Putting stops in order: drive time, side of the street, and going round the block

Order by drive time on real roads

A map with pins makes stops look closer than they are. A river with one bridge, a highway with few exits, a run of one-way streets and a dead end all stretch the real trip. The distance that matters is the drive on the road network, and the measure that matters most is time.

The route also has fixed ends. A collection day runs from the yard, through the stops, to the dump, and back to the yard. So the job is not the shortest loop through the stops. It is a path from the yard to the dump that passes every stop, with as little driving as the roads allow.

The EPA’s routing guidelines agree on the start: begin the route as close to the yard as possible. In a neighbourhood full of one-way streets, they suggest working through it in a series of loops.

Drive times from a road map are typical times. They do not know that a main road jams at five, or that a school lets out at three. The EPA advises against collecting on heavily travelled streets during rush hours. The UK Health and Safety Executive suggests timing collections near schools to miss the start and end of the school day. That knowledge belongs to the dispatcher, and it shapes the order too.

Fix the stops that have to be fixed

Some stops can’t go just anywhere.

• A restaurant may need its container emptied before it opens.
• A gated site may open at a set time.
• A customer next to the yard may be easiest to serve on the way out.

Mark those first or last, and let the rest be ordered around them. Do the same for where the truck enters and leaves its area, and put any break where it adds the least driving. Keep the list short: every stop you pin in place is one the order has to work around.

Count the time at each stop and at the dump

Driving is only part of the day. The rest is time spent stopped.

• At each stop. A cart tipped by an automated arm is quick. A row of bags thrown by hand takes longer. A commercial container behind a locked gate takes longer still. Use a typical time for the route, and a longer time for the stops that need it.
• At the dump. The queue at the gate, the scale and tipping the load all count.

The EPA’s steps for building routes list the time each stop takes, and the non-productive time spent getting to the route, the disposal site and the yard.

Give the route a leave time, and every stop gets an estimated arrival. Add up the drive, the stop time and the dump time, and compare it with the shift.

Work each side of the street separately

On a street with customers on both sides, there are two ways to collect it.

• Both sides in one pass. The truck drives down the middle of the job and the crew crosses the road to reach the far side.
• One side at a time. The truck works one curb, then comes back along the other, so every stop is on the truck’s own side.

Crossing the road is a hazard for collectors. The UK Health and Safety Executive advises identifying areas where single-sided collection is reasonably practicable, to cut down on collectors crossing the road. A truck with a side arm can only reach carts on the arm’s side, so the far side needs its own pass whatever the plan says.

Not every street needs it. A street with customers on one side is one pass either way, and a quiet lane is not a fast four-lane road. Decide by route.

The EPA’s guidelines describe the pattern that follows from each choice. For one side at a time, route with many clockwise turns around blocks: a loop of right turns. For both sides at once, run the long straight streets first and then loop. The EPA, writing for U.S. roads, notes that left turns are generally harder and slower than right turns, and that right turns are safer.

Go round the block instead of turning in the road

Sometimes the next stop is behind the truck. The quick fix on paper is to turn round. On the street, turning a large truck round on a narrow road usually means a three-point turn, and a three-point turn means backing up.

Backing is one of the main hazards in this work. NIOSH reviewed the deaths of refuse collectors from 1980 to 1992 who fell from or were struck by a collection vehicle. Of those 110 deaths, 20 happened while the truck was backing up. A newer NIOSH review counted 310 worker deaths linked to refuse trucks between 2012 and 2022. The UK Health and Safety Executive’s first step for reversing risk is to eliminate or reduce reversing wherever possible.

So after a stop, the truck should carry on the way it is heading and go round the block. It adds a loop, and it keeps the truck moving forward with nobody behind it.

Two cases are different.

• A dead end. There is no block to go round, so the truck has to turn at the end. The EPA’s guidelines say dead-end streets can be collected by walking down, backing down or making a U-turn, depending on the street’s length and turning restrictions. They suggest collecting a dead end when it is on the truck’s right.
• Rural roads. There may be no block for miles. Whether a driver may turn in a driveway or a wide spot is the hauler’s call, route by route.

Let the dispatcher override

A computed order is a strong first draft. It is not the last word.

Drivers and dispatchers know things a road map doesn’t. A bridge too low for the truck. A street that is too tight when cars are parked. A customer who wants pickup after nine. A road closed for work this month. The EPA recommends that experienced drivers and collectors test a route under real conditions.

There are two ways to correct it: steer the drive onto a better road, or set the order by hand. Either way, keep the computed order beside yours, so you can see what your change costs or saves.

Doing it in RouteNow: SequenceNow

SequenceNow orders every weekday’s stops on a route by drive time on real roads, from the yard to the dump, and draws the line. Re-sequence with one click whenever the route changes.

Start at the yard, finish at the dump, and enter and leave the territory where you choose. Mark a stop Beginning or End if it has to go first or last. A rest stop goes wherever the detour costs least.

Set when the truck leaves the yard and a default stop time for the route. Override any service that takes longer, and add time at the dump. Every stop gets an arrival time. The breakdown shows drive time, deadhead, time at stops, and the whole day against an 8-hour shift.

Two boxes on the route cover the road rules.

• Service Both Sides Separately. On streets with customers on both sides, the truck works each side separately, at the curb.
• Allow Turnarounds at Stops. Off by default, so the drive line leaves a stop the way the truck arrived and goes round the block. Tick it on a route where the driver may turn round, such as a rural one.

Know a better road? Drag the route line onto it, save the steer, and the day is re-planned through it. Want the order by hand? Click a stop’s number and type where it goes. RouteNow keeps its own order too, so flip between the two and the breakdown shows the difference.