Garbage trucks get route help — satellite eye

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- In America's most mannerly city, the unseemly chore of picking up trash is becoming more efficient -- thanks to satellites.

The city has installed Global Positioning System equipment -- the same technology used by everyone from the military to wilderness hikers -- on its garbage trucks in a drive to plan their routes more efficiently and detect bottlenecks.

Now trash collectors finish routes more quickly, reducing overtime and getting the slow-moving trucks out of the way of other traffic on the city's narrow streets.

That seems fitting for a city that has been at the top nine times on the informal list of most-polite cities compiled by etiquette expert Marjabelle Young Stewart.

The GPS system, which cost $9,000 to install, allows a dispatcher to know at any time where each of the 18 trucks is located.

If a truck has been slowed because of a heavy trash load, other trucks can be sent to help, said Mike Metzler, deputy director of operations for the city's Department of Public Service.

The dispatcher also can tell at a glance if there are delays at the landfill, if a truck breaks down or if a truck is delayed in traffic. It's more efficient than having to field radio calls from several drivers at once, officials said.

It's not intended to spy on the drivers, Metzler added.

"It's kind of hard to hide in a 35,000-pound green and white garbage truck with the city of Charleston seal on it," he said. "It has nothing to do with that. It's not that they are being watched, it just allows us to more efficiently run routes."

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