Tipped out in the yard
A 6 yard skip comes back from a house clearance. When it is tipped at your yard, the pile includes two mattresses, a fridge freezer, a sofa and several sheets of plasterboard. Each of these costs you extra to deal with, whether through separate handling or a specialist route.
The office rings the customer to explain the surcharge. The customer says nobody told her, the skip was full when the lorry came, and anyway how does she know these came from her skip? The office has no photo of what went in. The charge is dropped, and the cost stays with you.
Why restricted items slip through
Customers genuinely do not know what they can put in a skip, and the moment they find out is usually after the skip is collected.
- The restricted items list is on a page of the website or in small print on the booking confirmation.
- Phone bookings rarely go through the list item by item.
- Drivers collecting a full skip cannot see what is under the top layer.
- Items are found in the yard after tipping, with nothing linking them to the skip except memory.
- Charging after the event feels unfair to customers who were not told clearly.
Which items you restrict, and how you handle them, depends on your own site and permits. We are concerned with communicating and recording your rules.
What restricted items cost you
Every mattress, fridge or piece of plasterboard that arrives uncharged costs you handling and disposal you did not price for. Across a year these add up, and they are concentrated in the jobs that already have the thinnest margins, like domestic clearances.
Arguments with customers over surcharges also damage reviews and repeat business. Firms that avoid the argument by not charging simply absorb the cost.
How we build fair surcharging
What we build makes the rules clear before the skip arrives and records what was found after.
- At booking, online or by phone, the customer sees a short list of common restricted items and can declare any they plan to include, with the surcharge shown. Phone staff see the same list on screen.
- The booking confirmation and a text on delivery day repeat the list in plain words, with a link to add declared items later.
- At collection, the driver takes a photo of the loaded skip from above.
- When the skip is tipped in your yard, the yard operative records restricted items found against the skip's booking, with a photo, using a tablet or phone.
- Found items not declared generate a proposed surcharge, which goes to the office for approval with both photos and the booking history.
- Approved surcharges are invoiced through your accounts package, and the customer receives the photos with the invoice.
| Stage | What is recorded |
|---|---|
| Booking | Items declared, surcharges shown and accepted |
| Delivery day text | Restricted item reminder and declaration link |
| Collection | Photo of loaded skip |
| Yard tipping | Items found, photo, linked to booking |
| Office | Surcharge approved, waived or reduced |
A house clearance skip with the new process
When the customer books the 6 yard skip, the booking screen shows mattresses, fridges and plasterboard with their surcharges. She declares two mattresses. On delivery day she gets a text reminder and adds the fridge freezer through the link.
When the skip is tipped, the yard operative records the two mattresses, the fridge and the plasterboard. The office sees that the plasterboard was not declared, with the yard photo. The surcharge is approved and invoiced with the photo, and the customer pays without a dispute, because the rule was clear and the evidence is there.
Are restricted items eating your margin?
- Surcharges are regularly disputed and dropped.
- Customers say nobody told them what they could not put in the skip.
- Items found in the yard cannot be linked to a specific skip.
- Phone bookings do not go through the restricted items list.
- You rarely charge for restricted items at all.