Details of Rubicon’s three-year smart city contract with the City of Montgomery, Alabama, which was announced by Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange at a press conference yesterday afternoon, were featured on WSFA 12 News this morning:
Here’s a transcript of the remarks from the above video:
Newscaster: “The City of Montgomery has entered a partnership with a technology company called Rubicon to help it improve customer service for sanitation customers, but also to help city leaders make decisions about policy. Now, more than 60 garbage collection trucks have new artificial intelligence technology so the city will be able to detect mechanical issues in the truck [so] they can ensure route efficiency, [and] they can even take note of any other nuisances along those routes.”
Michael Allegretti, Chief Strategy Office at Rubicon: “As these vehicles are traveling up and down the street to collect trash, they are also looking for nuisances; quality of life issues that the city can go and start to remediate, whether we’re talking about high weeds, potholes, or [other] things like that. It’s a two-for-one opportunity for the city.”
Newscaster: “After finishing a six-month pilot program, the City has now entered a three-year contract with Rubicon for this technology. City leaders say in that six-month period of that pilot program the city saved tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance costs.”
Here’s a transcript of the remarks from the above video:
Newscaster: “The City of Montgomery signed a three-year deal with a technology company called Rubicon to improve performance, to reduce maintenance costs, and [to] enhance the sanitation service in the city. Now, more than 60 sanitation trucks have technology that will alert drivers if there is a mechanical issue with a truck, it also allows a driver to notify the city if there is an issue along the route, whether it’s garbage related, or something else.”
Mayor Todd Strange: “To be able to have 60 or 70 sanitation trucks that ride our streets every single solitary day, [some] more days than others, they can become the eyes and ears of our city, and can instantaneously report what we see, whether it be a law enforcement issue, or social issue, or environmental issue, or trash issue, it’s going to be helpful.”
Newscaster: “The City has already started using this smart sanitation technology through a six-month pilot program and says over that six months the city already saved tens of thousands of dollars in technology and maintenance costs. The technology is also going to help to identify trucks that are costing the most to maintain, and then down the road it will also help city leaders make future policy decisions. It can even allow the routes to become more efficient and tell [city officials] when more or fewer trucks are needed on the road.”
You can read about the partnership in more detail in our press release.
