Digitising Waste Operations Across One of Victoria’s Largest Regional Councils

Overview

East Gippsland Shire Council (EGSC) operates a network of landfills and transfer stations across a vast and diverse region in eastern Victoria. To improve consistency across its sites and reduce reliance on paper-based systems, Council partnered with Pivot Systems to roll out a centralised, cloud-based waste management platform.

The system has enhanced data capture, streamlined reporting, and improved visibility of waste movements across the region — supporting Council’s goal of continuous improvement in waste service delivery.

Background

Spanning more than 20,000 square kilometres, East Gippsland Shire includes urban centres like Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance, as well as remote communities from Mallacoota to Omeo. The region presents unique operational challenges due to its scale and geography.

Before engaging Pivot Systems, EGSC relied heavily on manual processes and paper-based forms to record customer transactions and site activities. These systems varied between sites and often required extensive back-office effort to collate, reconcile and report on monthly data.

Current Situation

With increasing demands on data accuracy, compliance, and reporting, EGSC sought to:

• Standardise operational workflows across its waste sites,
• Improve the quality and consistency of data being captured,
• Reduce administrative overhead and manual data handling,
• Gain better visibility of site-level activity and material flows in near real time.

The system needed to be simple enough for day-to-day use by facility staff, adaptable to a range of site conditions, and able to integrate with existing council systems where needed.

The Challenge

EGSC’s regional footprint and site diversity made a one-size-fits-all approach impractical. While some larger sites had access to weighbridges and full-time staff, others operated with limited infrastructure or seasonal staffing. This made it difficult to implement a digital system that could be applied consistently across all sites.

Key issues included

• Variability in data collection methods and  record-keeping,
• Time-consuming monthly reporting and reconciliation processes,
• Limited real-time oversight of customer activity or stockpile movements
• The need for a flexible, cost-effective system.
• Limited access to power and internet connectivity at many of the sites.
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The Solution

Pivot Systems worked with East Gippsland Shire Council to implement its purpose-built waste facility management system across the full network of waste sites. The platform was selected for its suitability to remote and regional operations, as well as its intuitive design and modular setup.

Key features of the rollout included

• A BYO device model allowing site staff to use tablets or laptops without costly proprietary hardware,
• An all-in-one subscription model to support predictable budgeting,
• In-person training delivered across multiple sites to support system uptake,
• Custom workflows tailored to the operating model at each facility,
• Self-managed reporting tools that reduced back-office burden and improved accuracy.
• Optimised hardware selection to enable low power and low data operation.
• Vic EPA Specific Levy Report Generation

Implementation Success

Since adopting Pivot Systems, EGSC has seen significant improvements in the quality and efficiency of its waste data management. Staff at all levels have embraced the platform, with positive feedback on ease of use and the visibility it provides across sites.

Monthly reporting is now faster and more consistent, and site managers have greater confidence in the data being used to inform decisions, track trends, and support compliance.

Pivot’s flexibility has also enabled the system to grow with Council’s needs — supporting account management, bin tracking, and integration with weighbridge data where available.

Looking Ahead

East Gippsland Shire Council continues to work closely with Pivot Systems to expand and refine its digital waste operations. The system is now a core part of Council’s waste services, and further opportunities are being explored to support automation, customer engagement, and on-site optimisation.

"Pivot Systems has helped us bring consistency across all our sites — from the smallest transfer station which operate a couple of hours a week through to our regional landfill which can see over 400 customers in a day. The system is easy for staff to use, and the reporting tools give us the visibility we need without the paperwork and running around to collect data manually." - Cass Donald – Waste Compliance and Projects Officer

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