JunkBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

What the Junk Crew Sees: The Day in Route Order on the Phone

All the scheduling work in the office comes down to one screen: the crew's phone in the truck at 7:30 a.m. If that screen shows the right jobs in the right order with the right details, the day runs. If it doesn't, the crew calls the office, and the office stops whatever it was doing to answer.

The Other End of the Route

The customer's view of the same route is covered in The Customer's Live Route Map: Showing a Junk Customer Their Place in Line. This guide is the crew's view.

The JunkBossPro crew app runs in the browser on iPhone and Android and can be installed to the home screen. There's no app store download. Each crew member logs in with the company login and a personal PIN.

The Day in Route Order

After logging in, the crew sees the day's jobs for their truck in the order dispatch set. Whether the office auto-routed Closest First, Furthest First or moved stops by hand, the phone shows that exact order. There's no separate list to copy and nothing to sort.

When dispatch changes something — a same-day add, a cancellation, a stop moved to the top — the phone follows. The crew works top to bottom.

What's on Each Card

Each job card carries what the crew needs to do the job without calling:

• The address with a navigation button.
• The load size, from Min Load to Full Load or multiple loads.
• The number of items and what's going: “Washer and dryer in the garage.”
• The haul-to stop with its own Go button to navigate to the dump, transfer station, donation center or metal recycler.
• Access notes: gate codes, lockboxes, dogs, which door.
• Past notes from earlier visits to the address.

That's why the details entered at booking matter so much. Every note the office writes ends up on this card.

A crew lead can read the whole day in a minute before leaving the yard. Scroll the cards, see that stop three is a 3/4 load and stop four is a washer for the metal recycler, and plan the unload before the truck is even started. Crews that read the day first make fewer calls later.

Start, Skip, Complete

Three buttons run the day:

• Start tells the office the job is underway, so anyone looking at the board knows the crew is on site.
• Skip is for jobs that can't be done — locked garage, nobody home, a pile far bigger than quoted — with a note on why.
• Complete finishes the job. The invoice is created, and a card on file can be charged.

On-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically as the crew works the route, so the crew never stops to text a customer. Skips and how the office handles them are covered in Skips, Cancellations and Midday Changes in Junk Dispatch.

Photos on the Job

Before and after photos taken in the app stay with the job. For a cleanout, the before photo shows the pile and the after photo shows the empty garage. For a trash-out, the photos are the property manager's proof. If a customer later asks whether you took the right things, the photos answer.

The Time Clock

The crew clocks in and out on the same phone. Hours are recorded as they happen, which beats piecing together a week from memory on Friday. It also means the owner can see who worked the long cleanout day without asking around.

Crew GPS for the Office

While the crew works, their location shows on the office map. The office can see which truck is closest for a same-day call without calling the truck. Crews tend to like this, because it means fewer interruptions.

Phones Your Crew Already Has

Because the crew app runs in the browser, it works on the phones your people already carry. A new hire can be set up with a PIN and a truck assignment and run a route on day one. When someone leaves, turning off their PIN turns off their access, and the gate codes on the cards go with it.

The Office Builds It, the Crew Runs It

Scheduling and dispatch happen in the office. The crew app is where the plan meets the driveway. When the two match, the day goes smoothly and the phone stays quiet. For the full set of scheduling and dispatch tools, see the JunkBossPro junk removal scheduling software page.