Many recycling companies today understand the importance of software to optimize their business.
In recent years, software has evolved to offer even greater operational benefits to scrap metal recyclers.
There are numerous benefits of recycling software, and most fit into three primary categories: profitability, regulatory and anti-theft compliance, and inventory management.
Profitability:
Managing pricing and contracts and optimizing fleets of trucks and their routes are just a few of the areas in which software can help make decisions that impact the bottom line. Software can manage materials, cash, shipping, sales and inventory. Over the past several years, software has enhanced recycling business owners’ ability to make choices and set up systems to enhance profits and facilitate business growth. If you have better data giving you insight into your business, you can make better decisions. The following are some of the key ways software can help increase profits by increasing efficiency.
At the most basic level, working with software programs eliminates the pieces of paper and spreadsheets that are far less efficient and time consuming. But that is just the start of the benefits to be realized from using software to manage these aspects of your business.
With software keeping track of purchases, recyclers can have quick access to an assortment of pricing methods. Software can also help handle quotes and contracts. Software packages can provide businesses with a simple, efficient way to produce, track and process each quote and contract. With the software’s insight, recyclers can improve productivity and adapt purchase and sales decisions according to changing market conditions to boost profitability.
ScrapWare, a popular software package for the scrap metal recycling industry, can rapidly create quotes and then track those that have been issued back to vendors as well as quotes received from consumers. Then, when businesses are ready to make a deal, they can save valuable time by easily converting quotes into contracts. This helps increase profitability because businesses can quickly determine which consumers offer the best prices for a given commodity, view the open and closed quotes and contracts with vendors or consumers, and then decide what material to ship first.
With the advent of GPS technology and route optimization software, incredible efficiencies are available to recycling businesses as they can save money by making sound decisions about their fleet use. Fleet dispatching software optimizes precision scheduling for container movements and vendor servicing. Using this software, recyclers can get an overview of total composite costs and simultaneously dispatch at multiple locations while reporting to one central location.
Container and trailer tracking software also can improve efficiencies by reducing manual, redundant tasks while gaining visibility over rollingstock. It can be used to track the asset type, purchase date and see updates on container location and determine container and vendor turnover. Recyclers can download container locations to mapping software to provide a detailed street map of container locations and help dispatch staff optimize scheduling for fleets.
Regulatory and anti-theft compliance:
As the popularity of recycling programs has increased, so has the regulatory burden on recycling businesses, with much of it cracking down on material theft. Police are seeking to partner with yards to help them track down the material and prosecute lawbreakers. Here are some of the features that good recycling software packages should have to help recycling businesses stay in compliance.
- License scanning – License scanners allow recycling businesses to scan vendors’ drivers’ licenses and immediately and permanently associate those with a purchase ticket. These can be kept on file and accessed if there are law enforcement inquiries.
- Signature and thumbprint capture pads – These can be used to link a thumbprint or a signature to a purchase ticket. The data can be reproduced for any ticket requested by police.
- Network digital camera interface – Cameras can be linked with a scale interface to take photographs of incoming material. These photos can be printed, saved, emailed or uploaded to compliance websites, like Leads Online.
- Tag and Hold – As theft of valuable material has become more common, several states and localities have passed “tag and hold laws” to track down stolen material, return it and catch the thieves. Many software recycling systems include a mechanism to print tickets that comply with these laws and avoid a shut down.
- Payment method – The use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and other cash dispensers allow recyclers to choose payment methods that are most appropriate for complying with state and local laws. A good recycling software package will integrate with ATMs and cash dispensers. This eliminates the need for cashiers to handle cash, reducing the likelihood of internal theft.
- Anti-theft reporting – Most recycling software generates a variety of reports to help comply with state and local anti-theft laws. These reports can be uploaded to law enforcement or kept on file to retrieve when they are requested by police at a later date.
- Date files – Leads Online, BWI, Texas DPS. These are just some of the places recyclers upload data files to comply with local laws, usually, again, targeted at anti-theft measures. A good recycling software system will allow recyclers to upload files to these organizations and others from different states and of different formats.
Cashless payment systems:
A key advance in software for recyclers is the availability of cashless payment systems. This feature allows a scrap metal recycling company to pay vendors using a prepaid card instead of by check of cash. This offers two benefits for recycling companies. First, it increases profitability because it eliminates the time and expense spent obtaining and securing large amounts of cash.
Secondly, because it eliminates or greatly reduces the amount of cash sitting at your scrap yard, it is another component of your anti-theft efforts. Reducing the amount of cash on hand reduces your exposure to both internal and external theft. It also protects a recycling company from check fraud.
ScrapWare has collaborated with Paysign, a leader in cashless payment systems, to make this feature available to ScrapWare customers. ScrapWare’s Paysign® integration makes it easy to replace or supplement your current cash and check-based systems. This innovative solution delivers a contemporary digital alternative that minimizes risk, reduces administrative costs, and enhances overall operational efficiency. ScrapWare’s Paysign interface allows its customers to pay vendors using reloadable Mastercard® prepaid cards instead of cash or check.
Inventory management:
Recycling is an inventory-based business. Recyclers need to have a firm grasp of what they have in stock, at what yards and at what costs. Software can put this information at a recycling business’s fingertips, giving them visibility over all inventory in real time.
Scrapware’s inventory management system allows you to set up, maintain and manage your inventory in three ways. The first way is to “Regrade” it, which allows you to regrade a purchased raw material to a finished good and/or one or more commodities. Secondly, they can “transfer” inventory, which lets them move material between yards or from one division to another within the same yard, without cost information. Finally, the inventory can be moved to “finished goods.” This classification enables them to place processed, packaged finished goods, such as bales and boxes, into inventory. The Finished Goods system can be interfaced with the Sales module to remove finished goods from inventory after shipment.
Consumer demand and government regulations will continue fuel growth and change for scrap metal recyclers. The recycling industry will continue to see massive leaps in innovation to meet this demand. The operational benefits of recycling software will continue to play a key role in this evolution.
This card is issued by Patriot Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard, and is serviced by Paysign, Inc.
About ScrapWare Corporation: Since 1989, Rockville, Maryland-based ScrapWare Corporation has been the software of choice for the recycling industry. Its ease of installation and simplicity saves users time and money while helping them achieve compliance and maintain accurate business insights. With state-of-the-art functionality tailored to each organization’s unique requirements, ScrapWare is an advanced dynamic software solution that alleviates the most pressing recycling industry worries. For more information, please call (301) 517-8500 or visit https://www.scrapware.com/.