The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutIR 032 (3) INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 23-032 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 7, 2023 �aT� • Page 1 of 2 xA. SUBJECT: RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTION RE-ROUTE UPDATE 1q irn { 1875 The purpose of this Informal Report is to provide an update on how Code/Solid Waste could have better communicated the residential garbage collection changes that were implemented the week of November 71" and impacted residents in all council districts.This is a follow-up to the informal report provided at the November 15, 2022 work session (attached). On Monday November 7, 2022, 78,849 of the 250,000 residential households were modified, impacting 33% of the households being served: • USPS mailers went to all affected customers the preceding week (October 31). • The week of November 71", staff drove all affected routes and affixed additional educational flyers on any carts that were placed out on the wrong day. • Additional USPS mailers went to the affected customers for two more weeks as reminders. • Extra bags were collected free of charge for the first three weeks of the re-route. • Call Center hours were extended to field after-hour calls/questions. Historically, and following industry best practices, the City has not notified all customers of a change in trash collection because it leads to greater confusion (e.g., unaffected customers hear rumors, see things on social media, etc.). In this case, because One Address was available online for customers to check collection days, general media/outreach was scheduled into the mix above, as well as a social media video to explain the change and the reasons. One Address was functional at the time of rollout; however, the third-party app ReCollect had an error that was not immediately corrected. Upon discovery of the error, residents were automatically redirected to One Address until the problem was resolved. Note this has been addressed with the contractor and future rollouts will include system testing 30-days in advance of any planned changes. Planning Lessons Learned While the re-route had been discussed internally for almost 12 months prior to the rollout, the final preparation and exact route changes came much later in the process. Looking forward, the exact route changes need to be finalized and shared four to six months in advance with Mayor and Council and other stakeholders. This process would include an explanation on the reasons for the change, how it will be rolled out and an opportunity to solicit and act on input from the various stakeholders. Communication Lessons Learned • City Council was not notified of the route change in a timely manner. • City Council was not given the opportunity to provide input on the route change plan. • Postcards were sent the week of an election. • Door hangers are needed to make sure the resident receives the information in an additional format and in a timely manner (e.g., postcards were mailed to the person who pays the water bill but who may not reside at that address). • Online search/route lookup tools need to be available and in working order 30 days before rollout to avoid another system failure on start day and help with pre-change education. • Messaging to the community was late in getting out. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 23-032 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 7, 2023 �aT� • Page 2 of 2 xA. SUBJECT: RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTION RE-ROUTE UPDATE 1875 Examples of Tasks for the Next Route Change: • Three rounds of postcards will be sent to impacted households: the week prior to the change, the week of the change and the week following the change. • Door hangers will go out the week before the change. • Targeted social media messaging will be shared with impacted areas. • Solid Waste staff will monitor old route areas and provide literature on route changes to affected residents (e.g., will drive routes and tag carts with new collection day information). • City website, OneAddress and the ReCollect app for Solid Waste services will be updated earlier. • Route maps will be distributed and posted on website and social media. • Social media updates will be posted throughout the weekend prior to the route change. • An alert will be added to the City's homepage and the Solid Waste pages with a link to the story. • An alert will be added to the MyFW app to let people know some routes are changing. • Community Engagement will post on NextDoor/elsewhere notifying impacted areas. • The Call Center will have extended hours to 8 p.m. beginning the week of the change and continuing for three weeks after. Hours will remain extended if necessary. • Earlier updates will be provided to Council, neighborhood associations and stakeholders. For questions regarding this information, please contact Brandon Bennett, Director of the Code Compliance Department, at bran don.ben nett(a-)-fortworthtexas.gov. David Cooke City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 22-165 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council November 15, 2022 Page 1 of 2 xA. • SUBJECT: RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTION ROUTE 1875 ADJUSTMENTS The purpose of this Informal Report is to provide an update on the residential waste collection services route changes that were implemented the week of November 7, 2022 and impacted all Council Districts. Currently residents of Fort Worth receive the following four (4) services as part of their garbage collection services. The City's vendors, Waste Management and Knight Waste Services, provide a combined 3.3 million service touches to 250,000 customers monthly. • Garbage Collection —once a week • Recycling Collection —once a week • Yard Waste Collection —once a week • Bulk Collection —once a month The City of Fort Worth is growing and experiencing increased rates of residential household growth that has not been equally distributed throughout the city. This led to an imbalance of collection routes where some routes have far more households than others. This imbalance results in longer collection times and increased service issues that make it difficult for our vendors to meet customer service expectations. Year Households 2013 205,083 2022 250,190 Increase 22% Problem: • Tuesday has the largest volume of customers and service-related issues. • Since July 1, 2022, there have been 57 trash routes not completed and 71 recycle routes not completed on Tuesday. • Current Tuesday routes have 56,678 customers compared with 44,400 to 50,800 on the other collection days of week. • Anticipated growth in next 12 months for Tuesday routes would bring the house count to 58,800 without route adjustments. Solution: • Changing routes for 78,849 of the 250,000 residential households will help rectify the service- related issues; this change impacts 33% of the households being served. • Goal is to balance out the routes, removing an estimated 10,000 homes off Tuesday. • Friday routes will increase slightly, but the routes will be closer to the landfill and will require less travel time. Benefits: • Improved services, especially those in areas of high growth. • Contractor commitment of up to 20% improvement in missed collections per new contract. • Rebalancing of routes makes for more efficient collection and less missed collections. • Future growth will continue to be managed by appropriate rebalancing of routes. • City continues to emphasize a commitment to customer service as a priority with City Refuse and Recycling contractors. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 22-165 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council November 15, 2022 Page 2 of 2 xA. • SUBJECT: RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTION ROUTE 1875 ADJUSTMENTS Planning: • Waste Management began working on this change in July 2022. • Solid Waste staff worked along-side Waste Management during the entire process and will ensure that future reroutes will be communicated to Mayor and Council in a timelier manner, and ahead of resident outreach. • Primarily the areas of concern are in the Northeast and Northwest sections of the City, which are currently Monday and Tuesday routes respectively. • All households and Council Districts were reviewed and analyzed. Communication: • Postcards were sent to impacted households the week of October 31. A second round of cards went out the week of November 7t" and a third round will be distributed on November 14t" • Call Center extended their hours to 8 p.m. beginning in September and running through November 21 st. Hours will remain extended if necessary. • Call Center is available via phone, text, email, or chat. • MYFW app is available to all residents. • Targeted social media messaging has been sent to impacted areas. • Updates were provided to Council District Aides and to Home Owners Associations. • Solid Waste staff will monitor old route areas and provide literature on route changes to residents, e.g., will drive routes and tag carts with new collection day information. • City website, OneAddress, and the Recollect app for trash services were updated. For questions regarding this information, please contact Valerie Washington, Assistant City Manager at Valerie.washington(a)_fortworthtexas.gov or Brandon Bennett, Director of the Code Compliance Department at Brandon.ben nett(a)-fortworthtexas.gov. David Cooke City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS