Frequently asked questions

A fill-level sensor is a small, battery-powered device fitted inside the lid or the top of a waste container. It measures the distance from itself down to the surface of the waste, converts that into a percentage of the container's capacity, and transmits the reading over a mobile network several times a day. Better units use radar rather than ultrasound, and also report temperature, GPS position, tilt and battery state. The whole unit is sealed and shock-resistant, and its components can be dismantled for recycling at end of life.

Britannia IoT Solutions sells the service as an annual per-container subscription covering the sensor, the SIM and connectivity, the software platform, the driver app, support and replacement hardware — rather than a large capital purchase followed by licence fees. Pricing depends on the number of containers, reporting frequency and contract length, and we will give you a firm figure at the discovery stage. For context on whether it is worth it: Stralsund reported that its pilot paid for itself in under a year, on 35 bins, purely through avoided collections and mileage.

It depends on how over-serviced your current rounds are, and honest suppliers cannot tell you before measuring. Published results from live deployments of this platform give a realistic range. Stralsund cut weekly collections from 1,548 to 445 — 71% — and weekly mileage from 1,677 km to 779 km, a 54% reduction, with working hours down 30%. Fanø achieved a 20% reduction in emptyings within two months against a 25% target. Vejle moved from twice-weekly to fortnightly collection on average and reduced crewing from 2.0 to 1.5 full-time staff. Savings are largest where bins are currently emptied to a fixed timetable regardless of use, and where rounds involve long drives between stops.

Accurate enough that operations staff act on the readings without physically checking. Radar performs markedly better than ultrasound on the materials that actually fill recycling containers — flattened cardboard, paper and film plastic scatter and absorb ultrasound, producing false readings. Vejle Municipality switched to radar after an earlier non-radar trial produced error reports on up to 30% of readings, and now reports very few. Accuracy also improves over the first weeks: a learning algorithm builds a profile of each individual container. Mounting position matters, and getting it right is part of installation — Fanø's early inaccuracies were resolved by repositioning the sensor.

No. Sensors use NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things), a low-power standard that runs over existing UK mobile networks, so there is no infrastructure for you to install or maintain. NB-IoT is designed for exactly this job: it penetrates below ground level and inside metal enclosures where ordinary mobile signal fails, uses very little power, and carries tiny packets reliably. Langeland's network works across a hilly rural island where earlier connectivity had struggled. Each sensor carries its own SIM, included in the subscription.

Around eight years at six readings a day. Higher reporting frequencies shorten that proportionally; the hardware supports up to 60 readings a day where demand justifies it. Battery state is monitored centrally, so units are flagged before they go dark. Field reliability has been good — Langeland reported no battery replacements in a year across 220 sensors. Replacement is included in the subscription and takes about ten minutes.

It reduces the hours spent driving to bins that did not need emptying, and what you do with those hours is your decision. In practice the deployments we can point to redeployed rather than cut: Stralsund reduced working hours by 30% and moved staff to other urgent tasks; Vejle went from 2.0 to 1.5 full-time staff on bin emptying and used the freed capacity for litter collection along roads and at bridges. It is worth being straight with crews about this early, because they will work it out on day one, and a driver who thinks the system threatens their job will find reasons it does not work.

The day's round on a tablet or phone: which containers are on it, where they are, how full each one is, and navigation between stops. Drivers confirm each lift as they complete it and can report damage, contamination or access problems on the spot. On several deployments drivers plan their own sequence from the flagged list rather than following a fixed order, which they generally prefer. Langeland's operations manager delegated round planning to the driver entirely once the data was trusted.

Yes, through either route. Contractors and in-house teams can work directly in the driver app, which also produces clean lift records for invoicing — Fanø connected its contractor this way specifically so that emptying orders and invoicing data flowed through one system. Where you already run an in-cab or route optimisation platform, fill-level data can be delivered to it through the API so crews keep the interface they know. We work out which makes sense during discovery.

You own your data. It is hosted in the United Kingdom, exportable in full at any time, and available through an open API for your own reporting or BI tools. Fill-level readings are measurements of council assets rather than personal data, so the data protection position is usually straightforward, but we will support your DPIA and can provide the processing detail your information governance team needs. If you end the contract, you take your history with you.

Most authorities start with a pilot small enough to sit under their own delegated spend threshold, which gets real evidence in hand before any substantial procurement. That evidence — measured against your own baseline — is then what supports the business case for a wider award. We are happy to work through your route with you, whether that is a direct award under threshold, a framework call-off or a full tender, and to supply the technical detail your procurement team needs for specification and evaluation. Vejle followed exactly this path: a funded pilot on a trial route, then a council decision to roll out.

Then you have spent a small sum to avoid a large mistake, and you will have the numbers to close the question properly rather than revisiting it every budget round. We would rather tell you that than sell a rollout that underdelivers. Sensor-led collection is not universally worthwhile — a dense urban round where every bin genuinely fills every day has little slack to recover, and we will say so.

Yes, and it is one of the more valuable second-order effects. Bin estates grow by accretion: a bin gets added after a complaint and is never reviewed. With months of fill history you can see which locations overlap and which are genuinely used, and remove the redundant ones on evidence rather than guesswork. Vejle began doing exactly this once it had precise location and fill history, without reducing the service residents actually experience. Every bin removed takes a lift, a sensor and a maintenance liability out of the estate permanently.

Yes. Semi-buried containers are one of the strongest cases for them, because their fill level cannot be assessed from the street at all. Fanø runs 82 semi-buried containers of up to three cubic metres on sensors. NB-IoT was chosen partly because it holds a signal below ground level and inside metal enclosures where standard mobile connectivity does not.

The sensor sits inside the container, in a small shock-resistant enclosure with no external cabling and little resale value, so it is a poor target. Units that stop reporting are flagged automatically, which surfaces damage or theft quickly rather than at the next inspection. Sensors that report temperature also provide early warning of a fire in the container — useful in town-centre and transport locations where a bin fire can escalate.

Yes, and several authorities rate it as highly as the cost saving. Every reading and every confirmed lift is timestamped, so when a resident or councillor says a container has not been emptied for a fortnight you can check rather than guess. Fanø specifically notes being able to document whether containers were emptied. Vejle's department head values being able to respond quickly to elected members fielding questions from residents — and to show that unnecessary journeys are not being made.