DumpsterBossPro Blog — Roll-Off Dispatch

Taking a Dumpster Order: The Intake Checklist for Roll-Off Dispatchers

Most of the problems that blow up a roll-off day were baked in on the phone call. The site address was a subdivision with no lot number. Nobody asked about the gate. The customer said "yard waste and some old cabinets," and the driver found a can half full of drywall and shingles.

The dispatch board, as covered in Reading the Roll-Off Dispatch Board by Truck and Day, can only show what was captured at intake. This checklist covers the questions to ask on every order.

1. Who, and How to Reach Them on Site

Get the customer name and the best number to reach the person who will actually be on site. For contractor jobs, that is often not the person who placed the order. A project manager calls in the order, but the foreman at the site is the one the driver needs when the gate is locked.

If the customer already exists, attach the job to their record. Customers with multiple job sites — contractors, property managers, builders — should have each site on file, so the right address is one selection away instead of retyped from memory.

Ask how the customer wants to hear from you. Some want texts, some want calls, some want both. In the customer app they can set alert choices for themselves, but asking at intake sets the tone and gets you the right number the first time.

2. The Exact Site Address and Placement

Get a precise address. For new construction, that may mean a lot number, a builder's name and the nearest cross road. Then ask where the can goes: driveway, curb, back of the lot, beside the garage. Ask whether there is anything the driver needs to avoid: low wires, soft ground, a sprinkler line, a freshly poured driveway.

Write that into the placement and access notes. Those notes show in the driver app on the job, so the driver reads them before setting the can, not after.

3. Size, Debris Type and Dates

Confirm the size: 10, 15, 20, 30 or 40 yard. If the customer is unsure, ask what the project is. A small bathroom tear-out and a whole-house cleanout are very different cans. Ask what is going in — household junk, construction debris, roofing, concrete, dirt — and record the debris type on the job. It affects the weight, where the load can go and sometimes whether it can go at all, so check your local disposal rules.

Get the delivery date and the expected pickup date, and confirm how many days are included in the rental. If they keep it longer, a daily rate applies after that. Saying that out loud on the phone prevents arguments later.

One more question worth asking on every order: "What happens if the project runs long?" Most customers have not thought about it. Hearing the daily rate now, when nothing is at stake, is very different from seeing it for the first time on an invoice.

4. The Haul-To Address

Decide where the load is going when it comes back: which landfill or transfer station. That haul-to address goes on the job alongside the site address, and the driver gets both in the app with one-tap navigation.

Different debris types often go to different places. Clean concrete might go to one site, mixed construction debris to another. Deciding at intake means the driver is not calling from the cab asking where to dump.

If your company has a default disposal site for most loads, that can be the starting point, but still glance at the debris type before accepting the default. The one load of roofing that ends up at the wrong site costs more than every second you saved by skipping the check.

5. Access, Timing and Payment

Ask about gates, codes, locked lots, HOA rules and time windows. A commercial site that only accepts deliveries after 7 a.m. needs to be scheduled that way. Then handle payment: card on file, an approved quote, or a contractor account billed monthly on one invoice. Getting this right before the truck rolls means the job does not sit unbilled afterward.

If the job needs a price first, send a quote the customer can approve online. Once approved, it becomes a job on the Waiting List with all the details already filled in.

6. Read It Back

Before you hang up, read the order back: size, site address, placement, delivery date, expected pickup and what is going in the can. It takes thirty seconds and catches a surprising number of mistakes. Then put the job on the Waiting List immediately, not after the next call.

Over time, use your own mistakes to update the checklist. Every time a driver calls the office from a site because something was missing, ask which question would have prevented it, and add it. A checklist that grows from real problems is worth far more than one copied from somewhere else.

The next guide covers why every roll-off job needs two addresses. For the full set of dispatch tools that use this intake data, visit the DumpsterBossPro roll-off dispatch software page.