that I've been an Apple user for many years, and that's because my experiences with PC and Android turned me into the incredible Hulk.

I know that the haters will hate and people will criticize me and say that apple products are designed to become obsolete when the next generation is released. But honestly, I can live with that because they work.

Now, I want to start by setting out the functions and tasks within a business that can be handled with software.

Now, most of these will apply to any business activity, but there are a couple of special dimensions which are maybe not unique, but very special to portable sanitation. I have identified ten areas where portable restroom operators need some sort of system. Now, I've thought about how to present this.

I'll run through all ten, and then I'll come back and unpack each one in turn. Here we go. Recording customer contacts. Recording activity. Tracking toilets. Planning the calendar or service schedule.

Mapping the route invoicing or billing, payroll, inventory ordering, stocks and spares, vehicle maintenance, and health and safety. So there are ten now.

Let's go through them each in turn, and I'm going to talk about my experiences of software and the way that some providers operate. I'm not going to judge anybody. I'm not calling anyone out.

I'm trying to explore whether modern technology helps or hinders the portable restroom operator. Before we move on, I'd say that it's perfectly possible to run your business without any software.

There are plenty of operators who manage with a diary or a journal or a simple spreadsheet. There's nothing wrong with that. If it works for you, it's fine.

My purpose today is to think about some of the innovations and some of the developments that might help when you want to grow your business, claim back some personal time, or just improve your efficiency, effectiveness, reliability and profitability. Number one on my list was recording contact with customers.

Have you got a platform that allows you to log details of every name, address, telephone number and email every time somebody gets in touch with you or your staff?

And if that contact results in an order, will your system let you produce a work order or a dispatch note that sets up the delivery, cleaning or collection and also generates an invoice to make sure you get paid? That platform is usually known as a customer relationship management platform, or CRM.

Now, a versatile CRM will let you track and record every interaction between your customers and staff, and it will dovetail perfectly into your billing system and your email system.

That way, you won't need to type in names and addresses every time you raise an invoice, and you'll be able to set up automatic email drops to share newsletters and information with customers to let them know about your latest availability and deals. I'm not going to recommend a CRM today. There are literally thousands of different options out there.

My question for the industry is, is there a software platform that includes a CRM function and also does everything else that you need to do within the business? Number two on my list was recording activity, and by that I mean every delivery service, clean and pickup.

As soon as that call from a customer turns into a confirmed order or request for service, you need to set up a dispatch, and you also need to record when that work has been carried out or completed.

Now, I've seen handwritten job sheets work really well even in a larger business that operated ten or eleven trucks across four or five different cities and towns.

But the limitations of paper meant that some work was always missed the office would forget to fill out the form, drivers would forget to take it, or they'd lose it, or forget to hand it in when the job had been done.

All of those mistakes affect the quality of service that your customers receive, which in turn can affect your reputation and maybe even your revenue. No software will solve all of those problems, and mistakes are always going to happen.

But having a clear and concise process that everyone follows every time, without fail, will almost certainly reduce the opportunity for errors to occur.

Is there a software application that will tie into the CRM and allow you to create and track work orders in real time, whether you're in the office or out in the truck? And that doesn't cost a fortune or need users to complete a degree in information technology before they're able to use it.

Number three on my list is keeping track of assets. Where are your toilets, trailers, showers and sinks at any given time? Are they on site, on the truck or in the yard? Are they on hire or off hire?

Are they ready to send out, or do they need cleaning or repair? Now, this is really straightforward and a whole lot less complicated than most people might think.

Every toilet in the fleet should have its own unique number. Now, you can do this easily and cheaply by writing numbers onto the toilet with an indelible pen or engraving them into the plastic using a dremel.

You could also make your own tags using a flat aluminium bar, and again, engraving the numbers with a dremel or stamping them with some numbered punches. But for just a few dollars, you can go online and buy metal tags with stamped or embossed numbers.

Tree tags used in forestry are absolutely ideal for this. It doesn't really matter what numbering system you use, but I would keep it really simple. I'd start at number one and I'd carry on.

You might want to use a code to identify different types of toilet. F one for the first flushing unit, s one for your first standard long drop. It doesn't really matter.

The point is that keeping track of your toilets becomes a whole lot easier if you can identify each and every unit by its own unique number. Now, you don't need to invest in an expensive gps platform or anything else to keep a track on where your toilets are. I use an app called iAuditor.

It's a health and safety inspection app. There is a free version, but the paid version is less than $20 a month.

It allows the user to record location with a timestamp and take photographs whenever they complete an inspection report. And that makes iauditor ideal for tracking deliveries, pickups, inspections and cleans.

It can be configured to recognize individual toilets using the asset tag.

Or if you want to be really flash, get some RFID tags and using some software coding known as APIs, it's really easy and cheap to push the information back to the office in real time and into your accounting software. You can also configure iauditor to send notifications by email and text, which makes it ideal for letting customers know you've serviced their unit.

And because it records location data, it will produce a map showing every location that you've visited.

You can push that data to spreadsheet and you can import it to Google Maps, which gives you a tremendous head start when you start to look at dispersal and density as you plan your routes.

Now it's not a one stop shop, it won't create run sheets and it won't plan routes, but it's a tremendous asset that's really cost effective for a smaller scale or even a larger business. Because it was designed as health and safety software, I auditor has other advantages that I'll come back to later on.

Number four on the list is planning the calendar or service schedule, which toilets need to be cleaned each day. The ebb and flow of deliveries and pickups means that the schedule is subject to constant change. Ideally, your planning system will prioritize jobs.

Time critical ones like vertical construction where the toilet needs to be lifted down by the crane driver has to come first, followed by tip overs because they present an environmental risk.

Next for me comes pickups and deliveries, and I'll put pickups first because usually the builder has to hand over a property and they always leave it until five minutes before handover before they give you a ring.

