Waste Vouchers for Tenants:
A Remarkably Smooth and Successful Transition’ – Mornington Peninsula Shire Case Study
Overview
Are you looking for a better way to streamline the distribution of waste vouchers to tenants in your community?
We had the privilege of speaking with Daniel Hinson, the Team Leader of Circular Economy and Waste, at Mornington Peninsula Shire. Daniel kindly shares his insights into their recent adoption of self-service digital waste vouchers for tenants with Mandalay.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council initially started using Mandalay’s Facility products in 2017, and currently utilise Mandalay’s Facility Core Product (Ticketing), Standard Facility Analytics and Reporting, EFTPOS Integration, and Finance Export products across their three transfer stations.
In 2023 the Shire began using Mandalay’s Resident Product Suite to support the introduction of waste vouchers to their tenant community. In this case study we explore how Voucher Management and the Self-Service Platform have been used to deliver digital waste vouchers to tenants in the Mornington Peninsula Shire.
Background
Mornington Peninsula Shire currently distribute waste vouchers to their resident community through rates notices. Daniel says they were considering transitioning all residents to a self-managed system for waste vouchers in the future.
However, in June last year, Council announced an initiative to provide waste vouchers to tenants within the Shire. On the back of their existing relationship with Mandalay, and following previous discussions about using the voucher product, Daniel thought it was a great opportunity and an easy way to implement this voucher system with tenants.
‘We went straight to Mandalay to see how quickly we could turn around something for the tenants as Council wanted it implemented as soon as possible, we had a tight timeframe to have something in place.’ – Daniel Hinson
Requirements
Beyond needing a system in place that accurately verifies eligible tenants, Daniel says that the goal was to make it as easy as possible for all parties (tenants, real estate agents, landlords, and council administration). They wanted to ensure the new voucher programme for tenants was light on administration, they needed the process to be straightforward for the tenant to use and at the same time provide the vouchers electronically rather than needing to mail them out.
The Challenge
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council provide 4 waste vouchers to each ratepayer annually as part of their rates notice. Tenants within the community had to rely on vouchers being passed on by the owner or property manager of the property they were renting. Council supported the idea of providing more efficient waste voucher distribution to tenants and gave them the funding to go ahead and undertake this project.
When asked what challenges or concerns they had heading into this project, Daniel said there were no concerns within the team. They could see how it was being successfully used by another Council, which gave them an initial understanding of how it would work, and Mandalay assisted with the presentation to gain the support of their IT Department.
Their only concern was the participation of real estate agents as it relied on them to be involved in the process to verify tenants’ details as quickly as possible. By confirming that a tenant currently resides at an address, only eligible tenants can gain access to digital waste vouchers and real estate agents are instrumental in this process.
The Implementation
Due to the desire from Council to implement the initiative as quickly as possible, a quick turn-around was required. The total turnaround time from announcement to go live was 3 months.
Implementation for Real Estate Agents and Property Managers
To get real estate agents onboard with the programme, they sent correspondence to agents detailing what they were proposing to do and asked them to get in touch if they had any concerns with the process.
Council had two databases on hand in the Shire – a short-stay accommodation list and a list of properties managed on behalf of real estate agents. From there they were able to get a comprehensive list of agents on the Peninsula.
Daniel and his waste team received little to no feedback and the real estate agents have all been very supportive of the process.
Implementation for Tenants
The new tenant voucher programme was initially announced as part of the budget process which occurred reasonably quickly once the budget was adopted. They then put information on their website with a potential start date for when it would become available and then it spread by word of mouth.
Tenants were keen to access their digital vouchers with several registering to use the Self-Service Platform quite early in the rollout.
The Outcome
Support
The support received from the team at Mandalay played an integral part in the implementation. Daniel couldn’t speak highly enough of the support they received, especially with such a short timeframe for completion.
‘The ability to work through issues, be in contact frequently and the support we received once we went live, that was great. It’s been a remarkably smooth and successful transition for the tenants.’ – Daniel Hinson
Valuable Data
The Mornington Peninsula waste team now has a database of real estate agents who manage rental properties, and the education team can send information out to them regarding recycling, short stays, bin use, or any other resource and recovery issues relevant to them and the community they serve.
Since going live, data being captured within the voucher system will allow the Shire to measure tenant registrations, successful verifications, and the volume of vouchers issued and redeemed.
Digital Vouchers & Self Service
Prior to the tenant programme being rolled out, the waste team was receiving very few requests from tenants to access vouchers. Therefore, Daniel says that there hasn’t been a significant impact on their team following the introduction. However, what it has done is show how well the system can operate. It has also shown the options available moving forward when they eventually decide to expand self-service digital waste vouchers to the rest of the community.
‘If we do roll out and implement it across our resident voucher base, we’re confident in how it can work. That’s where we will see a considerable benefit.’ – Daniel Hinson
According to Daniel, if the waste voucher programme is rolled out to the entire community, the benefits will be organisation-wide including for the customer service and rates teams who get a lot of calls associated with vouchers. Under a fully self-managed system, that type of work would reduce significantly if residents can go online and access their own vouchers.
Rolling 12 Month Voucher Expiry
One of the biggest benefits they anticipate is a 12-month rolling expiry on vouchers. All vouchers issued to ratepayers via their annual rates notice currently have the same expiry date. Because of this, Daniel says that September and October are extremely busy at their transfer stations, putting a lot of pressure on those sites.
With the new tenant voucher system, the expiry period occurs 12 months from the date the voucher is issued. Daniel says that if this is implemented across all vouchers, they won’t have the same issues in September and October at their transfer stations and demand at their facilities will even out across the year.
‘Looking at the big picture, a considerable amount of resource-intensive time and effort with vouchers is saved moving forward.’ – Daniel Hinson
Advice for Others
Daniel’s advice for other Councils is to give yourself a little bit more time. He understands that there can be nervousness in council when rolling out something like this on a big scale. Starting with tenants to deliver electronic self-service waste vouchers has given them a good baseline moving forward.
‘Doing it this way and being extremely successful in how it rolled out, it gives our Council and IT Department that confidence when looking to do it across all waste vouchers and it gives us confidence in what the system can do.’ – Daniel Hinson
Because they already have Mandalay in place, Daniel says it made it a lot easier to get it through their IT Department. It was an add-on to what they were currently using, and with an estimated 5000-10,000 properties involved in the new waste voucher programme, it was small scale compared to rolling out to the entire population.
Daniel also acknowledges how helpful it is to talk to another Council who has already been through a similar process. Having that extra information and real-world, first-hand advice gave them a starting point that helped them get the project moving along quickly.
‘If you’re using some of the information up front from another Council who has gone down that path already, and you’re trying to do something similar, it certainly makes it easier.’ – Daniel Hinson
Future Opportunities
Now that they can see the benefits of this voucher programme, how well it has worked and how easy it was to roll out to tenants, Daniel and his team would like to work towards introducing digital vouchers for their resident community.
While they acknowledge bigger changes that need to be made to make that happen, such as figuring out how the rates notices will be structured and navigating issues around people accessing things online etc, their team look forward to having it up and running for all residents as soon as possible.
‘There are some big benefits in reducing the impact of managing vouchers on a day-to-day basis across the organisation. It will be something we’re working on in the next 6 to12 months.’ – Daniel Hinson
If you’re interested in implementing digital waste vouchers and/or a self-service waste voucher programme for tenants or your entire resident population, get in touch to discuss the options we have available to suit the unique needs of your Council.
