Michael Bomgardner - Fleet Manager - Veolia Electronic Recycling Division

For Veolia Environmental Services’ operating groups, reducing waste is not only a key part of the company’s mission, but also a key objective in the company’s fleet operation.

To help it fulfill that objective, the Electronics Recycling Division (ERD) of Veolia ES Technical Solutions, L.L.C., in 2010 adopted Zonar’s electronic fleet management system. The system includes an electronic vehicle inspection reporting (EVIR) solution for pre- and post-trip inspections and an onboard telematics platform. The telematics system captures data including fuel consumption, rate of travel, idle time and fault codes. The ERD monitors this data to manage driver performance and streamline the maintenance process. 

As a result of using Zonar to identify and then repair mechanical problems early, the division realized $41,000 in year-over-year savings, according to Michael Bomgardner, fleet manager for the ERD. Roadside service calls were reduced by 22 percent resulting in a savings of $13,000 when compared to a 12-month period prior to Zonar’s installation. The division also experienced a 13 percent reduction in the amount of time its vehicles spend in the maintenance shop, realizing annual savings of about $28,000 as a result of improved maintenance shop efficiencies. Bomgardner’s estimate of savings does not include Veolia driver downtime costs which are based on $85 per hour.

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Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions provides secure incineration, fuels blending, recycling of solvents, lights and electronic waste recycling, and low-level radioactive and mixed waste solutions across the United States and Puerto Rico. www.veoliaes.com

Keith Leech - Fleet Manager - City of Sacramento

When a City of Sacramento refuse truck develops a mechanical issue while out on its route, fleet manager Keith Leech knows with a much greater degree of certainty that his department’s mechanics will know about it even if the driver doesn’t report it. In fact, in many cases, they’ll know about the issue long before the truck has returned to the shop.

The city replaced the traditional paper process with a real-time integration of Zonar’s verified Electronic Vehicle Inspection Report system, or EVIR, and it’s fleet management system into the city’s maintenance software. As a result, mechanics can now see results from the refuse truck drivers’ pre- and post-trip inspection reports as drivers are completing them. Just as important, they can view fault codes directly from the onboard computers on the refuse trucks as the truck is on the job using Zonar’s telematics platform. That’s because Zonar delivers information about any defects identified by the vehicle’s computer or by the drivers to FleetFocus M5, a fleet maintenance system developed by AssetWorks.

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The City of Sacramento Solid Waste and Recycling Division provides garbage, recycleing, yard waste and street sweeping to 124,00 residential customers. www.cityofsacramento.org

Located 100 miles west of Chicago, Freeport, IL is a rural city with a population of 26,500. The Freeport School District maintains ten busy school buildings with an enrollment of about 4,300 students supporting the city and neighboring communities.

The student transportation operation in the Freeport district consists of 36 vehicles covering over 99 square miles. Many of the routes are rural and the district wanted to ensure child safety. They also wanted to improve their operation. The district was concerned about incomplete vehicle inspections, excess idling and out-of-route miles.

“I wanted to transform our pupil transportation department into a model of safety, security and operational leadership,” stated Dallas Rackow, Director of Transportation for the district. “For example, before Zonar I randomly placed sticky notes on vehicle inspection points to increase compliance. I had little visibility to the effectiveness of inspections or driver behavior.”

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About 4,200 students come to Freeport Public Schools each day. Located in the northwest corner of Illinois, Freeport School District 145 (FSD 145) uses Zonar's entire electronic fleet management system including ZPass student ridership tracking. http://www.freeport.k12.il.us/

Steve Simmons - Director of Transportation Services - Columbus City Schools

The Columbus City Schools Transportation Call Center receives between 1,100-1,300 telephone calls every school day.  When you consider that their school bus fleet services18,000 bus stops every school day you can start to appreciate the magnitude of the logistical issues faced and questions asked daily.

In the morning, the call center receives calls from parents asking, "where is my bus?" In the afternoon, the calls from parents are about "where is my child?" With Zonar, the whole customer service equation has changed.

Now when parents call, the call center can locate in real-time the bus on its route, determine if and what time a stop was made and adjust pick-up when appropriate.  The vast majority of the time, the route and timing were followed and having that information in real-time changes the dynamics of the call.

The school principals are Transportation Departments' "other" customers alongside parents.  With Zonar the principal has access to up-to-date information on bus arrivals.  Many of the Columbus City Schools principals have chosen to "self-serve" by accessing this information through Zonar because it is accurate and so easy to use. In the event of a delay, the call center is able to alert the principal and ensure the children are not charged with a tardy.

Ensuring the child gets to school is the goal and with Zonar the Transportation Department has more cost-effective options available to achieve its mission.

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Columbus City Schools, Transportation: Provides pupil transportation for 31,000 students with a fleet of 764 buses.  They use Zonar EVIR® Pre- and Post-Trip Inspection, K12 HD-GPS and Ground Traffic Control.  www.columbus.k12.oh.us

Louis Andersen - Superintendent - Town of Gilbert

The Town of Gilbert receives 40 to 50 calls a day about missed waste collections. Before Zonar, the Town would automatically send a truck out for a return trip.  With Zonar V2 HD-GPS tracking and analysis, Gilbert was able to identify issues such as certain dead end streets susceptible to being missed and customers who, while reporting being missed, had indeed been picked up but were refilling their containers.

The Solid Waste Department was able to reduce missed collections trips by 50%.  This miles-never-driven achievement resulted in an average savings of $1,600 a day on equipment operating costs and made a positive impact on Gilbert's efforts for going green.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) holds an annual truck Road-E-O that starts with regional competitions and includes a pre- and post-trip inspection contest.  The Town of Gilbert attributes its winning streak to Zonar because the kind of inspection Zonar EVIR facilitates has them well prepared.  This top ranking performance doesn't manifest itself just once a year in the competition, but in the everyday inspections that contribute to making a safer highway environment.

