Corporate News
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero (left) hands over truck keys to a driver
after he launched 11 new trucks for garbage and waste management in the
county in March 2014. PHOTO | FILE
By OKUTTAH MARK
In Summary
- City Hall says it was forced to seek IBM’s expertise after realising that drivers were using the vehicles to do private businesses.
IBM has developed tracking devices that will enable
City Hall to manage its fleet of garbage collection vehicles more
efficiently.
The absence of fleet monitoring technology has stifled
Nairobi’s effort to meet a target of over 1,300 metric tonnes of garbage
collection daily.
The county government spent Sh300 million to acquire 31 trucks but Nairobi residents still largely depend on private companies to collect garbage from their estates.
Environment County Executive Evans Ondieki said
that inefficiency had forced the government to seek IBM’s expertise
after realising that drivers were using the vehicles to do private
businesses.
Drivers’ behaviour
The solution developed by IBM’S experts at its
Africa research lab based in Nairobi is being piloted in 10 waste
collection trucks.
The device gathers and transmits data on a
vehicle’s location, speed, tonnage of garbage loaded and the drivers’
behaviour on the road in real time.
The data will help county officials to expand their waste collection services.
The data will help county officials to expand their waste collection services.
“After the installation of the smart devices in a
number of the trucks we realised that some of the drivers were using the
vehicles to transport sand from Machakos or building stones from Thika
instead of the intended purposes,” Mr Ondieki said in an interview.
Dr Kamal Bhattacharya, the vice president of IBM
Research Africa, said their scientists were analysing information
gathered on the efficiency of the fleet and the condition of roads they
operate on.
No comments :
Post a Comment