Bin Men Get BlackBerry Comms

In a move which may not quite deliver the kind of publicity that the phone-maker hopes, waste management company Biffa is giving RIM Blackberries to its bin men – days after a major UK financial body announced its bankers are binning theirs.

Biffa has selected Vodafone UK to provide mobile communications services for its mobile workforce and fleet, that is predicted to save it £750,000. The contract, worth £1.75 million, will deliver the savings by improving the UK recycling and waste management company’s efficiency and productivity levels.

Blackberries for binmen

Although the deal does seem to go a little downmarket compared to the Blackberry’s traditional white-collar role, it may also go some way to consoling the makers of BlackBerry, Research In Motion, following the news earlier this week that a UK-based bank was allowing its corporate BlackBerry users the option of switching to the iPhone.

The Vodafone deal with blue collar company Biffa will include BlackBerry devices part of its provision of some 3,100 devices for mobile email and 3G data access.

The devices and services will enable Biffa to relay information between its 1,500 refuse collection trucks and the Biffa head office in High Wycombe via a secure, dedicated data link across Vodafone UK’s network to capture information including proof of collection more efficiently and identify the location of its vehicles.

Vicky Panayiotou, Group Procurement Category Manager at Biffa, commented on the contract: “We selected Vodafone UK as a network that we can rely on to provide our mobile workforce and trucks with secure mobile voice and data communications. Vodafone was able to offer us a complete solution that will enable us to run our organisation more effectively.”