Customer Profile

Discount Dumpsters is a top-rated regional dumpster delivery and removal service headquartered in Clayton, NC. The family-owned business was purchased by two brothers in 2010 with the aim of specializing in affordable waste hauling for construction and industrial sites. Since then, Discount Dumpsters has grown into one of the leading local providers in its field and enjoys an unmatched reputation for honesty, integrity, and reliability.

Background

Hauling waste has more to do with logistics than heavy lifting. For every dumpster that’s dropped off and later picked up, Discount Dumpsters has to have a tight fix on the customer’s exact location, the scheduled pickup day and time, the appropriate vehicle, and the driver responsible for the job. All these details are coordinated and logged by the office staff, who also need to be in constant two-way communication with the drivers to relay updates and changes.

When Discount Dumpsters was starting, the company was able to manage its customers, drivers, and assets using basic spreadsheets. As the business grew, that manual method became tedious and unsustainable. The number of customers increased, as did the scope of their requests, more drivers and trucks were added, routes became more complex, and Discount Dumpsters had outgrown its operations. Both owners and the staff recognized that they needed a customized software platform to continue providing their growing customer base with the same high-quality waste management service.

The company hoped to gain more from this solution than improved record-keeping. To fully optimize operations across the board, their solution needed to include end-to-end integration, intelligent automation, and advanced IoT features such as vehicle tracking and GPS navigation.

Just as importantly, any solution had to fall within budgetary constraints. That meant it would have to be cost-effective to develop, deploy, and maintain. Plus, their solution needed to scale quickly and easily to accommodate future growth.

Why Bridgera?

For many regional companies in the waste management industry, IoT technology can appear out of reach, often seen as a costly, next-generation solution reserved for large national players with deep pockets.

However, for Discount Dumpsters, Bridgera’s IoT-enabled IT platform offered a different path forward. With rapid prototyping, turnkey deployment, minimal development time, and deep expertise in mobile applications, Bridgera made advanced technology both accessible and financially feasible. Their platform helped level the playing field by delivering enterprise-grade capabilities tailored for small to mid-sized businesses.

Beyond technology, Bridgera distinguished itself through a collaborative, consultative approach that many competitors lacked. Discount Dumpsters trusted that Bridgera would take the time to understand their unique operational challenges and develop a solution aligned with their goals. Whether it was optimizing route planning or enabling turn-by-turn navigation, Bridgera’s team was committed to delivering a fully customized solution, demonstrating that even ambitious requirements could be met on an SMB budget.

Results

Before implementing Bridgera’s IoT solution, Discount Dumpsters relied on time-consuming manual processes. When a customer called, phone operators would type their job requests into a spreadsheet. A dispatcher would then consult the spreadsheet and try to assign efficient routes to drivers using traditional mapping. Drivers were tracked throughout the day by phone.

Bridgera designed a complete front- and backend solution that eliminated this unnecessary data entry and tapped into powerful IoT-enabled capabilities for effortless oversight.

Now, to order a new dumpster, customers can use a simple online form or even a dedicated mobile app that also allows them to track the status of the job from their smartphones. Orders are automatically entered into a central database that administrators can access and manage through a user-friendly web portal. From the portal, dispatchers can assign drivers to vehicles and routes, and drivers can view those assignments through their mobile app.

After arriving on-site, drivers can consult the app again to enter the size and contents of the pickup as well as payment information. This information is relayed to the central platform before providing directions for the final leg of the trip. GPS-based turn-by-turn navigation in the app helps drivers easily find their way to each destination.

Because the pickup locations are captured as a digital datapoint, Bridgera’s platform can leverage mapping tools to assist admins in planning the most efficient routes near dump sites or newly added pickups. Should those routes change during the day, any revisions can be relayed to drivers dynamically via the app. This has cut down on overall travel time and mileage, which now exist as trackable metrics. Drivers can be monitored for productivity, and vehicles can be flagged for routine maintenance after crossing certain thresholds.

These IoT-enabled features have enabled Discount Dumpsters to optimize every aspect of its operations. From digital transactions that integrate with their tax software to highly automated driver scheduling and route planning, everything from accounting to logistics has benefited from Bridgera’s IoT platform.

Bridgera Benefits

Digitization of Data

Optimized assignments of drivers and vehicles based on availability

Route Planning

Centralized route planning with updates relayed dynamically to active drivers

Route Tracking

Real-time GPS-based location tracking

Monitor Productivity

Access to aggregated, actionable metrics like mileage and drive time

Long-Term Potential

Potential to leverage longitudinal data like order history or driver performance

Centralized Platform

Efficient management of jobs, assets and drivers via an intuitive web portal