Q&A
DSNY's improved performance in missed collection rates and complaint handling
1:12:45
·
6 min
Council Member Abreu questions the discrepancy between DSNY's reported 0.0% missed collection rate and the complaints received by council members. Deputy Commissioner Goodman explains the department's significant improvements in this area and the methods used to achieve this success.
- DSNY reports a 0.0% missed collection rate in FY23 and FY24, a significant improvement from previous years
- The department implemented 'Trash Dash', a weekly data report system similar to NYPD's CompStat, to track and address missed collections
- Public education efforts have helped clarify collection rules, reducing misunderstandings that led to perceived missed collections
- DSNY encourages specific, timely reporting of missed collections through 311 for prompt attention
Shaun Abreu
1:12:45
Okay.
1:12:46
Commissioner, this one is interesting to me.
1:12:48
DSNY reports that it missed 0.0 percent of collections in FY 2324.
1:12:53
Yeah.
1:12:53
Council members in 301 regularly receive complaints about missed collections.
1:12:57
How can the agency reconcile?
Joshua Goodman
1:12:59
The the missed collection number is one of the great accomplishments of the last few years.
1:13:06
I have the can I just, like, be really honest about the missed collection thing for a second?
1:13:10
I hate to admit that I was one cynical about this and believe that, like, the one point you know, because I think of myself as a very, like like, I believe the government can solve all of our problems, the kind of person.
1:13:21
But I felt like the 1.4% miscollection rate was, like, amazing.
1:13:24
And then it turned out we could go so much lower, and I was shocked by this.
1:13:29
And we are at the point now where missed collections rounded down in the MMR to 0.0.
1:13:35
Of course, there are some.
1:13:36
Although the absolute number is actually still it was it was a 0.0 last year, and it's a 0.0 this year.
1:13:45
And we did that through a few things.
1:13:50
Let me first talk about a big operational change we made at the agency, which you are familiar with, which is trash dash.
1:13:56
Trash dash is the Department of Sanitations version of ComStat.
1:14:00
It is a weekly data report that goes to everyone in the department on the uniform side with the rank of supervisor or above, so a substantial number of people, and it drills down on a tremendous amount of metrics, many of which are customer facing, in particular, missed collections.
1:14:24
It shows missed collections by number, by and then you can go you can look at it online and look at more you know, on our Internet and look at it in more detail.
1:14:32
Where they are in your district, where they were on which route, how many are repeats have reported before, what sanitation worker was working the truck that day, exactly what you can see, the mapped out, you know, all this stuff.
1:14:43
And so the supervisors and then the superintendents who run a district, have really put a tremendous focus on stopping this at the commissioner's direction.
1:14:54
It is astounding the change we've been able to make on it.
1:14:59
And then I'll just say one other thing about it that we've done is we we did a lot of public education to clarify certain things that would previously or likely would previously have reduced a miscollection complaint.
1:15:11
So for example, many people didn't realize that bulk items like a a couch go out on the night that you're just putting out trash, not the night you're putting out your recycling.
1:15:25
And so we did as citywide mailing about that to just let people know.
1:15:29
Like, we we will get it if you just put it on the right night.
1:15:32
The reason for that is because on the recycling night, we might be running a dual bin truck, and there's no space for a bulk item.
1:15:38
It's not, like, just for being difficult.
1:15:39
Like, there's
UNKNOWN
1:15:39
It used
Shaun Abreu
1:15:39
to be carried by 2 individuals.
1:15:41
That's the pulse.
1:15:41
See.
1:15:42
Right?
Joshua Goodman
1:15:42
Yeah.
1:15:42
Yes.
1:15:43
And but it needs to go in the in the rear loader, but that's that's one chamber in order to fit.
1:15:47
So letting people know about that.
1:15:48
We also empower the supervisors with a sticky pad.
1:15:53
They have a new sticky pad new in the last year.
1:15:55
That lets them explain to the resident with checkboxes.
1:15:59
Why their item might not have been picked up?
