Chambers Waste Management PLC was established in 1969 by Chairman and Managing Director, Peter Chambers. Since then, the Chambers Group has evolved into an integrated recycling, waste management and aggregates business, servicing a wide range of commercial and domestic customers.
The company invests heavily in equipment and technology to improve the range and quality of services that they able to offer their customers. There is also investment in sustainability measures and at their materials recovery facility in Slyfield, they focus exclusively on environmentally responsible disposal of commercial and construction refuse. The investment in this site has enabled the company to recycle up to 98% of the materials coming in as construction waste.
Investment in vehicles and onboard equipment has also been part of the company’s strategy to deliver best in class service and Peter Chambers has developed a relationship with Vehicle Weighing Solutions (VWS) and has chosen the industry-leading supplier to provide weighing solutions across his fleet of vehicles.
“VWS demonstrate a flexible approach and have a similar business culture to Chambers Recycling. It is a good fit.” – Steve Enderby, Transport Manager
Over the years, Chambers Recycling had worked with other weighing suppliers, but have been let down by after-sales service. Peter Chambers and his team had experienced, first-hand, the frustrations and effects on the business caused by poor after care and decided to begin working with VWS, who have a reputation for delivering excellent service. Peter explains that “we had always had concerns around post-sales service and we were looking to work with a supplier who understood our needs and work flexibly with us to ensure we could run the fleet efficiently.” After several years working with VWS, Peter and his team are delighted with the level of service that is received from the service coordinators, through to the experienced and dedicated engineers. Peter goes on to explain that “the initial purchase [of the equipment] is just a small part – it is the ongoing service that is important to us.”
Chambers Recycling have their tipper trucks fitted with VWS LOADWEIGH under body load cells. Peter explains that the equipment helps the company to “stay safe, compliant and protect the drivers and operatives, especially when they are on a site with no weighing facilities.”
Over the past 5 years, ENVIROWEIGH bin weighing has also been fitted to the company’s refuse collection vehicles, including the retrofit of all existing trade vehicles in the fleet. Access to the bin weighing data is helping the company to make informed decisions about charges and fully understand their customers’ recycling behaviours.
With a long-term strategy in mind, Chambers Recycling have been confident in their choice of bin weighing supplier, in the knowledge that a complementary waste management software solution has also been in development from VWS Software Solutions – PURGO. Julian Glasspole, Managing Director of VWS introduced Chambers Recycling to Andy Mirecki and Joe Barnes of VWS Software Solutions in early 2016 and a trial of the technology was soon underway to demonstrate its capabilities.
Chambers Recycling were looking for a solution that would streamline their waste collection operation, help the business grow, integrate with the existing bin weighing system and could be used intuitively in the field by the drivers of their skip loaders, RELs, trade waste RCVs, flatbed trucks and tankers. The project team, led by Chambers Recycling’s transport and finance teams, assessed the technology’s reliability and fit for the business and after a thorough pilot, Chambers Recycling have decided to purchase PURGO for use across their operation and the system is being introduced using a phased implementation plan, which will conclude by the end of 2016.
PURGO is helping the company to improve its customer service by providing access to live data, including real time exception reports from the drivers, whilst they are on their rounds. The user-friendly interface of the in cab tablet has been easily adopted by the drivers and the use of this device is not only reducing in cab administration, but office administration too.
One of the key features of PURGO that is being used by Chambers Recycling is the on approach notification, which alerts the team by text or email when a vehicle is due to arrive on site. This is calculated through a combination of historic journey data and real time satellite navigation information.
Another feature, which is important to Chambers Recycling is the newly developed credit card integration, which provides the business with a hosted checkout solution. Vitally, the data is encrypted and complies with PCIDSS standards. Transactions are generated in the system’s back office and multiple credit card payments can be accepted at the same time. PURGO stamps the transaction as paid and automatically adds the credit card authorisation details. Importantly, no credit card details are stored locally; this is all handled by a Mastercard cloud-based system.
This reduces banking charges and ensures security and compliance. PURGO can also process customer refunds and financial reports can be downloaded from the application.
Joe Barnes, Sales Director of VWS Software Solutions says that “Chambers Recycling were looking for a partnership, rather then just a software supplier. We’ve working closely with them and built good working relationships.” Joe continues “software longevity was important to Chambers Recycling – they were looking for a long term solution, which would offer developments that would grow with the business. PURGO delivers this!”