The City of Fort Smith, Ark., is testing telematics on its sanitation vehicles to enhance its municipal solid waste, recycling, and yard waste offerings, both in terms of sustainability and customer service. The city will pilot the Rubicon SmartCity platform for six months on its all of its 40 sanitation vehicles.

The Rubicon SmartCity platform includes a smartphone-based mobile app, a plug-in device, and a web-based portal. The technology will allow the City of Fort Smith’s Department of Sanitation to collect real-time service confirmations, provide GPS vehicle tracking, and enable the documentation of driver issues, including the inability to successfully complete a pick-up. The portal will collect data and analytics, providing the city with real-time route updates, daily reporting, and operational insights.

“This literally takes us from managing with paper and pencil into the twenty-first century, smartly managing our resources and operations across our city,” said Kyle Foreman, director of sanitation for the City of Fort Smith. “Implementing Rubicon’s smart city solution across our fleet means we’re connecting every vehicle and driver with Operations Management at all times. Operations will be able to redirect our resources where they’re needed when they’re needed, and we expect that to result in significant operational savings,” Foreman said.