DSNY Shares Details of Zoned Waste Collection Plan

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): A primary question for New York’s Department of Sanitation for the past year and a half has been how many zones there would be and how many carters would operate within them. The answer is 20 geo-fenced zones and three to five carters in each, according to Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

The plan has always been to split up the five boroughs into franchised zones served by a small number of private carters, the idea being to shrink trucks’ routes and improve safety. The new system would require City Council legislation. The numbers represent the agency’s effort to balance competition with efficiency. Each zone has roughly the same number of business customers.

According to Garcia, many parts of the city are served by up to 50 carters. Altogether, there will be 68 slots for carters, and each hauler will be able to bid on up to 15 of them. Garcia contends that most of the approximately 80 haulers now operating in the city will have a shot at a contract, while others could be subcontractors.

Pricing will play the biggest role in the selection, weighing in at 40% or more of the scoring of proposals. It was just 15% in Los Angeles’ recently implemented zone-collection system, which has been assailed by businesses paying much more than they did before. “We’re not in this to make things more expensive for businesses,” Garcia said. “But we want to put guardrails on this.”

The 15-zone limit on bidding would keep the largest carters from dominating the market. Currently the 20 biggest carters control more than 80% of the business. Sanitation will also be holding an “RFP school” to educate operators, many of which have never engaged in a public bidding process.

Courtesy: https://wasteadvantage.com