Based in the Scottish Highlands, Northern Recycling Solutions provide waste management services to businesses across the country, including skip hire, commercial waste collection, confidential waste, hazardous waste management and food waste collection. The Family run business, has 35 employees, and operates 10 vehicles in its fleet including skip loaders, refuse collection vehicles, hook loaders and vans. The company prides itself on offering a total waste management solution to its customers. As the business expanded it became increasingly necessary to source a single system that could manage the high volume of transactions a waste business generates. Managing Director, Ewan Calder, explains that “our existing systems were starting to creak, so we knew it was time to look for a system that would meet our needs and our future growth plans”. After researching the market, they chose to implement PurGo waste management software.
“We were managing data from three or four bespoke systems that didn’t talk to each other, before we implemented PurGo. We were looking for a solution that would bring it all together in one place. That’s exactly what PurGo has done.”
When choosing their new system, one of the key areas of importance to Northern Recycling Solutions was the need to move away from operating several disparate systems in to one consolidated all-encompassing system. Ewan explains that “we were managing data from three or four bespoke systems that didn’t talk to each other, before we implemented PurGo. We were looking for a solution that would bring it all together in one place. That’s exactly what PurGo has done.”
Before implementing PurGo, the business was heavily reliant on manual administration tasks. Ewan explains that “we used to type up skip sheets every day and if there was a late change, the whole lot had to be done again. The process left too much room for manual error. Now, with all the skip data in PurGo, a last minute change can be accommodated in seconds, and communicated to the drivers through their in-cab tablets, saving hours weekly. Another feature of PurGo is its integration with Vehicle Weighing Solutions equipment. Northern Recycling’s waste vehicles are fitted with ENVIROWEIGH bin weighing from VWS and Ewan explains that “we are able to seamlessly integrate our weighing data into PurGo.Customers are increasingly looking for regular and accurate weigh information on their waste. With PurGo, bin and skip weights are automatically uploaded into the system, eliminating the risk of manual error and enabling accurate monthly customer reports, at the touch of a button.”
“We are able to seamlessly integrate our weighing data into PurGo.”
Commenting on the user experience, Ewan describes PurGo as “solid and stable” and highlights the key benefit to his business as being “access to core operational data at our fingertips.”
Benefiting from the system’s management of live data, Northern Recycling send jobs to their drivers via mobile tablets, which provides details of the job schedule and route planning. Before any route begins, the drivers are required to complete their daily vehicle checks, so PurGo helps to add an additional layer of compliance. Commenting on how the drivers have adopted the system and the processes, Ewan explains that “”the drivers love it! It makes their lives much easier.”
Northern Recycling also use PurGo for their customer invoicing. Ewan identifies features including ‘universal price changes’ as particularly beneficial saying that “it makes internal billing changes simple to manage as they are applied to all accounts.” Prior to the implementation of PurGo, Ewan explains that “monthly reporting was a huge job.” He continues by saying that “it is now simple!” Using PurGo is also identified as a big step forward in avoiding human error in the invoicing process.
“Introducing PurGo has been a building block towards growing our business.”
Beyond the company’s internal use of PurGo, they also have the ability to provide their customers with live access to their data using an API. Ewan explains that “some of our larger customers take advantage of this option to access their data in real time”. This feature provides an enhanced level of service, for those who need it.
When Northern Recycling experienced an internal server crash last year, Ewan explains that despite the potentially critical situation, “VWS Software Solutions supported us and helped immensely. We will be forever grateful for their support in resolving the situation.” Expanding on the general support received from VWS Software Solutions, Ewan says that “they’re always there when we need help. At the beginning, there was a lot of change for us to manage, but now we are pretty much self reliant. The system is stable, user-friendly and intuitive.
“Introducing PurGo has been a building block towards growing our business. We’ve taken on new customers with little or no impact on our existing workload. We’ve increased turnover by 40%, yet not needed additional staff to facilitate the services. PurGo has made really improved our efficiency.”
“We were looking for a solution that would bring it all together in one place. That’s exactly what PurGo has done.”
Summing up Ewan said “Purgo has been a game changer for our business, it was designed specifically for the waste industry and delivers. It is integral in what we do, from delivering robust logistics, to sharing information across the team, recording the placement of that first skip or wheelie bin right through to issuing the invoice and waste transfer notes.”
“Excellent Customer service is extremely important to us, and Purgo gives us the platform to deliver a professional service to our customers every time”