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Town of Gilbert, Arizona: The Solid Waste Department picks up contained refuse from 62,000 residential and 600 industrial customers.  They have equipped all their trucks including flatbed, roll-off and automatic side loaders with V2 HD-GPS and use Zonar's EVIR for pre- and post-trip inspections.  www.ci.gilbert.az.us

Hugh Messer - Assistant Division Manager- City of Tacoma

We've benefited from Zonar's V2 HD-GPS solution in several important ways.  First, complaints about street sweepers' activities and potential claims of damage are now being limited by being able to verify the exact time and location of each piece of equipment. It turns out that more often than not, our equipment hasn't been anywhere near the location of the alleged incident.

We are also using Zonar's GPS to "mark," in real-time, the location of catch basins that need cleaning.  This has eliminated the previously used paper-based system.

Zonar GPS data and analysis also led to a totally new discovery: how much time was being lost to lunch.  Because employees involved in sewage work needed adequate hand washing and clean-up facilities before eating, they returned to the city central facility.  This required that the job site be broken down so the truck and employees could return.  It turned out that took a lot of time and consumed a lot fuel.

With the entire team being able to see the economic impact, a new option is in the works.  Mobile trailers are being outfitted as a clean room and lunchroom that will be driven to the work-in-progress sites.  This solution more than pays for itself in time saved.  Think about the miles no longer being driven and the reduced environmental impact.

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City of Tacoma, Washington: Surface Water Management, part of Public Works Environmental Services, oversees more than 66,000 surface water accounts and maintains more than 500 miles of public storm water pipe, 22,000-plus catch basins.  They have Zonar-equipped V2 HD-GPS equipment.   www.cityoftacoma.org

John Stump - Equipment Manager - Goodfellow Bros., Inc.

Zonar has designed its solution so that critical and actionable information is immediately transmitted when and to where it is required for action.  This has allowed a set of checks and balances to be put in place using the Zonar "Alert" capabilities so visibility on priority issues can be maintained.

This has resulted in improved operational efficiencies and safety across the entire organization.

• Central Office: Disseminates information, monitors performance, issues Alerts.
• Regional Offices: Reviews Alerts, takes appropriate actions and lowers incident rate.
• Individual: Receives Alerts, reviews timely and specific feedback, instructions and reminders.

The Zonar Alert capabilities have also been used to take the real-time vehicle performance data coming from on-board computers to send an Alert when something is going wrong.  This means a decision can be made to stop a machine before it fails.  The on-board computer can "know" and transmit an Alert to central, regional and local recipients through the Zonar System before the operator even knows.  Goodfellow Bros., Inc., has even sent that same Alert, containing the fault codes, to the local dealer so they determine repair cost.

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Goodfellow Bros., Inc. - is a construction company with expertise in large infrastructure projects.  They use state-of-the-art equipment and are based in Wenatchee, Washington with multiple regional offices in the states of Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.  www.goodfellowbros.com

Mike Wirth - Marketing - Otto Companies

For many employees at Otto Trucking, payroll is based on hours worked.  Many aggregate hauling jobs are projects that are out-of-town and last several weeks.  This means equipment and drivers' locations are constantly changing, so time card submissions across distances and on paper presented challenges.

That all changed with Zonar.

When the data Zonar collects from the pre- and post-trip inspection process was combined in Zonar's Ground Traffic Control with Zonar GPS zone in-and-out data, the number of hours worked by drivers was automatically available.  This dramatically changed the payroll process by:

• Know: Hours worked as by-product of "normal course of business" automation.
• Improve: Accuracy by verifying paper time cards with electronic reports.
• Cut: Many man-hours needed to review hundreds of drivers' time cards.
• Eliminate: Location and latency challenges with electronic data verification.

Otto Companies credits Zonar not only with improving their overall efficiencies, but also providing the kind of peace-of-mind that comes from knowing the location of all your equipment at anytime.

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Otto Companies: Deployed Zonar's potent combination solution of the EVIR and V2 HD-GPS
Otto Trucking: Mesa, Arizona-based aggregate transport company  www.ottotrucking.com
Otto Logistics: Arizona waste transportation company  www.ottotrucking.com/logistics
Superstition Truck & Trailers: Heavy Truck & Trailer Sales, Parts & Service  www.stlaz.com

Frank Lomeli - Deputy Director, Field Operations - City of Glendale


The City of Glendale owns and operates a landfill and its refuse department transports approximately 140,000 tons of waste, drives about 900,000 miles and uses more than 320,000 gallons of fuel a year. Ensuring pre- and post-trip trip inspection compliance, providing customer service and increasing efficiencies are at the top of the to-do list. When they discovered Zonar at a WASTCON event, they knew it was exactly the type of innovative technology needed to take their operations to the next level.

"Zonar’s Electronic Fleet Management Solution has given us unprecedented capabilities to manage our fleet, any minute of the day. Identifying new operational efficiencies has contributed to a 4% decrease in the miles driven and 7% less fuel being used. Those savings add up when you are driving almost a million miles a year and using more than 300,000 gallons of fuel," said Frank Lomeli, Deputy Director for the City of Glendale. "“We are still just scratching the surface of what Zonar can do for us. We are learning how to make it work for everyone. Our ROI just keeps getting better.”

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City of Glendate: Located in Arizona, Glendale has a population of over 220,000 and operates a fleet of 68 vehicles for refuse collection and recycling. They collect approximately 140,000 tons of waste annually that is transported to the Glendale city-owned and operated municipal landfill. Zonar’s electronic fleet management system is used on their entire fleet of collection vehicles. www.glendaleaz.com