With just 14,000 residents, Arboga is one of the smaller municipalities in the heart of Sweden. Despite this, the digital investment the municipality has made over the last ten years makes it something of an outlier. Today, the municipality is moving full-steam ahead with motion-sensor streetlighting, a connected vehicle pool and an advanced control system for clearing snow in the area.
The fact that Infobric, too, is a resident of the municipality has of course left its mark on the area – together, we have created a vision for how the municipality of the future might work. We invited Michael Grund, traffic and highway technician for the Traffic and Highways Agency in Arboga Municipality, to discuss the past, the present and the future over a cup of coffee. Check it out!
Infobric (IB): Please, tell us a bit about yourself. We understand that you’ve been working in the industry for quite some time?
Michael Grund (MG): Yes, that’s right. I was first employed by the municipality back in ‘77 and I’ve been a team leader since ‘87. Today, I work at the town hall handling issues such as traffic and streets in the municipality. Since I’ve been working in the same area for so long, but with all sorts of different issues, I’m also a sort of walking, talking knowledge base…
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We actually implemented motion-sensor lighting using GSM technology across the entire municipality in one go. It was fast.
– Michael Grund traffic and highway technician, Traffic and Highways Agency for Arboga Municipality
IB: You’ve been particularly active in terms of digitization within the municipality, how did you first come across connected municipal resources?
Michael Grund: Oh, I’m afraid I don’t quite remember exactly. It was either monitoring snow clearing or streetlighting that first caught our attention. Both things were implemented pretty fast. We actually implemented motion-sensor lighting using GSM technology across the entire municipality in one go. It was fast.
IB: Infobric also offers a whole range of transport services, not just lighting control. What does Arboga’s total set vehicle and machine assets look like currently?
Michael Grund: In total, we’ve got 90 machines and vehicles made up of passenger vehicles, pickups, lawnmowers and larger machines like tractors, 18-wheelers and diggers. Alongside that, we also bring in external contractors for both snow clearing and looking after our green areas. When it comes to passenger cars, it’s primarily pool vehicles that we’ve connected using Infobric Fleet. This gives our administrators a simple tool for charging different departments internally without having to run and look for analog driver’s logs.
IB: Where do you feel the most benefit is being created today in terms of your efforts to digitize the municipality?
MG: I’d have to say it’s monitoring snow clearing. Right now, we’re working on planning snowplowing, gritting and then clearing up the grit for the coming winter. The process is built on digital maps that are revised a bit every year. Routes are then circulated and input from the general public is weighed up. Once we’ve decided which routes we want, we work with Infobric to prepare adjusted maps that we provide to drivers and managers.
IB: Cool, so what does that mean for your snow clearing work?
MG: It makes it so much easier to handle both management and monitoring during the winter season. We have the document in front of us the whole time, and areas that have been processed are displayed on the map in real-time, so we can get an overview anytime. In the morning, before the working day starts, we can visually describe to the entire team what areas need dealing with.
TQ: What’s it like with the contractors you hire to help out with highway maintenance during the winter?
MG: Since Infobric’s solution comes with several different installation options, it’s actually not all that complicated. Our own machines are equipped with fixed trackers, while our contractors can connect trackers via the cigarette lighters in their vehicles. We actually include this as a requirement during negotiations, which has been working really well. Today, we can keep an eye on what streets have been plowed according to the schedule, we can manage the snow clearing process visually, and we can produce clear documents using both manual logs and automatic GPS routes for following up in case of accidents. Not having proper evidence that the street has actually been gritted can lead to serious costs for the municipality which we of course want to avoid from the very beginning.
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Digitization is giving us a greater opportunity to give our municipality’s residents a guarantee that they can go about their daily lives in a safe and secure manner.
– Michael Grund traffic and highway technician, Traffic and Highways Agency for Arboga Municipality
(IB): What do you feel is the primary aim of your digitization journey?
MG: Without a doubt it’s the safety of our residents. Automatic streetlighting that illuminates during the darker months, we also have to make sure that the bulbs are functional and having clarity over which areas have been processed gives us a greater opportunity to give our municipality’s residents a guarantee that they can go about their daily lives in a safe and secure manner.
Arboga Municipality is home to various types of streets and highways, as well as sidewalks and bike lanes. The Municipality’s employees predominantly work to make life safer and better for you as a road-user.
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