Kansas Metropolis’s Winter Problem
The Metropolis of Kansas Metropolis, MO, is not any stranger to the chilly and its changeable winters proceed to maintain the town on excessive alert. In 2024, for the AFC playoff recreation between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, followers suffered frostbite in minus -4 levels °F climate, marking the fourth coldest NFL recreation in historical past. Extra not too long ago, 2025 broke a document low temperature that had stood since 1935. This frigid –7 °F day was preceded by 11 inches of snow on January fifth.
Nevertheless, Public Works Departments care little for data, as, regardless of the severity of the climate, their groups head out into the chilly to make sure that highway circumstances are as secure as attainable for his or her residents. As many cities wrestle to modernize their operations and depend on paper maps and radios, Kansas Metropolis leaders noticed a chance to innovate with know-how. They have been keen to seek out digital options to assist their groups work extra effectively and successfully with their present fleet whereas enhancing transparency and resident satisfaction.
Beginning with Strong Waste
Customer support and streamlining operations are objectives that permeate all the Kansas Metropolis Public Works division. “In Kansas Metropolis we’re continually striving to enhance public providers—and with them, high quality of life for our residents,” stated Michael Shaw, Director of Public Works for the Metropolis of Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
In 2019, the Metropolis entered right into a partnership with RUBICONSmartCity (since acquired by Routeware) to implement the software program suite within the Metropolis’s fleet of 80 sanitation automobiles to optimize stable waste providers with the aim of considerably enhancing the resident satisfaction. Along with driver-loved options like concern logging and turn-by-turn navigation, the Metropolis additionally utilized SmartCity’s back-office options to digitize their complete operation and optimize routes with built-in route sequencing instruments.
By April 2021, the partnership delivered over two million {dollars} in value financial savings whereas rising citizen satisfaction by 17 p.c. Along with this, the town was awarded the Good 50 Award by Good Cities Join for being one of the crucial transformative examples of progressive world sensible cities initiatives.
How Expertise Helps Snow Operations
After optimizing waste assortment, the Metropolis turned its consideration to snow operations. “In Kansas Metropolis we’re continually striving to enhance public providers—and with them, high quality of life for our residents,” stated Michael Shaw. “Environment friendly snow removing positively impacts public security and retains our nice metropolis shifting within the winter months.”
Nevertheless, clearing roads of snow and ice presents distinctive challenges to public works groups. Some concerns embody:
- Pressured flexibility: snow occasions could be extremely unpredictable, placing strain on groups to alter routes, work additional time, and handle an inflow of 311 calls
- Routing: not like different municipal fleets, plows have to move roads a number of instances earlier than they’re thought of “clear”
- Unseen obstacles: metallic plates, speedbumps and different hazards lurk under the snow, doubtlessly damaging the plow
- Storms: clearing roads of snow and ice is a essential service and important to emergency administration. Storms aren’t any excuse to not plow or to not make it into the workplace to handle operations
The Metropolis noticed a chance to implement digital options to handle these challenges and the SmartCity group was prepared to satisfy their wants with a spread of options:
- Digital techniques empower workplace employees and drivers to work extra effectively and with extra agility, even when operations have to be managed remotely
- Flip-by-turn instructions and alerts cut back coaching time for drivers and assist drivers return to route after salt decide up or refuel
- Routing software program supplies essentially the most environment friendly technique to plow roads with a number of passes and create eventualities for various storm occasions
- Two-way messaging between plows and workplace improves communication; public going through portal supplies real-time updates to residents, decreasing 311 name administration time
- Digital camera feeds present actionable insights on highway circumstances again to Streets or Public Works groups; pictures help drivers in resident disputes
- Map visualizations assist drivers decide up the place others left off, enhancing shift adjustments and effectivity
Increasing to Snow Operations
The Metropolis of Kansas Metropolis has remained one in all SmartCity’s longest standing and most collaborative companions. Their program has been developed collectively with the SmartCity tech group and with invaluable suggestions and enhancements from different companion cities. So, it was solely pure for the Metropolis to be one of many first pilots for SmartCity’s newly launched snow removing product suite.
All through greater than 4 main snow occasions that occurred through the 2021-2022 snow season, each driver in every of the Metropolis’s 300 snow removing automobiles used a pill outfitted with the SmartCity snow removing software program. This invaluable software visualized their complete route, together with avenue prioritization, and enabled the Metropolis to be extra agile with driver coaching, shift adjustments, climate adjustments, and route updates.
