Mill Valley Refuse Service has trimmed its recycling collection schedule by 22% and its garbage routes by 12% after adopting route-optimization software in 2023.

The results come from a case study that RouteSmart, the FedEx-owned software vendor, published to showcase the partnership. The case study reports the changes also cut overtime by 21% and raised labor productivity by 7% at the family-owned hauler, which serves households across Mill Valley, Corte Madera, Tiburon, Belvedere and surrounding unincorporated areas.

In concrete terms, scheduled recycling days fell from 45 to 35 and garbage days from 65 to 57. Garbage trucks now run at 95% capacity, up from 90%.

CEO Gene Della Zoppa, a third-generation managing partner who joined the 62-employee company in 2021 after working in corporate finance at Autodesk, said the old system left routes unchanged for years. That created uneven workloads, underused trucks and headaches when drivers retired or called out sick.

"Before RouteSmart, route changes were infrequent and not well optimized," Della Zoppa said in the case study. "We couldn't see the data clearly, and that made it hard to justify or communicate changes to our team."

To get drivers on board, Della Zoppa showed them side-by-side route maps comparing the old layout with the optimized version. The rebalancing also let the company absorb retirements without hiring replacements, according to the case study.

Overtime dropped 16% in early 2025.

Mill Valley Refuse operates under franchise agreements with local jurisdictions including Tiburon and runs more than 50 trucks collecting over 86 million pounds of waste annually, according to its website.

Della Zoppa said the software is now shaping longer-term planning. The company is using it to model routes for future automated collection vehicles, track seasonal shifts in material weight and evaluate equipment upgrades.

The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce highlighted the partnership Tuesday, Sept. 1. No changes to residents' pickup schedules have been publicly announced as a result of the optimization.