This article will explain the difference between contractors, carriers, and suppliers as well as how to configure each entity in Rio
When configuring your Rio account, you may wish to capture specific waste contractors, carriers, and utility suppliers. How are these terms used in the platform and why does Rio capture this data?
Waste Contractor: A Waste Contractor is paid to handle the waste once it has left your premises. This can include the collection, transportation and legal processing of the waste.
Rio captures this data as it enables clients to track the specific contractor that is responsible for the collection and disposal of their waste. This also allows for a layer of analysis at the contractor level- in your organisation's waste dashboard you can better view how much is spent on waste services per contractor, as well as total tonnage they handle.
Many common contractors are already configured in Rio by default, but if you need to configure any other contractors not already available in the platform, please reach out to your Rio Consultant or raise a contractor creation request here.
Waste Carriers: A carrier is responsible for transporting your waste. In some cases, they may also be the same as the waste contractor. Similar to contractors, you can interrogate and visualise your spend and total weight by carrier in Rio’s waste dashboard.
Utility Suppliers: A supplier is used as a part of capturing your utilities data. The supplier will be the company from which you source the utility. For example, EDF may be the supplier of electricity for some or all of the locations your organisation occupies.
Note: A supplier is not the same as the waste out location. A waste out location is the same as the reporting location within your portfolio or estate where you record other utilities such as electricity and water consumption. This is where electricity is consumed and waste is generated. With regards to the waste destination, the waste in location is where waste is sent for processing. Both waste in and waste out locations are managed as part of your organisation’s location configuration. For more information on locations, please see our support pages on How do I create locations? and How do I configure waste-in locations?
To set up a new supplier or carrier in Rio you can follow the steps below:
1. Navigate to the configuration page on Rio
2. Select suppliers from the list under configuration
3. At this stage, it is important to confirm if the waste carrier or supplier is already configured in Rio. First, select waste from the list in the image below. You can then search for the supplier or carrier in the search bar above the utility types:
Note: Please do try a few combinations of the supplier or carrier. If configuring Biffa Waste Services, you may want to search for “Biffa WS”, “Biffa” and “Biffa Waste Services” to ensure you won’t create a duplicate because the existing configuration is named slightly differently.
5. To add a supplier or carrier, select ‘+Add Supplier’ in the right hand corner of the page:
6. You will see the “create waste supplier” modal appear. In this pop up, fill in the name, address, and whether they are a supplier, carrier, or both.
When you have finished, select “save” at the bottom of the configuration modal. You will see a green message on the top of your screen to notify you when your configuration has been successful:
Note: It may take a bit of time for the update to appear across the platform. Wait a few minutes prior to uploading data, as the carrier or contractor may not appear from the upload drop down immediately after configuration.
To edit an existing contractor or carrier in Rio, you can follow the steps below:
If when searching for the supplier or carrier in Rio, a result appeared, you may need to review and edit the configuration. To do so:
1. Select the pencil icon next to the existing supplier/carrier you wish to edit:
2. You will then see the modal appear for the existing supplier/carrier:
3. As you can see, this example has been configured as a supplier, which is indicated by the blue selection under ‘type’. If you need to update this to a carrier, you can select or deselect the appropriate types. You can also edit the name or address of the contractor or carrier.
4. When all appropriate changes have been made, select “update” and those will be refreshed in configuration.