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Dumpster rental

The booking workflow

How a dumpster rental moves through HaulHQ: the customer books and pays, you deliver, you pick up.

This is part of the Dumpster rental workflow

Doing junk removal? Start with the quote workflow.

A dumpster rental is a booking, not a quote. The customer picks a size, dates and any add-ons, sees the price, and checks out. You are not in the middle of that transaction -- your job starts when it completes.

The path

  1. 1The customer picks a container size, rental window and add-ons on your booking page.
  2. 2They check out. If Stripe is connected they pay the full rental total there and then; if not, the booking is recorded and you collect later.
  3. 3HaulHQ creates a job and reserves an equipment unit -- a specific container -- for those dates. An online checkout that stops before paying shows as Awaiting payment and releases itself after two hours -- see Booking & checkout.
  4. 4A delivery trip is scheduled, and a pickup trip for the end of the rental.
  5. 5You deliver. Your driver marks it dropped and takes photos.
  6. 6You pick it up, and the rental finishes at the scale: the driver enters the weight ticket at the dump, any weight charge is confirmed, and the customer gets their receipt -- see Work orders & trips.

One job, two site visits

This is the structural difference from junk removal. A rental is a single job with a delivery trip and a pickup trip, days or weeks apart. Your schedule has to hold both.

What has to be set up for this to work

  • Each container size added as equipment, with a quantity -- see Equipment & units.
  • Add-ons, if you want to offer any. They are items in the Add-on category with Show in booking flow switched on, and they are their own step in the booking flow. Create none and your customers are simply never offered any -- see Equipment & units.
  • A service area with cities, not just zips -- see Service area.
  • Hours and booking capacity, which live on two different screens -- see Scheduling & business hours.
  • A booking page on your website carrying haulhq_booking.

Common mistakes

"I will set up my dumpsters in Settings > Quote Form."

That screen is junk removal only and has no effect on rentals. Dumpsters live under Equipment. This is the single most common wrong turn in the product -- see the two workflows.

"Customers can book but I never see availability limits working."

Bookable units come from the number of units on each equipment item. Zero means nothing is bookable; more than your real fleet oversells you.

"The rental ended and the container was offered to someone else before we had picked it up."

Availability follows the booked dates, not the pickup trip. A container is offered again from the day after its end date whether or not the pickup has happened. If a customer keeps it longer, check the calendar before agreeing -- see Work orders & trips.