DumpsterBossPro Blog — Contractor Accounts

Rental Days on Contractor Jobs: Days Included, Daily Rates and Cans That Sit

Contractor cans sit. That is the nature of construction. A residential customer fills a can in a weekend; a builder waits on an inspection, a remodeler waits on a cabinet delivery, a property manager waits on a tenant to finish moving out. Meanwhile the can is on their site instead of earning money on another one.

The size and debris details in Size, Unit Number and Debris Type: The Dumpster Details Contractors Expect You to Get Right describe the can. Rental days describe how long it is allowed to stay.

Days Included and the Daily Rate After

Each job in DumpsterBossPro has days included and a daily rate after. A typical contractor job might include a set number of days, with each day beyond that charged at the daily rate. Your numbers depend on your market and your costs; the point is to set them on every job so there is never a question later.

When a can sits past its window, extra days are invoiced automatically. Nobody has to remember to count calendar days on a whiteboard at month end, and nothing slips through because the office was busy.

Put the terms in the quote the contractor approves online, too. When the rental days and daily rate are written in something they said yes to, there is very little to argue about later.

Why Contractors Often Get Different Terms

Many companies give steady contractors more days included than a one-time customer, because a builder who keeps cans out all year is worth more than the extra days. Others keep the same terms but swap more often. Either way, write the terms on the job, not just in your head.

Whatever you decide, be consistent across the account. If one super gets fourteen days and another super at the same builder gets seven, the bookkeeper will notice and call.

Telling the Contractor Before the Clock Runs Out

Nobody likes a surprise charge. A quick text to the super before the included days run out, asking whether the can is ready or should be swapped, prevents most extra-day arguments. Two-way texting makes that easy, and the reply lands on the account.

Sometimes the answer is leave it, we need it another week. That is fine; the extra days will be billed at the rate you agreed. The point is the contractor chose it.

Keep a short list each morning of contractor cans that hit their included days in the next two or three days. That list is your text queue. Five texts a morning prevent most of the month-end surprises.

Swaps Reset the Clock

On a long job, a swap usually starts a new rental period for the new can. Contractors who understand that will often time their swaps to avoid extra days, which is good for them and good for your truck schedule. Explain it once when you set up the account.

For planned swap rhythms, the rental days barely come into play, because the can never sits long enough to run over. Extra days matter most for the job that stalls.

Make sure the office books the swap as a new job with its own rental days, so the clock on the new can is tracked from the day it lands. Mixing two cans into one long rental is how extra days get missed or double-counted.

Extra Days on the Monthly Invoice

Extra days land on the job, and the job lands on the monthly invoice with its job site named on the line. When the bookkeeper sees that the Henderson site had six extra days, she can ask the super why, instead of calling you to ask what the charge is.

Clear lines prevent disputes. A single total with no breakdown invites a phone call. A line that names the site, the can and the days explains itself.

If a contractor disputes extra days, check the dates on the job and the texts in the thread. Most of the time the record settles it in a minute. When you did leave a can longer because your truck was late, take the days off without being asked.

Using Rental Days to Manage Your Fleet

Cans sitting at stalled contractor jobs are cans you cannot rent to anyone else. Watching which sites keep running over helps you decide when to ask for a pickup, when to suggest a smaller can, and how many cans you really have available on a busy week. Reports by account show which contractors consistently run long.

Next, the guide covers scale tickets and per-ton overage. For how rental days fit into contractor billing, see the DumpsterBossPro contractor dumpster rental software page.