Delivery is because everybody wants their toilet on site as soon as possible and they don't like to wait until a week on Thursday when your truck happens to be in the area. And finally, routine services. Now I don't like to accept jobs where a customer says or call you when it needs a clean because they like the builder.

They'll invariably call when the toilet is overflowing and they make that your problem. If they won't accept a regular clean, charge them dollar 200 for a call out.

They'll soon change their mind and ask to go on a weekly or fortnightly service plan. I don't think you have to stick to a rigid schedule where you service the same toilets at the same time on the same day every week.

And I have one operator who uses a window of six to nine days for his weekly cleans and twelve to 16 days for fortnightly's. With a properly prepared and well stocked toilet, a customer won't notice the difference.

And that window gives you the flexibility to adjust your routines to suit your pickup and delivery schedules. If the toilet can't last an extra day or two without overflowing, your customer needs another unit on site. Number five on the list is route mapping.

Once you've agreed your route schedules, what is the most efficient and economical way to get around all of those toilets every time on time? Now one company I know doesn't use any route optimization software and operates with paper run sheets.

Now, they made savings of over 20% on staff hours just by listing the cleans in order of suburb on the run sheets. You don't need to invest in complicated software. You don't need to pay for GPS units. You can do it all for free.

If you're working on a spreadsheet, you can upload 20 addresses to a website called Root Excel, and that will find you the best route between those 20 addresses for free. And you can repeat that as many times a day as you like. Weighing in at number six was invoicing or billing.

You need a system that allows you to send the correct invoice to each and every customer and let you check that payment has been made. Of course, this will rely on accurate information about the activities you and your staff have carried out.

If you don't charge for every hire and include the charges for each delivery, pickup and service, you'll be giving money away.

I can tell you some real horror stories about companies failing to charge because their invoicing system relied on a paper trail that was never completed.

Typical excuses where the driver forgot to tick off the service on the paper he forgot to hand it in, or the office forgot to log the work on the customer's file, or the office forgot to raise the manual invoice at the end of the month. Thankfully, there is a better way. Remember I spoke about iauditor?

Well, you can use that to raise a draft invoice in your accounting software every time you complete an action. And I absolutely know there are other software packages that will tie up all of these loose ends, too.

Ideally, your accounting software will tie in seamlessly with number seven on my list, payroll. We all want to get paid, right?

And as the business owner or manager, you need to keep accurate records of hours worked so that you can work out wages, tax, insurance, holidays, allowances, and other deductions. Most accounting packages include a payroll function that's usually a paid extra to their basic platform, but it's worth it. If you get this wrong.

Staff will let you know and so will the IRD. At number eight is inventory ordering stocks, spares and supplies.

Ideally, you'll have enough stock in store to see you through the current cycle, but what is your system for making sure that you order new supplies in time for them to be delivered before you run out? You'd be surprised how many people wing this.

With the correct processes, you will know exactly how many blues, how many toilet rolls and how many bags of sanitizer you've got in stock. Is there a platform that keeps a track of all of that without you needing to go out and count them? I'm fairly sure there is.

Maybe we'll find out later in the season. In at number nine comes vehicle maintenance and compliance.

As a transport service operator carrying dangerous goods, you need to make sure that your trucks are road legal and compliant with all the regulations before they leave the yard. And this needs to be done every time, not just once a week or once a month.

But you'd be amazed at how many operators don't complete rigorous checks and just assume that everything on the truck is okay. Take it from me, tyres wear out faster than you might think. Lights get damaged, signs and placards fade or peel or they get knocked off.

Valves can start to leak, which means that you'll spill septic waste and drivers don't always complete their load plans or carry the correct documentation. Fines for non compliance consume rack up and it's not just the driver who carries the can.

The company and its managers can also be fined or find themselves appearing before a judge. Mechanical breakdowns also have a detrimental impact on your customer care.

If your trucks out of action, you won't be servicing toilets, and the best way to prevent breakdowns is through regular routine maintenance. A proper process to inspect and maintain trucks is an essential part of every restroom operation.

I've created a template in iauditor that allows drivers to inspect all the key points on the vehicle, take photos and record that check so they've got proof in the event there's an accident or they get stopped by the police. And last week at prestige loos, I watched the health and safety manager use a similar template to check every trunk before it left the yard.

If she didn't give them the green light, they didn't leave. It's as simple as that.

Now, of course, any system relies on everyone doing their job, but a template like that is easy to follow and having a proper process means that you can head off the problems before they occur. Last but not least on my list is health and safety, and this has become a really hot topic in recent years.

And quite rightly too, everyone should expect to go home safely at the end of every working day. Sadly, some people still think that health and safety is done to them or done by someone else, not carried out by them.

Or they get so caught up in their daily tasks that they just don't stop to think.

Now, no software will prevent accidents, but keeping proper records and building a safe mindset into your working culture should be a normal part of business, not an afterthought. And once again, I auditor can help here. After all, that's why it was produced.

You can use it to run inspections and investigations, deliver safety briefings, or conduct safety reviews. Check it [email protected] or flick me a note if you need help setting up.

Okay, that's been a whistle stop tour through some of the business functions that I think can be easily managed by a software platform or application.

And while there are plenty of options for each of these individual functions, the real challenge is finding one platform that can hold it all together.

Now, nobody wants to run a dozen different systems, and maybe it is too much to expect that one platform can do everything I've mentioned today, especially at a price that works for even the smallest provider. Now I've got a feeling that I'm looking for the holy Grail.

But over the next few weeks, I'm going to talk to a number of different experts and companies who might help to change my mind. Once again, I hope you've enjoyed today's show. I've been Pete and you've been listening to Get Flushed, the portable sanitation podcast.