JunkBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Planning Dump Runs Between Junk Removal Jobs

Every junk route has stops the customer never sees. The truck fills, and it has to go somewhere to empty out before it can take the next load. Those unload trips are part of the day whether you plan them or not. Planned, they fit neatly between jobs. Unplanned, they show up as a crew calling at 11 a.m. to say they're full and three customers still waiting.

Room in the Truck Runs Out

Filling empty space is covered in Filling a Half-Empty Junk Truck From the Waiting List. This is the other side of the same math: what happens when the space is gone.

The tools you need are already on every job in JunkBossPro. Each job has a load size and a haul-to stop. Put those together across a truck's day and you can see where the unloads have to go before the truck leaves the yard.

Find the Full Point

Filter the dispatch board by truck, look at the route in order, and add up the load sizes stop by stop. Somewhere along the way the total reaches a full load. That's the full point. The unload goes right after it.

An example day:

• Stop 1: 1/4 load, garage boxes.
• Stop 2: Min Load, mattress.
• Stop 3: 1/2 load, patio furniture and a grill.
• Stop 4: 1/4 load, basement odds and ends.
• Stop 5: single appliance.

By stop 4 the truck is close to full. The unload goes after stop 4, then the appliance rides on an empty truck. If stop 4 were a 3/4 load instead, you'd want the unload after stop 3.

Load sizes are estimates. Crews know a “1/2 load” sometimes turns out bigger. Leave a little room, and plan the unload one stop early when you're close.

Use the Haul-To Stop

Every job says where that load is headed: the dump, a transfer station, a donation center or a metal recycler. On the crew's phone, that stop has a Go button that opens navigation straight there. The haul-to stop and the Go button are covered more in Haul-To Stops and the Go Button: Getting the Crew From the Driveway to the Dump.

When you plan the full point, check where the haul-to stops are. If the full point falls next to the transfer station, perfect. If it falls on the far side of town, try routing the day the other way, Closest First instead of Furthest First or the reverse, and see if the full point lands closer.

Mixed Loads, Multiple Stops

Not everything goes to the same place. A typical truck might carry furniture for the transfer station, a washer for the metal recycler and some good items for a donation center. That can mean two or three unload stops in one run.

Plan them in the order that makes sense for the truck: donation drop-offs first if the good items are on top, the recycler on the way, the transfer station last. Each job's own haul-to stop shows on its card, so the crew knows which items go where. What each place accepts is up to that place, so it's worth keeping their rules in your notes and checking them when they change.

Watch the Clock

Dumps and transfer stations have hours, and some close early on weekends. A truck that is full at 4:45 with a dump that closes at 5 is a truck that sits loaded overnight. Some companies are fine with that; some aren't allowed to park a loaded truck where they park.

Look at the last full point of the day. If it's late, move a big job earlier, or end the route at the dump instead of at the last customer. Furthest First routing often helps, because it brings the truck back toward home and toward the dump you use most as the day goes on.

Dump Tickets and the Invoice

The unload is also where you find out what the load actually weighed. If your prices include a set tonnage, the crew or office can enter the dump ticket's tons, the tons included in the price and your per-ton rate, and the overage is added to the invoice automatically — for example, “Dump fee overage (0.28 tons @ $70.00) = $19.60.” Planning unloads job by job, rather than mixing several jobs into one ticket, makes that much easier when weight matters.

Big Jobs Need Their Own Plan

A full-load or multi-load cleanout fills the truck at one address. Plan the unload in the middle of the job and tell the customer the crew will be back. With 2 or 3 loads, the job card shows it, so the crew knows going in that the day includes more than one run.

Make the Unload Part of the Route

The best junk routes treat the dump like a stop, not an interruption. Find the full point, check the haul-to stop, mind the hours and route around all three. For the rest of the scheduling and dispatch tools, go back to the JunkBossPro junk removal scheduling software page.