1:16:00
Hey, you put out a mattress, but we couldn't take it because it wasn't wrapped in plastic.
1:16:03
It's not safe.
1:16:04
You know?
1:16:04
Or you put out a bulk item and it's not your bulk day or, you know, your So there's a 5 or 6 reasons listed on there.
1:16:12
And that's helped that 2 way communication, letting residents know.
1:16:16
So then to the last part of your question, you hear about miscollections.
1:16:20
I have kinda 22 opinions on this.
1:16:25
Because I hear them to you know, I monitor the department social.
1:16:28
I monitor community events where people say, one of the things that I often hear is that old cynical, they never pick it up anyway.
1:16:36
And I think the some of what council members here sometimes is not actually a specific missed collection complaint.
1:16:42
It's someone who lived in the city at a has lived in the city since a time when the department was not as focused on customer service as it is today.
1:16:50
And they have that old mindset.
1:16:52
And I often people say to me, well, they don't pick up my trash anyway, and I go, really, on what day was your trash not picked up?
1:16:57
And all of a sudden, it's like, woah.
1:16:59
Well, I guess recently, it's been pretty good.
UNKNOWN
1:17:01
Yeah.
Joshua Goodman
1:17:02
So I always ask people for specifics.
1:17:03
And then if they do have specifics, please, 311.
1:17:06
As I said at the beginning of this answer, it goes right into a report that the commissioner on down looks at every week.
1:17:12
So if you report it to 311, believe me, you're gonna get special attention.
Shaun Abreu
1:17:15
Let me ask you a question.
1:17:16
So if if if an individual says they they didn't get a missed collection and that becomes a 301 complaint, they can't file the missed collection on the same day.
1:17:25
Right?
1:17:26
You see within 24 hours?
Joshua Goodman
1:17:27
That that's right because they don't know which shift of the day their trash will be collected on.
1:17:31
It there's general consistency.
Shaun Abreu
1:17:32
So within 24 hours, or can they file the complaint at a minimum of 24 hours?
1:17:37
Is that the policy?
Joshua Goodman
1:17:38
Or That's correct.
1:17:38
It's
Shaun Abreu
1:17:39
and so if then sanitation has the opportunity to correct for a a missed collection, and let's say, someone calls you, there's no miscollection.
1:17:49
They do it after the 24 hour period.
1:17:51
DSNY then comes to cure what the complaint was.
Joshua Goodman
1:17:55
Right.
Shaun Abreu
1:17:56
The way that that's calculated, that's not a miscollection because you guys were able to cure it.
Joshua Goodman
1:17:59
There's been no change on that.
1:18:01
Side of it as
UNKNOWN
1:18:02
far as So that
Shaun Abreu
1:18:02
probably explains the 0%.
Joshua Goodman
1:18:03
Well, except that it was always like that even when it was too big.
1:18:06
I just wanna make
Shaun Abreu
1:18:06
sure that that's that the public knows that so there there there's that's probably the reconciliation here is that there are miscollections, but whenever someone submits a complaint after the 24 hour period, and the SNY cures it.
1:18:19
They're not adding that cure as part of a miscollection.
Joshua Goodman
1:18:22
Oh, no.
1:18:22
I don't believe that's I don't well, let me say I don't believe that's correct.
1:18:25
I think that if it was reported as a miscollection, it still goes into that number.
1:18:30
What the MMR is reporting is reported miscollections.
1:18:33
That said, it's a good sort of reminder that this is not necessarily the right group to discuss that issue.
1:18:39
And then this was the the waste aversion hearing.
1:18:41
Happy to talk about it when we can make sure we have the right folks here because I do wanna I'm doing
Shaun Abreu
1:18:45
I would like to know if the missed collection is calculated when someone makes the call or this is also taken into account the opportunity to cure.
Joshua Goodman
1:18:55
I believe it's a report of what was reported, but we will Okay.
1:18:58
Confirm for you.
1:18:59
Thank you.
