JunkBossPro Blog — Junk Removal Software

Junk Removal Software: The Complete Guide for Junk Hauling Companies

Most junk removal companies start the same way: one truck, one phone, a notepad and a camera roll full of pictures customers texted in. That works until it doesn't. A job gets written down twice, a crew shows up with no room left in the box, a dump ticket comes in heavy and nobody bills the weight. This guide walks through what junk removal software should do, how JunkBossPro handles each piece, and how to get a small hauling company running on it in a week.

What Junk Removal Software Is For

Junk removal software is the system that holds the business together between the first call and the paid invoice. It takes in requests, turns some of them into estimates, puts jobs on a truck and a day, sends the crew out with everything they need to know, keeps the customer posted, and bills the job when it's done. The overview of the whole idea is on the junk removal software page.

The difference between junk removal software and generic field-service software is the job itself. A lawn or cleaning job is an address and a time. A junk job is an address, a time, a load size, a list of items, a place to haul it all, and a dump ticket that may or may not fit the price you quoted. If the software doesn't have a place for those things, they end up in a notes box, a text thread or your head.

The Junk Job: Load, Items and Haul-To

Every job in JunkBossPro carries the junk removal details right on it:

• Load size. Min Load, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8, Full Load, 1.5, 2 or 3 loads. The crew knows how much room they need before they leave the yard.
• Number of items. Nine items is a different job than one.
• What's going. A plain line like “Washer and dryer in the garage” or “Old sectional and boxes in the basement.”
• Haul-to. Dump, transfer station, donation center or metal recycler. The crew gets a Go button that navigates them there.

Then there is the dump ticket. Enter the tons on the ticket, the tons included in the price and your per-ton rate, and the overage is added to the invoice automatically: “Dump fee overage (0.28 tons @ $70.00) = $19.60.” If you also drop dumpsters, a job can carry dumpster drop days with a number of days included and a daily rate after that. Each of these has its own guide in this series, starting with Load Size on Every Job: From Min Load to Three Loads in Junk Removal Software and Dump Fee Overage: Billing the Tons Over the Included Weight Automatically.

From Request to Route: Waiting List and Dispatch

Junk work doesn't come in on a schedule. Someone calls about a mattress, a realtor needs a house emptied before a listing, a website form asks about a hot tub. In JunkBossPro, every request that isn't booked yet sits on the Waiting List, a live map and a list of single items, cleanouts and on-site estimate visits. When you plan tomorrow, you can see the mattress three streets from a garage cleanout and put them on the same truck.

Booked jobs go to the Scheduled List, the dispatch board. It shows jobs by day, filters by truck, and auto-routes Closest First or Furthest First from the yard. You can set the route order by hand, save views you use every day, and print route sheets for anyone who still wants paper on the dash. A common setup for a company with two trucks is one truck on single items and small loads, one on cleanouts and big jobs.

The Crew App and the Customer App

The crew app runs in the browser on iPhone and Android and installs to the home screen, with no app store involved. Each crew member signs in with the company login and a personal PIN. They see the day's jobs in route order, each card showing the load size, items, what's going, access notes and past notes. They tap to navigate to the customer, tap Go to navigate to the dump, and use Start, Skip and Complete to report how the job went. Before and after photos stay with the job. The customer gets automatic “on the way” and “arrived” texts. On Complete, the invoice is created and a card on file can be charged. The time clock is on the same phone, and crew GPS shows on the office map.

The customer app is the other side of that. Customers see today's route on a live map (“You're stop 12 of 20 — the crew is 5 stops away”), request service, sign up for services and pricing, update their card, see and pay invoices, and rate and refer. They choose their own alerts: the night before, when they're next, and when the crew arrives.

Estimates, Billing and Monthly Accounts

Estimates are built from your own service list: single item, quarter, half, three-quarter and full truck loads, mattresses, appliances, hot tubs, pianos, sheds, estate and garage cleanouts, apartment trash-outs, same-day service, or whatever you sell. The customer approves online and the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job. Follow-up emails go out on estimates that sit, and templates save you from rebuilding the same cleanout quote every week. On-site estimate visits are just jobs on the schedule.

Billing covers invoices with line items and sales tax, card on file, auto-charge on completion or on a schedule, online payment from the customer app, and past-due follow-up. Property managers and realtors can be set to Monthly, so they get one statement each month covering every address, with each line labeled by address. Two-way texting and automated reminders by text and email round it out; plans include 500, 1,000 or 2,000 texts a month sent and received on Start, Pro and Crew.

One Truck or a Few, Residential or Commercial

An owner-operator with one truck uses the same software as a company with three, just with less of it. The one-truck owner mostly lives in the Waiting List, the crew app and billing. Once there is a second truck, the dispatch board and truck filters start to matter, and assigning employees to trucks keeps each phone showing the right day.

Residential work is mostly one-time jobs: a garage, a basement, a single couch. Commercial work leans on repeat customers with many addresses: an apartment complex that needs trash-outs every month, a property manager with turnovers, a realtor with estate cleanouts. One client can hold many addresses, and monthly billing keeps all of it on one statement.

Setup and the First Week

Getting started is mostly typing in what you already know:

1. Add your trucks and employees, each with a personal PIN.
2. Build your service list with your own prices.
3. Bring your customers over with a CSV import. Imported addresses are placed on the map automatically.
4. Put your website request form or sign-up form on your site so new requests land in Form Responses, where one click converts a sign-up into a client.
5. Run one real day: book jobs, route the truck, have the crew work from the phone, and complete and bill each job.

By the end of the first week, the notepad by the phone should be empty. If you want to see a full company before you set up your own, the live demo is a fully stocked sample junk removal company you can click through with no signup.

Choosing the Right Software

When you compare options, check whether the software has a real place for the load size, the items and the haul-to; whether dump fee overage gets onto the invoice without you doing math in the truck; whether unbooked requests show on a map; whether the crew app works on the phones you already own; and whether property managers can get one monthly statement. Then check the price. JunkBossPro is $59, $89 or $199 a month, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial with no credit card. For the rest of the series, head back to the JunkBossPro junk removal software page and pick the guide that matches where you're stuck.