The 48-hour rule sets the route.
For municipalities and their contractors collecting medical waste from hospitals, dialysis centres, family health centres, dental and veterinary clinics. Plans each producer on its own frequency, never exceeding the maximum holding time at any point, with every trip ending at the facility.
Irregular visits: limit exceeded in 6 cellsEach producer on its own cycle; no breaches
A few daily points, many infrequent ones.
The medical waste regulation allows waste to wait in temporary storage for at most 48 hours; in refrigerated storage this extends to a week. Vehicles are used only for medical waste and transfer stations are prohibited: every trip ends at the facility. These three rules turn route planning into a deadline problem.
The producer distribution is skewed: in one metropolitan area only eight percent of two thousand health institutions exceed one tonne a month. Large producers are visited daily, small ones once or twice a week. When this mix is planned by hand, some points go unvisited two days in a row and breach the limit; on other days the vehicle returns to the facility half empty.
- Maximum holding time in temporary storage
- 48 hours
- Share of medical waste collected in metropolitan areas
- 82.8%
- Producers over 1 tonne a month in one metropolitan area
- 170 / 2,043
Sources: the Medical Waste Control Regulation (Official Gazette 25.01.2017); TurkStat 2019 medical waste statistics (share of 30 metropolitan municipalities); a metropolitan municipality statement of 2021. In some provinces the disposal fee is tiered by distance to the facility; kilometre savings go straight to cost.
What does the route plan take into account?
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| Maximum holding time | For each producer the gap between two visits cannot exceed 48 hours (7 days with refrigerated storage). |
| Frequency class | Hospitals and dialysis daily, small producers weekly or fortnightly; all in the same weekly plan. |
| Vehicle capacity | Kilograms and volume together; bag volume is usually the binding one. |
| Trip ends at the facility | No transfer station; the vehicle goes to the facility when full or when the day ends. |
| Facility and disinfection | Facility acceptance hours and post-unloading disinfection time are part of the trip time. |
| Producer handover hours | Family health centre office hours, hospital storage access: a time window per point. |
| Pathological waste | A separate stream and facility; a separate compartment on the vehicle or a separate trip. |
| Waste not collected | A revisit is planned for waste refused because of an improper bag. |
| Handover record | Stop time includes the tracking system entry and receipt at every handover. |
How we work
Producer list and frequency
The producer, quantity and frequency data in your tracking system and receipts are enough.
Vehicles and facility
Vehicle capacity, shift, facility acceptance hours and disinfection time are defined.
Weekly periodic plan
A daily point order for each vehicle; the driver follows the next points on a phone and marks collected and refused waste.
Getting started
Akılkent's route solver was validated with real data in municipal solid waste operations; the same core runs with this sector's rules. The constraints above are defined for your operation in the first conversation and computed with your own data in the free pre-analysis. We review the results together and, if it fits, start with a trial in one area.
See it with your own data
With your vehicle list and point locations we compute the savings potential of your operation and review the result together. A request is not a purchase commitment.
Request a free pre-analysis