NorthEscambia.com Investigative Series Part Seven: Allied Waste Responds

March 20, 2008


Today, NorthEscambia.com completes our seven part investigative series looking at Allied Waste and their service to the citizens of the North Escambia area. Our Emerald Coast Utilities Authority Board member, Larry Walker, has pushed the board for months to pull Allied’s franchise agreement that is currently set to expire in 2010. Walker has stated repeatedly that he wants ECUA to take over the 11,000 Allied customers in North Escambia. So far, ECUA has rejected the takeover, but they have ordered 11,000 automated collection waste cans and seven new garbage trucks.

Today, we hear from Allied and their responses to Walker’s plans and our NorthEscambia.com series. NorthEscambia.com called Andy Liess, Allied Waste’s Pensacola general manager, last Friday to get his responses. He requested that we submit our questions via email, which we did. He called back with his responses on Tuesday.

Walker presented numerous citizen complaints about Allied to the ECUA board at their last meeting, some of those complaints dating back to last year. Liess did not deny that Allied had service problems in North Escambia, but he said Allied had resolved many of their problems.

“I’m not going to tell you that we did not have issues in the past,” Liess told NorthEscambia.com. “But we have improved. We make sure we continue to improve.”

When Allied is notified of a problem with service, Liess said they make every effort to solve that problem the same day, even if it means sending someone out “in the middle of the night”. But in order for a problem to be solved, a customer must first contact Allied and let them know something is wrong, he said.

“We take our commitment to Escambia County very seriously,” he said. “We have invested millions of dollars in Escambia County, and most of our 100 plus employees live in this county. We understand the importance of customer service, and we make sure our customers get a level of service they deserve.”

Walker stated in documents to the ECUA Board that Allied routinely skips some pickups, especially on dirt roads and around major holidays like Christmas.

“I see no reason that holidays should have more problems,” Liess said. “But dirt roads do present an issue after rain events. Our trucks are 55,000 pounds and it is dangerous to put them on a dirt road. It is a challenge for us. But we resume service as soon as possible.”

Liess acknowledges past service problems, including problems with calling customer service, but says those problems have been corrected an additional solutions added.

“There were previous phone problems, but we added an email contact with same day service, and our hold times have returned to reasonable levels. The additional communications methods have made a dramatic improvement.” Additionally, Liess said that Allied is working on a website for local use and customer service for better and easier access. That site, he said, is expected to be complete in two to four weeks.

“We do realize that there are gaps in our service,” Liess said. “We continue to make improvements to close those gaps, especially in the last several months.”

“We take our commitment to Escambia County very seriously. We have had a partnership with ECUA since 1995, and we look forward that partnership for years to come,” he stated. “The ECUA board and the staff have discussed Dr. Walker’s requests. Both the board and the staff continue to support us.”

To read part one of this series, click here, for background information.
To read part two of this series, click here.
To read part three of this series, click here.
To read part four of this series, click here.
To read part five of this series, click here.
To read part six of this series, click here.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News