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Priority Waste reports fleet upgrades and call‑center fixes after summer service issues in Utica
Summary
Priority Waste briefed the Utica City Council on fleet purchases, staffing challenges, and changes to its call‑handling and online reporting systems; the company said vehicle deliveries and operational changes have reduced missed collections and shortened recovery times.
Dan Binet, vice president of municipal sales for Priority Waste, updated the Utica City Council on recent operational changes following service disruptions earlier in the year.
Binet said the company purchased 100 vehicles in August 2024; 68 were already in service and the remaining 32 were expected to arrive before year‑end. He said an additional vehicle order is planned for 2026. Priority Waste’s local operations are dispatched from the Sterling Heights yard; Binet said a combination of vehicle maintenance issues, staffing shortages, and severe weather contributed to service interruptions in the spring and early summer but that the company’s maintenance team had worked “countless hours and weekends” to restore normal service.
Why it matters: Reliable refuse, recycling and yard‑waste collection is a high‑frequency municipal service. When collections are missed, residents typically contact the city and the perceived responsiveness of contractor recovery actions affects public trust and calls to local officials.
Binet described several operational changes implemented after a heavy call volume during the transition from the prior contractor: Priority Waste transitioned to a new phone system after a surge of 5,000–7,000 calls during the first days of the contract overwhelmed the old system. He said average hold times have since fallen to around seven minutes and that the company is working toward an average under five minutes. Priority Waste also piloted a direct web portal for resident recovery requests; in a test community, the company said the portal cut average recovery time from 22 hours to 13 hours.
Mayor Mary Calandrino and other council members complimented Priority Waste staff for responsiveness; the mayor read an email from resident Donna Bernardo praising the company’s local service and urging the council not to conflate issues in other jurisdictions with Utica’s experience.
Binet said the Sterling Heights yard now has a logistics coordinator, Drew Di Giovanni, who monitors routes and helps communicate delays to the mayor’s office and the city clerk. He also said the company expects improved performance during the upcoming compost season as more vehicles enter service.
Ending: Councilmembers thanked Priority Waste for the update and for continuing to provide contact information for rapid recovery requests; no council action was taken during the update.
