Feb. 10—HIGH POINT — City of High Point garbage and recycling trucks will be outfitted with cameras as part of a software upgrade that officials say will improve the solid waste collections process.

The City Council this week awarded a three-year, $225,937 contract to a company called Rubicon to install new technology that will include cameras mounted on trucks that can document instances where a collection can't be made because a toter is blocked by a vehicle or missing at a particular address.

Public Services Director Robby Stone said this will cut down on repeat trips to a location if the city wasn't at fault for a missed collection.

"Now when we get those calls (from customers), we're sending the trucks back," he said. "We want to be customer friendly and help folks out. But on the flip side of that, that's a lot of fuel, that's a lot of wear and tear (for repeat trips), and it's slowing down the completion of the routes and other services."

The city has tested the program and found it to be beneficial, he said, adding that he hopes it will be fully implemented within about two months.

In addition to cameras, the system will include tablets mounted in the trucks that display maps of each collection route for drivers, similar to a navigational device on a smartphone.

The software will enable supervisors to monitor each truck's collection progress throughout the day in real time, showing how many total stops are on a route, how many have been completed and how many remain.

"We do think this is going to increase efficiency by helping us to better route operations," Stone said. "We're continuing to grow. As we continue to add these subdivisions, we may have to shift those routes and rebalance those routes."