PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Driver & Tech App

Pickup Day on the Phone: Pulling Portable Toilets and Closing the Rental

Pickup day ends the rental, and it is easy to treat it as an afterthought. But a sloppy pickup causes real problems: the wrong unit gets pulled from a site with several, a unit gets left behind and keeps sitting there for weeks, or the rental days never make it onto the invoice. The driver app keeps pickup days as clear as delivery days.

What a Pickup Card Shows

Service day keeps the units clean, as covered in Service Day on the Phone: Weekly Pump-Outs Stop by Stop. Pickup day brings them home. A pickup job card shows:

• The site address and Map button
• Unit type and quantity to pull
• Unit numbers, so the tech knows exactly which units come back
• Placement notes, which help find units that have been moved around the site
• Site notes, contacts and gate codes

On a site with five units where the customer is ending the rental on two, the unit numbers are what keep the tech from pulling the wrong ones.

Partial Pickups

Construction jobs wind down in stages. The framers leave, the crew shrinks, and the contractor calls to drop from four units to two. That is a partial pickup. The card shows the unit numbers to pull, and the rest stay on site for continued service.

After the pickup, the site's records should match what is actually there. If the tech pulls different units than the card shows, maybe because one was easier to reach, they should note which numbers came back so the office can update the site.

Pumping Before the Pull

Most units get pumped before they go on the trailer. If your process calls for a final service at pickup, the card's unit types tell the tech what to expect. A Restroom Trailer or a Deluxe Flushing unit with a fresh water tank takes a little more time to close out than a Standard.

Pickup Photos

A pickup photo shows the empty spot where the units stood. It proves nothing was left behind and records the condition of the site when you left. If a customer later says you damaged the lawn or left a mess, the photo answers it. If units are damaged, photograph them before loading.

Residential and event pickups deserve extra care here. A homeowner who rented a unit for a backyard party will notice ruts in the grass, and a park manager will notice a spill on the pavilion slab. A clean photo of the spot after the truck pulls away shows you left it the way you found it, and gives the office something to point to if the question ever comes up.

Closing the Rental

When the tech taps Complete on a pickup, the rental closes. Rental tracking has the delivered date, the picked-up date, the days included in the rental and a per-day rate after that. Any days beyond the included days are added to the invoice automatically as "Extra rental days."

That means the office never has to count days on a calendar or remember that a unit went out on the 3rd. The lists showed "Out since 10/3 (12 days, 4 extra)" the whole time, and the invoice picks it up. For more on getting paid from the field, see Getting Paid at Completion: Card on File and Invoices From the Driver App.

When the Units Are Not There

Sometimes the tech arrives and a unit is missing. The crew moved it to another lot, a neighbor borrowed it, or it was stolen. The tech should skip or note the missing unit with a reason, photograph the site, and let the office follow up with the customer. Do not mark a pickup complete for units that did not come back.

When units are blocked, like behind a stack of drywall, the same rule applies: skip with a reason, photograph, and let the office arrange access.

Event Pickups

Event pickups are often the Monday after a busy weekend. Several sites, lots of units, and customers who want them gone fast. The dispatcher can auto-route the pickups and the tech works them in order. Units come back heavy and dirty, so plan time at the yard for cleaning before they go out again.

Customer Texts on Pickup Day

Automatic alerts help on pickup day too. A customer who gets an on-the-way text can make sure the units are accessible and nothing personal is stored inside. Customers who chose a night-before reminder get a chance to say "we need one more day," which is a lot better than a tech showing up to a site still in use.

The Short Version

Pull the right unit numbers, photograph the empty spot, and tap Complete so the rental closes and extra days bill themselves. For the rest of the tech's tools, see the PortaPottyBossPro driver and tech app page.