Digital Waste Tracking: what skip hire companies need to know

What is changing?

The UK is introducing Digital Waste Tracking to improve the
information recorded about waste as it moves through the waste
management system.

The changes are being introduced in phases. For many skip hire
businesses, the important question is whether they simply collect
and transport waste or whether they also operate the permitted
waste site where skips are returned, tipped and sorted.

Why does this matter for skip hire companies?
A business that collects a full skip from a customer’s property
may be acting as a waste carrier. If that same business then
takes the skip back to its own permitted waste transfer or
sorting facility, it is also operating as a waste receiver.

Waste collectors and carriers

Digital Waste Tracking is planned to expand further to
include waste collectors such as carriers, brokers and
dealers.

This is particularly relevant to skip hire businesses when
collecting and transporting waste from customer locations.

Businesses should check current government guidance to confirm
which requirements and implementation dates apply to their
individual operation.

What could this mean for a typical skip hire company?

Consider a skip hire company with 100 skips operating across
its local area.

A customer phones and orders a skip. The company delivers the
empty skip to the customer’s property and the customer fills
it over the following two weeks.

The skip hire company then returns, collects the full skip and
transports it back to its own permitted waste yard, where the
contents are sorted into different waste categories.

The important digital reporting point:
Where the skip is returned to the company’s own in-scope
permitted waste receiving facility, the receipt of that load
is relevant to the new waste-receipt reporting requirements.
As the wider Digital Waste Tracking system develops, information
relating to the collection and movement of the waste will also
become increasingly important.

For businesses completing large numbers of collections every
day, this creates an obvious challenge: how do you capture
accurate, structured information without creating significant
additional administration?

Capture the information where the work happens

One approach is to give drivers and yard operatives a digital
form that can be completed directly from a mobile phone or tablet.

Rather than relying on handwritten paperwork that needs to be
interpreted and entered into another system later, information
can be captured electronically at source.

See what the app might look like

A simple mobile form can guide drivers and yard operatives
through the information they need to capture, with important
fields presented in an easy-to-follow format.

View example mobile app

View an example of how a KoneXit mobile data capture form
could be configured for a waste or skip hire operation.
The exact fields can be configured around the requirements
of the individual business.

What information could be captured?

Digital forms can be configured around the individual waste
operator and the information its staff need to collect.

Photographs

Photograph the contents of the skip, contamination,
condition of the load or supporting documentation.

GPS location

Automatically capture the location associated with a
collection, delivery or other activity.

Date and time

Automatically timestamp completed forms and stages within
a workflow.

Barcode and QR scanning

Identify skips, containers, jobs or other assets without
manually entering reference numbers.

Digital signatures

Capture customer, driver or authorised-person signatures
directly on the mobile device.

Structured data

Use dropdown lists, mandatory questions, numeric fields
and validation rules to improve consistency.

More than simply replacing a paper form

Moving data capture onto a mobile device can provide benefits
beyond preparing for Digital Waste Tracking.

Information can be captured once, at source, and made immediately
available to office staff rather than waiting for paperwork to
return with the driver.

Mandatory fields and validation can help prevent incomplete
records. Dropdown lists can help standardise information, while
barcode scanning can reduce errors caused by manually entering
skip or job numbers.

Photographs, timestamps and location information can also provide
useful supporting evidence for the wider business operation.

Important:
Photographs, GPS coordinates and signatures can be useful
operational information and supporting evidence, but they should
not be interpreted as being mandatory Digital Waste Tracking
fields in every situation.
Businesses should identify the information specifically required
under the applicable government waste tracking requirements.

How Konexit can help

KoneXit can provide waste and skip hire businesses with
configurable mobile forms designed around their own operational
processes.

Forms can be used on mobile devices by drivers, yard operatives
and other members of staff to capture structured information
digitally at the point the work takes place.

Depending on the workflow, this can include text and numeric
information, photographs, barcode and QR code scanning, GPS
coordinates, automatic timestamps and digital signatures.

The objective is simple: capture accurate information once,
electronically and at source, rather than creating additional
paperwork and administration.

Preparing your waste business for Digital Waste Tracking?

If you’re looking at how your drivers or yard staff could capture
waste information digitally, talk to us about building a workflow
around the way your business already operates.

Email: support@Konexit. Co. UK

This article is intended to provide general information about
Digital Waste Tracking and digital data capture. It does not
constitute legal, regulatory or compliance advice.

Businesses remain responsible for determining the requirements
that apply to their individual operations and for submitting
required information to the appropriate government waste
tracking service.