Photo courtesy of Amwaste
An Amwaste truck makes the rounds to pick up garbage.
Amwaste officials on Wednesday reported they continue to take steps to remedy problems with garbage pickup in the Birmingham area.
Multiple cities, especially Hoover, have reported increased problems since Amwaste made changes in its route schedules on March 25 in an effort to improve efficiency. Hoover City Administrator Ken Grimes said city officials they knew there would be some initial hiccups in service as workers and residents adjusted to changes in routes and schedules, but it has been more than six weeks, and the widespread problems being reported should not still be happening.
Amwaste this week implemented a new process to identify when certain addresses are missed more than once and is ordering technology to put in all of its trucks, including rented ones, to track the trucks and document in real time when each pickup is made, said Rick Sweeney, Amwaste’s director of public sector solutions.
That new technology should be in the trucks in Hoover within two to three weeks, said Brandon Weems, Amwaste’s vice president of operations.
The Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority, which is a collective of governments that banded together to get a better price on garbage contracts, had a meeting Wednesday at Hoover City Hall and discussed efforts to remedy problems.
Officials in Hoover, Homewood, Pelham and Trussville said one of the most troubling things is that mistakes continue to be made in the same areas repeatedly. Amwaste officials said they have verified that. Out of more than 28,000 households being served in Hoover, 563 of them generated 50% of the missed service calls, Sweeney said. The company determined that 68% of the problems were on 260 or so streets, he said.
Amwaste officials said a lot of these problems are coming from the same employees. The company has had a lot of employee turnover, and new employees are having a tough time learning the routes, they said. The new technology will include stop-by-stop navigation to help new drivers follow the correct routes, Sweeney said.
During the winter, Amwaste was having maintenance issues with some of its vehicles, but in the last month and a half, Amwaste has added 10 rental trucks to its fleet in the Birmingham area, giving it 54 trucks to cover 39 routes, Weems said. That should be more than enough, he said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
Representatives from the cities of Hoover, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Pelham, Trussville and Clanton meet with Amwaste officials about garbage collection issues on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, at Hoover City Hall in Hoover, Alabama.
That said, the company continues to have trouble getting some of the parts needed to repair trucks when breakdowns occur, Weems said. Amwaste was having three to four breakdowns a day in the Birmingham area, but on some days, they have had as many as 16 trucks down at a time, he said.
The age of the trucks is not the problem, Weems said. The company’s trucks are all three years old or less, he said. Also, Amwaste has 14 maintenance technicians in the Birmingham area. It’s more a matter of not being able to get parts in a timely manner, he said.
Grimes said the public is very frustrated, and so are city officials. Hoover has had 2,700 missed pickups since March 25, and “that’s just not acceptable,” he said. Things have improved in the last few weeks, but even now, there are about 400 missed pickups a week being reported, and those are just the ones being reported, he said. Many people don’t report the misses or have gotten tired of reporting problems repeatedly and quit, he said.
“We know where the problems are. We’ve just got to fix it,” Grimes said. “If we can’t fix it, what are we going to do? I really don’t want to be in the trash business, but we’ve got to serve the citizens. … We are your partners, but we’re very frustrated. I don’t want it to become a divorce proceeding.”
People also have lost confidence in whether any materials are being recycled, Grimes said. Hoover’s contract calls for residents’ first pickup of the week to go to the dump and the second pickup of the week to go to a sorting facility in Montgomery that pulls out items for recycling, but it’s hard to explain that to people when there is no first pickup of the week, Grimes said.
Once these basic garbage collection issues are fixed, there needs to be some sort of education or marketing campaign that better explains how the recycling works so the city can regain the public’s confidence, he said. Recycling is important to many people in these communities, he said.
Sweeney said Amwaste doesn’t blame residents or city officials for being frustrated and understands that the company must regain the trust of city officials and the public. “We will fix this problem.”
The problems are not as severe in some of the other cities that are part of the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority.
Pelham City Manager Gretchen DiFante said Pelham had a 99% success rate prior to the route schedule changes in March. Now, that has dropped to a 96.3% success rate, she said. Ninety-one percent of the problems in Pelham are happening on just two routes, but “those residents naturally are very upset,” she said.
Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes said Vestavia Hills, also had a 99% success rate prior to the route schedule change, averaging 10 to 15 missed pickups a week. About 20% of Vestavia Hills’ routes changed in March, he said. He knew there would be issues, and complaints doubled or tripled initially, “but every week it’s gotten better,” Downes said. “We have seen resolutions as we identified the issues.”
Several cities have gotten complaints about Amwaste trucks leaking hydraulic fuel and leaving stains on city streets (and driveways for those who have backdoor service).
Paul Barber, Amwaste’s district manager over Alabama, said Amwaste does preventative maintenance on its trucks that should identify leaks, but there will be times when fittings break and the trucks leak fluids. When that occurs, if it is reported, Amwaste will investigate the problem and try to get some of the stain removed, but asphalt typically soaks up the fluid pretty quickly, and it’s not always possible to get the stains out, Barber said.
Homewood Public Services Director Berkley Squires said there needs to be better communication between Amwaste and the cities regarding responses to complaints.
Blake Miller, Hoover’s assistant city engineer and chairman of the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority, said he agrees that communication is important, “but communication without follow-up – it means nothing. All that does is add to the frustration level to our residents. They’re beyond frustrated. … It’s getting more and more consistently missed instead of consistently picked up. … We’ve got to get that straightened out for sure.”
Amwaste officials also are working on an education campaign to help educate residents on things they can do to help improve efficiency in garbage pickup as well, including information about breaking down boxes and can placement. That education campaign should be ready within a month, Amwaste officials said.
See the full video of Wednesday's meeting of the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority with Amwaste officials on The Hoover Channel's YouTube page.
