PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Routes & Dispatch

Same-Day Add-Ons: Dispatching a New Porta Potty Stop Into a Running Route

It is 10:30. Every truck is out. The phone rings: a contractor needs an extra unit on a site today, a property manager wants a unit serviced before an inspection at two, a homeowner's remodel just got a second crew. The previous article, Routing Around Weekend Events: Fitting Porta Potty Deliveries Next to Weekly Service, planned for event weekends in advance. This one is about the work nobody planned for.

First: Does It Have to Be Today?

Before adding anything, ask. Many same-day requests are really this week requests. A customer who needs an extra unit tomorrow morning is better served by a stop on tomorrow's route, placed first, than by a rushed afternoon delivery that pushes three other customers late.

When it does have to be today, the goal is to add it to the route that disturbs the fewest customers.

Find the Right Truck

Three questions:

• Which truck is closest right now?
• Which truck can carry what the stop needs?
• Which truck has room left in its day?

Crew GPS on the office map answers the first. The job's unit type and quantity answer the second; a pump truck cannot deliver a Restroom Trailer. The dispatch board's totals for each truck's day answer the third. Live Crew GPS on the Office Map: Dispatching Porta Potty Trucks You Can See covers using the office map for exactly this decision.

Put It in the Right Place in the Order

Add the job, assign it to the truck and today, and set its place in the route order. Do not put it at the end of the list just because it is new. If the truck will be passing the site at stop 9, make it stop 9. Do not put it at the top of the list either unless it truly needs to happen first; every stop it jumps over is a customer whose wait just got longer.

The driver's phone shows the stops in route order, so the new stop appears where you placed it. No phone call needed to read out an address.

Tell the Driver Anyway

Even though the stop shows up in the driver app, a quick heads-up helps, especially if the new stop needs something unusual: an extra unit on the trailer, a gate code the driver has not used before, a site contact to call. Put those details in the job notes so the driver can read them on the card.

Tell the Customers Who Moved

Adding a stop pushes the stops after it a little later. For a short add-on, nobody notices. For a long one, like a delivery of several units, the customers after it might. Customers who opted into alerts get a text when they're next and when the tech arrives, and the customer app shows their place in the route. That softens the impact, but if a stop is going to slip by hours, a quick text from the office with two-way texting is better than letting them wonder.

Price Same-Day Work as Same-Day Work

Same-day service costs you more. It breaks a route, burns miles and sometimes pushes overtime. Many companies charge a rush or same-day fee. That is your call, but put it on your service list so the office does not invent a price on the phone. When the job is completed in the driver app, the card on file can be charged and the invoice sent automatically.

Log What Came In

Same-day calls tell you something about your customers. If the same contractor calls every week for an extra pump-out on Thursday, their service frequency is wrong, not their luck. Change the recurring service so the extra visit becomes a planned one, and the Waiting List will bring it due on its own. If a whole area keeps generating same-day work, that area may need a second visit each week.

Looking at the add-ons once a month turns emergencies into routine work, and routine work is far cheaper to run than a stop wedged into the middle of a route at 10:30 in the morning.

Keep a Little Room Every Day

The easiest same-day call is the one you planned room for. If every truck is loaded to the edge every day, every add-on makes the day run late. A truck that finishes its planned stops a little early is not wasted capacity; it is your answer to the 10:30 phone call. The next article, Emergency Pump-Outs: Dispatching the Call That Can't Wait Until Tomorrow, covers the most urgent version of this call.

For how same-day dispatch fits with the Waiting List, route order and live GPS, see PortaPottyBossPro portable toilet route software.