City working with Republic to resolve trash issues

A quick glance at social media or at the city of Vestavia Hills’ “Action Center” reveals some issues in recent months with trash pickup on the part of Republic Services, with whom the city contracts to perform the work.

“There has been a challenge in consistency of service,” City Manager Jeff Downes said.

Downes said the city is regularly meeting with Republic to make sure services are being provided at the standard of excellence the city expects. The city’s contract with Republic does include fines and penalties for failing to provide consistent service, Downes said.

Republic has “at least four touches a week” with each household in the city, Downes said, which makes them “ripe for criticism,” with complaints ranging from trash not being picked up, mailboxes being damaged and trash cans being dinged up.

Republic has been challenged with an inexperienced workforce, Downes said, but he is confident they will improve moving forward. At both council meetings and in a conversation with the Voice, Republic said there have indeed been issues with changing personnel, driver shortages and new personnel having to learn routes.

Gary Stignani, manager of municipal services at Republic, said drivers who have just started with Republic don’t know the routes as well as others, and there has been some turnover, but not much, within the organization. The bigger issue, he said, is drivers being shifted to different routes and learning a new system, as it takes several months to train drivers and get them ready to serve their given part of the city.

Stignani said even when positions are full, the number of drivers having to learn new routes due to turnover and changes in route assignment means a lot of training for a service that’s finding it difficult to employ drivers in the first place.

With a low unemployment rate and good economy, Stignani said it’s difficult to find people who want to work for Republic, and that in the last few years, they have seen a decrease in the number of qualified applicants.

While many Republic trucks run their route each week without complaint, when residents do have issues, Downes said they should go to the Action Center, which can be found at vhal.org/action-center.

Using the action center allows the city to document instances of mistakes, and to get them corrected more quickly, Downes said. Stignani said Republic makes an effort to respond within 24 hours to any request. Even when a truck recently ran into a home, lifting it off the foundation, Downes said no one was injured, the city made sure Republic contacted the property owner and he’s confident the claim will be resolved.

“Human beings make mistakes,” Downes said. “We are confident they are going to improve.”

The city’s contract with Republic is set to expire in October 2020, Downes said, and conversations about that contract and what the future might hold are ongoing.

While examining which business will enter into the contract with the city, the city prioritizes those companies with good experience, good capacity and cost advantages.