JunkBossPro Blog — Junk Removal Software

Dumpster Drop Days: Included Days and a Daily Rate on the Same Job

Plenty of junk removal companies do more than haul. When a customer is cleaning out a house over a few weekends or tearing out a kitchen, leaving a dumpster in the driveway can make more sense than three separate truck visits. If you offer that, JunkBossPro can track dumpster drop days on the job.

An Optional Add-On to the Job

Weight overage is covered in Dump Fee Overage: Billing the Tons Over the Included Weight Automatically. Dumpster drop days work the same way, but for time instead of weight: a set number of days is included in the price, and each day after that is billed at a daily rate.

It's optional. If you only haul with trucks, you never need to touch it. If you leave a dumpster now and then, it's there on the job when you need it.

How It Works

On a job with a dumpster drop, set:

• Days included — how many days the price covers
• Daily rate — what each extra day costs

When the dumpster comes back after the included days, the extra days are billed at the daily rate. A customer who was told “seven days included, then a daily rate” can see exactly what they're paying for. The rates are yours to set; many companies keep them simple so they're easy to explain on the phone.

Who Asks for a Dumpster

Dumpster jobs tend to come from a few kinds of customers:

• Homeowners doing a slow cleanout. They want to fill it themselves over a couple of weekends.
• Estate cleanouts with family helping. Relatives sort through things for days before they're ready to let it go.
• Light remodels. Kitchen or bathroom tear-outs where debris comes out a little at a time.
• Property managers. A turnover where the crew and a cleaning team are working at the same time.

Some of those jobs are better as a full-service cleanout, and some are better as a dumpster. Having both on your service list lets you offer whichever fits.

A simple way to decide on the phone: if the customer wants the junk gone in one visit and doesn't want to lift anything, it's a cleanout. If they want to work at their own pace and do the lifting themselves, it's a dumpster. When it's hard to tell, an on-site estimate visit settles it, and that visit is just another job on the schedule.

Scheduling the Drop and the Pickup

A dumpster job has two trips: dropping it off and picking it up. Both are jobs on the schedule, so they show on the dispatch board with the rest of the day, and the crew sees them in route order on the phone. The drop-off job carries the address, access notes and where to place the dumpster. The pickup job carries the haul-to and, once the ticket comes back, the dump fee overage if the dumpster was heavier than the price allowed.

Where to place the dumpster is worth writing in the access notes every time: “Left side of driveway, keep the garage clear,” or “Street in front, not on the lawn.” Any rules about placing a dumpster on a street are a local matter, so check with your city if you're unsure.

Keeping Track of Where Dumpsters Are

Dumpsters left out too long are lost money. The dispatch board shows which pickup jobs are coming up, and the Waiting List shows any pickup that hasn't been booked yet. If a customer asks for an extra week, the office adjusts the pickup date and the extra days go on the invoice at your daily rate. Customers can also send a service request from the customer app when they're ready for the pickup, which lands with the office like any other request.

Billing a Dumpster Job

The invoice for a dumpster job usually has a few lines: the dumpster drop at your price, any extra days at the daily rate, and any dump fee overage from the ticket. Sales tax applies the way you've set it up. If the customer has a card on file, it can be charged when the pickup job is completed. If the customer is a property manager on a monthly account, the dumpster job lands on their monthly statement with the address on the line. That's explained in Monthly Accounts for Property Managers and Realtors: One Statement for Every Address.

A Side Service That Fits

For a junk hauler, a dumpster is a natural side service, and tracking the days on the job keeps it from turning into a pile of reminders on the fridge. If you don't offer dumpsters, skip it and nothing changes. To see dumpster drop days next to the rest of the junk removal details, head back to the JunkBossPro junk removal software page.