During the Aug. 5 City Council work session, Jim Keezell, environmental services assistant director and Steve Keller, public sector manager for Waste Management, spoke about issues that have arisen and been addressed.
The details
As of July 1, there are approximately 263,700 residential accounts serviced by Waste Management in Fort Worth and that is up by more than 300 customers compared to June, according to city documents.
The trash company typically schedules 126 routes daily and more than 2,500 in a month across the four lines of service: garbage, recycling, yard waste, and bulk waste.
Waste Management took over the route services from Knight Waste Services and began operations Dec. 9, 2024, across the city. The contract runs through March 31, 2033, according to city documents.
During the presentation to the council, the number of incomplete routes and the number of missed collections reported to Fort Worth 311 have been up and down since December 2024.
The monthly average is currently 4,741 missed collections, but 97% of scheduled routes are completed on time, according to data. Keezell said Waste Management collects roughly 54,000 homes a day and the average missed collection was between 1,300 and 1,400.
“We're working with them diligently to improve service,” Keezell said.
Incomplete routes ranged from eight in April to as many as 35 in December 2024. Missed trash pickup peaked at 2,013 in the month of March, while missed recycling pickup's high mark was 1,157 in December.
“I really want to say thank you to Waste Management as well, Mr. Keller, for being responsible to those residents who may have missed that 24-hour mark,” said District 4 council member Charlie Lauersdorf. “It'd be easy to say, 'Nope, sorry, that was our policy,” but still taking care of those customers.”
The setup
Keller said about 80% of Knight Waste Service transferred over and said there is still a shortage of drivers.
“We could not have made the transition without those folks,” Keller said. “Our drivers are the most important aspect of what we do there. We do everything possible to keep them. Believe me, with the number of CDL jobs that are available, if they weren’t happy with us, they could walk out the door and have a job immediately somewhere else. We have a very high retention rate on our drivers and I know it’s north of 90% who choose to stay.”
Keller cited equipment issues that have led to missed pickup or incomplete routes. He said that Waste Management acquired 30 vehicles from Knight Waste Service and has been working to repair them and bring them to company standards.
