DumpsterBossPro Blog — Driver App & Routes

Writing Job Notes the Next Roll-Off Driver Can Actually Use

Every roll-off company has a driver who knows every site by heart. Which gate code works, which driveway slopes, which super will chew you out for parking in the wrong spot. That driver is great until they take a vacation, and the guy filling in spends the week calling the office from curbs.

After The Owner-Operator's Dumpster Driver App: Driving and Dispatching From One Phone, this guide is about getting what the best driver knows onto the job, where every driver can read it.

Notes Are for the Next Driver

The test for a good note is simple: could a driver who has never been to this address use it to do the job without calling anyone? If yes, it is a good note. If it assumes you already know the site, it is not.

"Same as last time" fails. "Left side of drive, door toward garage, boards, gate code in access notes" passes.

Another test: read the note to someone in the office who has never been to the site, and ask them to point on a map or a photo where the can goes. If they cannot, neither can the fill-in driver.

Short, Front-Loaded, Specific

Drivers read notes in the cab between stops. Put the most important thing first. Use short phrases, not paragraphs. Be specific about direction and distance: left, right, front, back, how many feet from the garage, which corner of the lot.

Capital letters on the one thing that must not be missed are fine. "Do NOT block neighbor's drive" is a note that gets read.

Numbers help too. "Can 10 ft from garage door" beats "near the garage." "Second entrance past the sign" beats "back entrance." A driver can measure ten feet with their eyes. Nobody can measure "near."

Placement Notes vs Access Notes

Keep the two kinds of notes in their places. Access notes are about getting onto the site: gate codes, which entrance, gate hours, who to call, overhead clearance on the approach. Placement notes are about where the can goes once you are there: side, distance, door direction, boards, what to avoid.

Mixing them makes both harder to read. A driver at the gate wants the code, not a paragraph about where the can goes.

Update, Do Not Stack

When something changes, edit the note. Do not add a second note that contradicts the first. "Gate code 1234" followed three lines later by "new code 5678" is a trap. The driver will punch in the first number they see.

Drivers who learn something new should update the job, or tell the office so they can. That is how knowledge moves from one driver's head into the system.

A good practice is to give the office a quick note at the end of each day about anything that changed on a site: a new gate, a moved can, a different contact. The office updates the jobs, and the next driver to visit is working from today's reality instead of last month's.

What Not to Put in Notes

Leave out opinions about customers, jokes, and anything you would not want the customer to read if they saw it. Notes are working information. Leave out stale information too: if the super changed, remove the old name.

Sensitive details like gate codes belong in the access notes on the job, where the people who need them can see them, not in a group text.

Remember that notes outlive the job. A note written in a hurry on a delivery is still being read on the pickup three weeks later, and possibly on the next rental at the same address next year. Write it like it will be read by a stranger, because eventually it will be.

Notes Plus Photos

The best notes point to photos. "Can placed per photo from delivery" tells the pickup driver to look at the placement photo saved with the job, which shows more than words can. Together, notes and photos make any driver as good as the one who has run the site twenty times.

For more on how notes, photos and job details come together in the driver's view, see the dumpster driver app page.