Lateral Innovations flies to Prince George (BC) to install its technology

Lateral Innovations is having a strong start to the Summer 2019! Last May 27th, its team traveled to Prince George (BC) to implement its RFID technology and InnovaSuite^TM software. From retro-installation of the RFID chips on the bins to exhaustive user training, here are the highlights of this 6-week implementation.

More on the City of Prince George

Known as the “Nordic Capital” of British Columbia, Prince George has a population of about 79,000 inhabitants. The city is located at the junction of the Fraser and Nechako rivers. Forestry is one of the municipality’s biggest industries and brings hundreds of tree planters from Canada and elsewhere every year. The mining industry (oil) is also under development and could potentially lead the local economy over the next few decades.

Prince George & waste management

Over the last few years, waste materials have been collected in wheelie bins in Prince George. However, the City did not install RFID chips on its bins at first. Three years ago, Prince George City Council started doing research about intelligent technologies for waste materials management. The municipality has conducted a feasibility study on the project of installing RFID chips on its bins. In spring 2018, Prince George issued a call for tenders to find the perfect technology for its waste materials collection needs.

Without hesitation, Lateral Innovation responded to the call for tender and won the mandate last spring. “Our turnkey solution and our technology perfectly addresses the needs of the City of Prince George”, says Christian Lapointe, CEO of Lateral Innovations. “ We took the call for tenders really seriously and we earned the trust of the City”.

10 installation technicians deployed

The first step of the mandate generally consists in the installation of the RFID equipment on the client’s resources. In total, 23,000 wheelie bins and 6 collection trucks have been equipped with RFID chips and scans, in Prince George. Two teams for 5 technicians were deployed to cover the City’s area of 320 km². It took about 160 working hours over a total of 4 weeks to complete the initial step of installing the technology.

Prince George’s new management tool : InnovaSuite

Following the retro-installation on the wheelie bins, Lateral Innovations’ Customers Support Lead traveled to Prince George to install the InnovaSuite^TM software - InnovaTrac^TM, InnvovaDel^TM & InnovaMap^TM – in the City’s administrative offices. Before returning to Quebec City, he also provided exhaustive training to all future users of the technology, including truck drivers and the City’s office employees.

Mission accomplished

In only six weeks, Lateral Innovations’ solution for the optimization of waste materials management was successfully implemented in Prince George, largest city of northern British Columbia. The Quebec company worked hand in hand with the City at every step of the process, from retro-installation of the RFID chips to the training of its staff.

The municipality now has the ability to track its 23,000 wheelie bins in real time, to record stolen/lost units and to efficiently identify contaminants. Finally, the City of Prince George can address its residents’ inquiries about the disposal of their waste materials in a more effective way and on a one-on-one basis. “ By implementing our RFID solution, the City of Prince George becomes one of the first municipalities in British Columbia to integrate intelligent waste management technologies”, adds Mr. Lapointe. “ The City will definitely stand as an example for others and we are proud to say that we contributed to the project”.