AWWA IMTECH51436

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) delivers water to over 174,000 customer accounts in Seattle, Washington. In an effort to provide better service to the ratepayer, it was believed that cost savings could be realized by creating more efficient meter reading routes. In 1995, the Metering and Geographic Information System (GIS) Sections of SPU joined together to explore the feasibility of rerouting meter reading routes. In 1996, RouteSmart Technologies was selected as the routing software vendor. A pilot project in 1997 convinced management to implement citywide routing. The savings originally expected are being confirmed as the new software has assisted in leveraging the utilities' prior investments in data conversion. This paper explains the reasons why RouteSmart Technologies was selected and briefly describes the routing process and data preparation. Lessons learned by SPU about modeling and the benefits of the new system are discussed. Includes 2 references, figures.