Basildon Council

Basildon Borough Council runs refuse and recycling collection services across the Essex towns of Basildon, Billericay and Wickford.

Covering an area of more than 42 square miles, it runs alternate kerbside collections for general waste and recyclables, as well as additional services for garden waste, glass, commercial waste and special collections for large household items.

Like all local authorities, Basildon Council’s refuse department takes steps to coordinate collections to provide as efficient and high-quality a service as possible. This includes facilitating real-time communication between crews so colleagues can relay traffic updates and other route information across the fleet.

This helps to keep collection services moving and on schedule, even when unforeseen circumstances arise. However, the council had been relying on conventional two way radios carried on each collection truck to keep crews in touch with one another. Despite having antenna positioned on a large mast to extend signal range, it still wasn’t achieving the full coverage desired across all districts.

This meant that the drivers were resorting to using their personal mobile phones to speak to one another and relay information about collections, road closures or problems whenever radio signal dropped out.

The council approached Brentwood Communications to ask if there was a more up-to-date solution that would provide the reliable range required and avoid the need for staff to use their own mobiles.

We had just the answer – IDARO. Our groundbreaking push-to-talk cellular system is tailor-made for situations where clients want the reliability and usability of two way radio but with the unlimited range of mobile.

We supplied Basildon Borough Council with a set of durable push-to-talk devices, one for each vehicle in the refuse fleet. Each device was set up with IDARO software, it’s own call sign and a mobile SIM, providing universal access to cellular networks. For this solution the customer supplied the SIM cards.

With IDARO on board, refuse vehicle drivers and collection personnel can be confident of reaching their colleagues wherever they are in the borough. Instead of having to dig out their own mobiles when radio signal drops out and scroll through a list of contacts, the council refuse services team can now contact everyone from anywhere at the touch of a button, making communication safer, more efficient and more secure.

We also supplied dispatcher software to the main control room. This picks up GPS signals from all devices, allowing management to keep track of the location of all vehicles. Through a combination of better colleague-to-colleague communication and real-time central coordination, the team has been better equipped to pool resources and ensure all collections are completed on schedule.