| August 30, 2012 For the second time a consulting firm has recommended eliminating the bid from Waste Connections Inc. for the disposal of Greensboro's garbage and accepting the bid from Republic Services, the company that is currently disposing of Greensboro's garbage at its landfill in Montgomery County.
This analysis goes into much greater detail about why the bid from Waste Connections with A-1 Sandrock as its hauler should not be considered. According to the city's consultant, Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), there were a number of questions raised about Waste Connections ability to fulfill the terms of the contract and the ability of A-1 Sandrock to meet the schedule it proposed.
One of the problems with Waste Connections noted in the report is that it is not currently licensed to operate its Anson County landfill on Saturdays, and the request for proposals (RFP) from the city lists Saturday operation as required. The GBB report states, "The current permit does not allow the landfill to open all of the hours required by the City in the RFP."
The report notes that Waste Connections has applied for Saturday hours but has not received approval from the state. GBB expressed doubt that the approval could be counted on by Oct. 1, the date the new contract is supposed to go into effect.
Waste Connections also only has one tipper at the Anson County landfill and that tipper could handle all of the waste from Greensboro on Monday (usually the biggest day of the week), but no other waste. The report states that Waste Connections offered to reroute garbage from other sources to another landfill until it could acquire a second tipper.
But the real sticking point for the Waste Connections and A-1 Sandrock bid seemed to be the estimated hauling distance and the time each run to Anson County would take.
GBB said that Sandrock reported the route at 176 miles, but GBB measured the same route at 200 miles. What's more, the GBB report states: "Sandrock also stated they expected the travel time to go 88 miles one way was 78 minutes, which is an average speed of 67.7 miles per hour. GBB believes this is not only unrealistic but unsafe to maintain this speed along the route described by Sandrock."
The report states that Sandrock estimated the travel time for a round trip at three hours and Hilco Transport estimated the round-trip time at 5.3 hours. It was noted that Hilco currently makes that trip with certain non-hazardous waste.
The GBB report states, "Sandrock did not demonstrate a convincing approach to achieving the expected 3 round-trips per day to the Anson Landfill. Sandrock has not demonstrated a convincing ability to have personnel and equipment available for an October 1, 2012 start date. GBB therefore recommends eliminating WCI [Waste Connections Inc.] from further consideration."
Republic and Hilco are currently handling the city's solid waste so there is no doubt that the two companies have the ability to do so.
It also appears that barring some unforeseen information being dumped on the council before the Sept. 10 meeting, the city will sign a contract with Republic, which will subcontract the hauling to Hilco.
The good news is that the city has saved over $1 million a year by putting out a request for proposals.
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