Half past ten and the phone keeps ringing
The day started well. Each skip lorry left the yard at seven with a printed job list: deliveries, collections, a couple of exchanges, a tip run. By half past ten three builders have rung for urgent exchanges because their skips are full and the labourers are standing around. One homeowner wants her skip collected today because the permit expires. A driver rings to say a delivery address has no room for the skip.
The person in the office is juggling a paper list, a map in her head and five phone calls to drivers who are driving. She moves a job from one lorry to another, forgets to tell the second driver, and two lorries turn up at the same site. The builder at the other end of town waits until four o'clock.
Why dispatch falls apart mid-morning
Skip work is planned the day before but a large part of it arrives on the day. The plan is on paper; the changes are verbal.
- Exchanges are requested on the day, often urgently, by trade customers on the clock.
- The office cannot see where each lorry is or how far through its list it is.
- Changes are relayed by phone to drivers who should not be answering it.
- Tip runs and yard stock affect which lorry can do an exchange, but are not visible together.
- Customers are not told when to expect the lorry, so they ring again.
Good dispatchers hold all this in their heads. It works until the day gets busy or they are off.
What the chaos costs
Lorries criss-cross town because jobs are allocated by who answers the phone rather than who is nearest. Builders wait with full skips and labour standing idle, and they remember which firm was slow. Double visits and missed jobs mean extra fuel and driver time.
The dispatcher's day becomes a series of phone calls, and the calls to drivers while they drive are a problem in their own right.
How we build a live skip dispatch board
What we build puts every lorry, job and skip on one screen, and sends changes to the drivers' app rather than their ears.
- Jobs for the day, deliveries, exchanges, collections, tip runs, are shown per lorry in order, with each lorry's position from the driver app or a tracker you already have.
- New jobs taken on the phone or online appear in an unallocated column. The board suggests which lorry can take each one, based on location, lorry type, skip size carried and the next tip run.
- The dispatcher drags the job onto a lorry and places it in the order. The driver's app updates with the new job and a short notification, no phone call.
- Drivers mark jobs arrived, done or failed with a reason and photo, so the board updates itself.
- Customers get a text when their job is allocated and when the lorry is on its way, written in your words.
- At the end of the day, completed jobs pass to invoicing and skip stock records.
| On the board | What it tells the dispatcher |
|---|---|
| Lorry position and next job | Who is nearest to a new exchange |
| Skip size on board | Whether the lorry can take the exchange directly |
| Jobs remaining | Whether a lorry has room in its day |
| Failed jobs with reason | What needs rebooking or a call |
| Unallocated jobs | What still has no lorry |
Half past ten after the change
The three builders' exchanges appear in the unallocated column as they are booked. The board shows that one lorry is two streets from the first site with an empty 8 yarder on board, so it takes it next. The other two go to the lorry heading back from the tip. Each driver gets a notification and the new job in the right place on their list. The builders get a text saying the lorry is on its way.
The driver whose delivery had no room marks it failed with a photo of the parked cars, and the dispatcher calls the customer to rearrange. No lorry turns up twice at the same site.
Is your dispatch run by phone?
- The day's plan is on paper and changes are phoned to drivers.
- You do not know where each lorry is without ringing the driver.
- Two lorries have turned up at the same job.
- Trade customers ring repeatedly to ask when their exchange is coming.
- Dispatch falls apart when the usual person is off.