360° Proof-of-Service Video System – Delivered by BuildClub Professional Services

Client Background

A mid-sized waste and recycling operator was trapped in a familiar loop:

• A customer said their cart or can was missed.
• A driver insisted it was serviced.
• A supervisor needed proof.
• The city demanded documentation.

Everyone burned time chasing partial photos, incomplete GPS logs, and fuzzy memories.

The company served close to 30,000 customers per week, so even a small number of disputes created major operational drag, eroding trust with municipalities and distracting teams from real work.

They turned to BuildClub Professional Services when it became clear that no commercial solution fit their needs.

The Problem: No Market Option Actually Fit

The client did their homework. The market was full of “proof-of-service” systems, camera rigs, and GPS-integrated tools. But in practice:

• Some systems cost more than $250,000 to deploy.
• Others missed critical angles or required constant manual upkeep.
• A few provided partial coverage, but never the full 360° context they needed at each stop.

What they really needed was obvious to everyone on the front line, but missing from every product brochure.

What the Client Actually Needed

A real solution had to provide:

• Complete video coverage from all sides of the truck
• Context for every single stop along every route
• Automatic syncing with route and address data
• Instant visibility for customer service representatives (CSRs)
• A workflow that matched how drivers actually operate
• A simple, fast interface CSRs could use in real time

Nothing on the market checked all of those boxes without forcing the client into painful compromises on cost, reliability, or workflow.

At that point, the client recognized a hard truth:

If no market option truly fits your operation, the only way forward might be to build one that does.

That’s when they engaged BuildClub Professional Services.

Why the Client Engaged BuildClub

The client wasn’t trying to become a camera platform company. They just needed reliable, full-context visibility at every stop.

They came to BuildClub Professional Services because they needed:

1. A tailor-made system, not a one-size-fits-none product.
2. Fast time to value, weeks not years.
3. A solution they could own, not permanent dependency on an outside vendor.

BuildClub’s role was clear:

• Help them design and implement a full 360° proof-of-service system
• Keep hardware simple, robust, and affordable
• Use LLMs to accelerate development where it actually helps
• Train one of their own in-house technicians to own and extend the system

BuildClub’s Approach: One Technician, One Stack, Five Weeks

Instead of a large external dev team, BuildClub Professional Services worked with one in-house technician—someone who already understood:

• The trucks and onboard power
• The routing logic and GPS patterns
• The real-world customer issues
• The operational realities of waste collection

With BuildClub providing architecture, coaching, and AI-accelerated development patterns, that single technician built the entire MVP stack in about five weeks.

What the MVP Included

With BuildClub’s support, the technician delivered:

• A Raspberry Pi–based camera system mounted on the truck
• A backend and data sync layer to tie video to routes and addresses
• A route and mapping layer to resolve stops automatically
• An uploading pipeline for reliable, autonomous data transfer
• Automated tagging logic to associate video clips with specific stops
• A CSR web portal for search, review, and export
• Internal sharing tools for supervisors and city partners

Every component was custom-fitted to the actual workflow of their fleet—not an abstract idea of how a waste operation should run.

The Solution: Every Stop, Every Angle, Fully Synced

1. 360° Video Coverage

The system captures four to six camera feeds at full HD resolution for any given stop, including:

• Normal pickups
• Exceptions and blocked carts
• Turnarounds and special circumstances

This gives a complete, 360° view of what actually happened at the curb.

2. Automatic Stop-to-Address Association

As trucks complete their routes, all footage is automatically associated with the correct address and stop event:

• No manual renaming of files
• No digging through timestamps and GPS crumbs
• No guesswork

Footage is tied tightly to route data, so searching by address or stop instantly pulls up the right video segment.

The operational clarity is immediate:

• If a cart was out, they can see it.
• If it was blocked, they can see it.
• If it was never placed out, they can see that too.

The CSR Portal: Built for Real-World Customer Service

BuildClub Professional Services guided the design of a modern, lightweight web portal that CSRs actually enjoy using.

Through the portal, CSRs can:

• Search an address instantly
• Jump directly to the correct stop and route date
• Scrub through full 360° video from all angles
• Zoom in to verify cart placement or obstacles
• Download and share clips with customers, supervisors, or city officials
• Resolve issues in seconds, not minutes

Before this system, a single disputed pickup could easily consume several minutes of CSR time and often required escalation. Now:

A typical dispute is investigated and resolved in about 15 seconds.

Hardware That Works Without Overengineering

BuildClub helped the client design hardware that is practical, robust, and inexpensive, avoiding unnecessary complexity.

Key components:

• Raspberry Pi units for video capture and coordination
• Recycled headless computers as local processing and buffering nodes
• An onboard microcontroller for precise camera sync
• Wireless data transfer from truck to depot network
• A simple 12V power supply compatible with existing truck wiring
• A fully autonomous system requiring zero driver interaction

Drivers don’t tap screens, press buttons, or manage storage. The system just runs.

This kept:

• Costs low – far below commercial solutions that can exceed $250K
• Reliability high – simple components, well-understood behavior
• Buy-in strong – drivers and techs didn’t have to babysit the system

Results: Less Noise, More Trust

Once the first truck went live as a test vehicle, the impact was obvious.

Operational Results

• Complaints on that specific route dropped dramatically
• Cities and counties gained confidence in the operator’s data
• Crews spent far less time on disputes and more on real service

Human Impact

• Drivers felt protected – if they said they serviced a cart, there was proof.
• CSRs felt empowered – they could answer confidently, with video.
• Supervisors finally had the full picture – no more relying on filtered stories.
• Customers got faster, fairer answers – backed by objective video evidence.

In the end, the client didn’t just build a “proof-of-service” system.

They built a system of record for the truth at every stop.

Why This Had to Be Built, Not Bought

This project was never about trying to outdo commercial vendors at their own game. It was about acknowledging a simple reality:

• The client’s operation had specific, non-negotiable requirements.
• The market’s “almost right” solutions were too expensive, too rigid, or both.

Every operation has a few mission-critical gaps where off-the-shelf tools fall short. For this client, full-context proof of service was one of those gaps.

With:

• One in-house technician
• Clear operational requirements
• BuildClub’s architecture and AI-accelerated development support

…they closed that gap themselves.

BuildClub’s Role in the Outcome

Throughout the engagement, BuildClub Professional Services:

• Helped define the system requirements from a business-first perspective
• Designed the hardware and software architecture
• Provided AI-assisted development patterns so the technician could move quickly
• Reviewed and hardened the MVP stack across capture, sync, and portal layers
• Delivered documentation and training so the client’s team could operate and extend the system

The result is a platform that:

• Costs a fraction of commercial alternatives
• Fits their workflow perfectly
• Transformed how they handle service quality, disputes, and customer trust

Final Thought

The client never set out to build a camera platform. They simply needed reliable, full-context visibility at every stop.

When no market option could deliver that, building it with BuildClub Professional Services became the most practical choice.

Sometimes the best solution isn’t something you can buy.
It’s the one you build—with the right partner and your own people at the center.