“Having partnered with Rubicon for 3 years previous to the 2021-2022 snow season, we have been assured that we’d expertise related constructive outcomes, and we weren’t fallacious,” stated Michael Shaw. “Environment friendly snow removing positively impacts public security and retains our nice metropolis shifting within the winter months. We imagine that is an funding that may accomplish each of these objectives within the coming years.”
Rewarded with APWA Snow Award
The partnership was rewarded once more in 2023 when Kansas Metropolis received the distinguished APWA Excellence in Snow and Ice Management Award for his or her dedication to offering secure and environment friendly journey for the general public throughout winter months whereas minimizing environmental impacts. Director Shaw was interviewed on the climate channel throughout a snow occasion in 2022.
“Once they have challenges, [drivers] can really take images and inform us the place these challenges are on the market,” stated Michael Shaw in an interview with the Climate Channel. Whether or not it’s highway injury or slick spots, the Metropolis group is now empowered to “ship the correct groups to go and handle that.”
Constructing on this momentum, the Metropolis has continued to advance of their mission to enhance service for his or her residents. One SmartCity teammate described their success: “This prestigious award from the American Public Works Affiliation confirms what many already know: Kansas Metropolis’s public works operation is quick turning into a mannequin for cities throughout the nation.”
Conclusion
The SmartCity software program suite is now absolutely built-in into Routeware’s sturdy portfolio of municipal options; and Kansas Metropolis’s partnership with SmartCity continues to evolve and uncover new know-how alternatives to enhance fleet operations. The Metropolis’s dedication to innovation has introduced vital enhancements in effectivity and communication whereas furthering the core objectives of enhancing public providers for residents whereas streamlining operations for metropolis groups. This case research serves as a mannequin for municipalities searching for to modernize their snow removing operations and improve winter preparedness.
Find out how Routeware SmartCity will help your metropolis with snow operations. Please go to routeware.com to attach with our group right this moment.
NOTE: In September 2024, Routeware acquired the RUBICONSmartCity software program platform, previously a part of Rubicon and later Wastech. The mixing of the RUBICONSmartCity resolution into Routeware’s formidable suite of providers will present further help for municipal fleet operations throughout waste assortment, avenue sweeping, and snow operations.
Kansas Metropolis’s Winter Problem
The Metropolis of Kansas Metropolis, MO, is not any stranger to the chilly and its changeable winters proceed to maintain the town on excessive alert. In 2024, for the AFC playoff recreation between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, followers suffered frostbite in minus -4 levels °F climate, marking the fourth coldest NFL recreation in historical past. Extra not too long ago, 2025 broke a document low temperature that had stood since 1935. This frigid –7 °F day was preceded by 11 inches of snow on January fifth.
Nevertheless, Public Works Departments care little for data, as, regardless of the severity of the climate, their groups head out into the chilly to make sure that highway circumstances are as secure as attainable for his or her residents. As many cities wrestle to modernize their operations and depend on paper maps and radios, Kansas Metropolis leaders noticed a chance to innovate with know-how. They have been keen to seek out digital options to assist their groups work extra effectively and successfully with their present fleet whereas enhancing transparency and resident satisfaction.
Beginning with Strong Waste
Customer support and streamlining operations are objectives that permeate all the Kansas Metropolis Public Works division. “In Kansas Metropolis we’re continually striving to enhance public providers—and with them, high quality of life for our residents,” stated Michael Shaw, Director of Public Works for the Metropolis of Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
In 2019, the Metropolis entered right into a partnership with RUBICONSmartCity (since acquired by Routeware) to implement the software program suite within the Metropolis’s fleet of 80 sanitation automobiles to optimize stable waste providers with the aim of considerably enhancing the resident satisfaction. Along with driver-loved options like concern logging and turn-by-turn navigation, the Metropolis additionally utilized SmartCity’s back-office options to digitize their complete operation and optimize routes with built-in route sequencing instruments.
By April 2021, the partnership delivered over two million {dollars} in value financial savings whereas rising citizen satisfaction by 17 p.c. Along with this, the town was awarded the Good 50 Award by Good Cities Join for being one of the crucial transformative examples of progressive world sensible cities initiatives.
How Expertise Helps Snow Operations
After optimizing waste assortment, the Metropolis turned its consideration to snow operations. “In Kansas Metropolis we’re continually striving to enhance public providers—and with them, high quality of life for our residents,” stated Michael Shaw. “Environment friendly snow removing positively impacts public security and retains our nice metropolis shifting within the winter months.”
