DumpsterBossPro Blog — Pickups & Swaps

Finding Rentals Past Their Included Days Before They Turn Into Free Storage

Every roll-off company has them: cans that went out for a seven-day rental and are still sitting there a month later. Nobody called. The customer forgot, or got used to having a dumpster in the driveway, or is quietly filling it a bag at a time. Meanwhile you are turning away rentals in that size.

Why Overdue Rentals Cost You Twice

An overdue can costs you once in lost rentals: that 20-yard could be earning a new delivery fee. It costs you again if the extra days never make it onto the invoice. And it often costs a third time in weight, because a can that sits for weeks keeps filling, sometimes with things that were never supposed to go in it, because the neighbors noticed an open dumpster too.

There is also a quieter cost: planning. If you think you have four 30-yards available next week and two of them are sitting forgotten on finished jobs, you will either turn away work or promise deliveries you cannot make.

The grouping and relocate work described in Relocates: Scheduling a Dumpster Move Without Wrecking the Day and earlier guides is about running the pickups you know about. This guide is about finding the pickups nobody has asked for yet.

What the Rental Record Tracks

In DumpsterBossPro, each rental job carries the delivery date, the pickup date when it happens, the number of days included in the price and a daily rate after that. That is the information you need to know which cans are running long.

When a can is past its included days, it is not an emergency. It is a decision: call the customer, agree on a pickup or a swap, and remind them that additional days are billed at the daily rate. Rentals carry the dates, so the office can see which ones have gone long.

Make It a Routine, Not a Rescue

The companies that keep overdue cans under control do not rely on remembering. They pick a time — many do it every morning, some twice a week — and look at every rental still on the ground. For each one past its included days:

• Call or text the customer and ask whether they are finished.
• If they are done, put a pickup on the Waiting List right then.
• If they still need it, confirm that extra days bill at the daily rate and ask when they expect to finish.
• If they need more room, offer a swap.

Two-way texting makes this fast. A short message gets a reply from most customers within the hour, and the answer goes in the job notes.

How to Word the Reminder

Most overdue customers are not trying to take advantage of you. They lost track. A friendly, specific message works best: "Hi, this is the dumpster company. Your 20-yard on Oak Ridge Drive was included for 7 days and has been out 12. Are you ready for a pickup, or do you need more time? Extra days are billed at the daily rate on your invoice."

Note that DumpsterBossPro does not send automatic rental-expiring reminders to customers. This is a message your office sends, using two-way texting or a call. The upside is that a human message gets better replies.

Billing the Extra Days Without a Fight

When the pickup finally happens, extra days beyond the included period are added to the invoice automatically from the delivery date, pickup date, days included and daily rate. Nobody has to count days on a calendar, and the math is the same for every customer.

Fights about extra days usually come from surprise. If the customer heard about the daily rate when they booked, on the quote they approved online, and again in the reminder, the line on the invoice is not a surprise. If they keep a card on file, you can charge it once the invoice goes out, and payment follow-ups handle the rest.

Turning Overdue Cans Into Better Runs

Overdue cans are pickups you can schedule on your terms. Once the customer agrees, they go on the Waiting List map like any other request, and you can group them into runs with pickups that came in by phone. Many companies find that a weekly sweep of overdue rentals fills out their light days nicely.

To see how rental tracking, the Waiting List and invoicing fit together, visit DumpsterBossPro dumpster pickup and swap scheduling software.