ERP Software a Necessity in the UCO Collection Business

by Kristof Reiter (Biobased Diesel Daily) ... ERP software has transformed nearly every industry—it’s even the entire basis of some new industries like rideshare companies—but used cooking oil (UCO) collectors have long been left out of the revolution, forcing them to adapt various programs like Excel and Google Maps that aren’t designed for their business to suit their needs. Luckily, that’s no longer the case. Now, ERP software specific to UCO collectors does exist, and companies using it are gaining a massive advantage over their competitors.

To truly help a UCO company increase efficiency and profits, route-planning software would have to do more than plot the shortest route between all the points listed. It would have to make predictions about where to get the most oil as well as how long a location can go without requiring service. Routes would change daily, weekly or even seasonally, based on which clients have full tanks and which can wait a little longer so a driver would pick up not just the most oil, but also the oil most in need of being picked up.

Optimization of delivery routes doesn’t end with giving the driver a manifest and a GPS system. Management can track every driver, every route and every pickup as they happen. As emergencies arise, an operations manager can dynamically alter a driver’s route, reoptimizing the remaining route around the change.

But it’s not just about better routing—it’s also about scalability. Hiring and onboarding drivers is an issue for all UCO collectors. Electronic turn-by-turn routing, standardized and digital data acquisition, and compartmentalization of sensitive data allow managers to onboard new drivers quickly and effectively, saving both time, money and stress.

But for a producer’s fuel to be eligible for a tax credit or subsidy, the company must produce “cradle to grave” tracking to document the sources of all components used to create the biofuel. These requirements first appeared as Low Carbon Fuel Standard rules written by the California Air Resources Board with the intent of reducing carbon intensity in transportation fuels coming into California. Much of the nation’s biodiesel and renewable diesel is shipped to, sold and distributed in California, making these rules applicable to vendors all over the country. And other states are starting to enact similar requirements of their own.

If UCO collectors hope to get the highest price for their refined UCO, they must maintain auditable records of their UCO collections. This means documenting the date, time, address, business name and amount collected for every pickup made. Doing this with an Excel spreadsheet, while on the road, is next to impossible. Not doing it at all leaves a collector open to failed audits, punitive fines and exclusion from the market by major buyers.

Predicting the amount of oil in each tank, combined with algorithms to minimize miles driven while maximizing oil collected, dramatically increases the overall capacity of a UCO firm. READ MORE