Nevertheless, clearing roads of snow and ice presents distinctive challenges to public works groups. Some concerns embody:
- Pressured flexibility: snow occasions could be extremely unpredictable, placing strain on groups to alter routes, work additional time, and handle an inflow of 311 calls
- Routing: not like different municipal fleets, plows have to move roads a number of instances earlier than they’re thought of “clear”
- Unseen obstacles: metallic plates, speedbumps and different hazards lurk under the snow, doubtlessly damaging the plow
- Storms: clearing roads of snow and ice is a essential service and important to emergency administration. Storms aren’t any excuse to not plow or to not make it into the workplace to handle operations
The Metropolis noticed a chance to implement digital options to handle these challenges and the SmartCity group was prepared to satisfy their wants with a spread of options:
- Digital techniques empower workplace employees and drivers to work extra effectively and with extra agility, even when operations have to be managed remotely
- Flip-by-turn instructions and alerts cut back coaching time for drivers and assist drivers return to route after salt decide up or refuel
- Routing software program supplies essentially the most environment friendly technique to plow roads with a number of passes and create eventualities for various storm occasions
- Two-way messaging between plows and workplace improves communication; public going through portal supplies real-time updates to residents, decreasing 311 name administration time
- Digital camera feeds present actionable insights on highway circumstances again to Streets or Public Works groups; pictures help drivers in resident disputes
- Map visualizations assist drivers decide up the place others left off, enhancing shift adjustments and effectivity
Increasing to Snow Operations
The Metropolis of Kansas Metropolis has remained one in all SmartCity’s longest standing and most collaborative companions. Their program has been developed collectively with the SmartCity tech group and with invaluable suggestions and enhancements from different companion cities. So, it was solely pure for the Metropolis to be one of many first pilots for SmartCity’s newly launched snow removing product suite.
All through greater than 4 main snow occasions that occurred through the 2021-2022 snow season, each driver in every of the Metropolis’s 300 snow removing automobiles used a pill outfitted with the SmartCity snow removing software program. This invaluable software visualized their complete route, together with avenue prioritization, and enabled the Metropolis to be extra agile with driver coaching, shift adjustments, climate adjustments, and route updates.
“Having partnered with Rubicon for 3 years previous to the 2021-2022 snow season, we have been assured that we’d expertise related constructive outcomes, and we weren’t fallacious,” stated Michael Shaw. “Environment friendly snow removing positively impacts public security and retains our nice metropolis shifting within the winter months. We imagine that is an funding that may accomplish each of these objectives within the coming years.”
Rewarded with APWA Snow Award
The partnership was rewarded once more in 2023 when Kansas Metropolis received the distinguished APWA Excellence in Snow and Ice Management Award for his or her dedication to offering secure and environment friendly journey for the general public throughout winter months whereas minimizing environmental impacts. Director Shaw was interviewed on the climate channel throughout a snow occasion in 2022.
“Once they have challenges, [drivers] can really take images and inform us the place these challenges are on the market,” stated Michael Shaw in an interview with the Climate Channel. Whether or not it’s highway injury or slick spots, the Metropolis group is now empowered to “ship the correct groups to go and handle that.”
Constructing on this momentum, the Metropolis has continued to advance of their mission to enhance service for his or her residents. One SmartCity teammate described their success: “This prestigious award from the American Public Works Affiliation confirms what many already know: Kansas Metropolis’s public works operation is quick turning into a mannequin for cities throughout the nation.”
Conclusion
The SmartCity software program suite is now absolutely built-in into Routeware’s sturdy portfolio of municipal options; and Kansas Metropolis’s partnership with SmartCity continues to evolve and uncover new know-how alternatives to enhance fleet operations. The Metropolis’s dedication to innovation has introduced vital enhancements in effectivity and communication whereas furthering the core objectives of enhancing public providers for residents whereas streamlining operations for metropolis groups. This case research serves as a mannequin for municipalities searching for to modernize their snow removing operations and improve winter preparedness.
Find out how Routeware SmartCity will help your metropolis with snow operations. Please go to routeware.com to attach with our group right this moment.
NOTE: In September 2024, Routeware acquired the RUBICONSmartCity software program platform, previously a part of Rubicon and later Wastech. The mixing of the RUBICONSmartCity resolution into Routeware’s formidable suite of providers will present further help for municipal fleet operations throughout waste assortment, avenue sweeping, and snow operations.
