Cheyenne to move residential trash pickup to four 10-hour days after route-optimization study

Cheyenne City Council received a presentation Jan. 17, 2025, on a route-optimization project that will move the city's residential trash collection from five 8-hour days to four 10-hour days, with the change set to take effect Feb. 1 for residential customers, Public Works staff said.

"The big challenge ... was moving from 5 days a week service to 4 days a week service," said Gus Esposito, project lead for Univeris Software, the consultant that ran the optimization. The firm tested the city’s current routes against redesigned routes and presented mileage, time and load statistics to the council.

The study compared the city’s baseline routing to optimized runs and found the residential routing mileage dropped from a baseline of 1,627 miles to 1,049 miles — a reduction of 578 miles — while the number of routes was reduced from 30 to 24. Stops on routes rose in the optimized plan from 778 to 976, and average route time increased from about 7 hours to about 8 hours and 49 minutes under the four-day plan.

Why it matters: Public Works staff said the redesign is intended to maintain service to a growing community without adding trucks or drivers. "Our primary goal was to optimize the service ... so that we could continue to provide the…