Fed-up with the levels of service given by his onboard weighing supplier, Stephen Blakeley, owner & MD of Wigan based Blakeley’s Waste Management looked for a company to match the expectations needed to run a modern efficient waste recycling business. Eighteen months on, his expanded MRF operation is reaping the rewards of increased capacity and the mixed fleet of 31 waste recycling trucks is providing accurate and reliable real-time weight data. “This site processes up to 500 tonnes of recyclables every day from across the North-West - I need accurate and reliable weight data on board my trucks” says Blakeley, “without it, we’re loosing money”. Before appointing Vehicle Weighing Solutions, Blakeley had weighers [of another make] on his fleet; the problem was that most were either not working or the drivers needed training. “I was recommended to Julian Glasspole and his Vehicle Weighing Solutions team, by the MD of a national municipal hire company, we discussed what was needed and it went from there” says Blakeley.  The modernisation of the MRF operation was well underway, a key part of the business; up-to-date weight data to match capacity with supply, required live weight data to manage the through-put of recyclables and maximise human resources and sorting machinery. Protecting his operator’s license from the risk overloading and reducing excessive maintenance bills was also a concern. Stuart Knight, operations manager at Blakeley’s points out, “after the sales team has secured another customer, that’s where the uncertainty comes-in.  The number of collections in a day is not fixed, the volume and weight of materials removed for disposal can vary, and that’s why accurate and reliable weight data is relied on. Our business depends on the levels of support from suppliers, for example, if a customer requests an urgent collection, we need to respond immediately, if we know we have the capacity out on the road, we can direct a truck to make the collection straight away, this gives us the edge over our competitors”. To maintain the flow of data for the computer system, VWS gave an agreement to deploy an engineer to anywhere in the North West within 8 hours of a callout, “service levels are a key part of maintaining smooth operations” Knight points out points out. To make the repairs, VWS fitted its own parts which are 100% interchangeable with all makes of loadcell based onboard weighers and showed Blakeley’s drivers how to use them, 18 months all weighers are working soundly. 

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