How to run a skip hire business
What a hire looks like, from the first call to the payment.
A skip hire business runs on a simple cycle: a skip is delivered to a customer, sometimes exchanged, then collected. Running it well comes down to holding four things in one place: the order and its jobs, the driver schedule, a price list by waste type and size, and invoicing with a view of what is unpaid. As soon as those four live in separate tools, skips sit on sites untracked and completed work never gets billed.
The life of an order
It starts with a call. The customer gives a site address, a type of waste, a size and a date they want. Those four things are enough to create the order and price it, as long as you have a price list ready.
Then comes the delivery: a driver drops the skip at the agreed address. If the job runs on, the full skip is swapped for an empty one, sometimes more than once. Each of those movements is a separate job with its own date and driver, but they all belong to the same order.
The collection closes the cycle. It is also the moment the order becomes billable: you now know the real hire length, the number of exchanges, and any extras picked up on site. Until the collection has happened, the order needs to stay open and visible.
Running the day
Office work comes down to preparing tomorrow and reacting to what today throws at you.
Set the day the night before
Fix tomorrow's jobs at the end of the day, not on the morning itself. A driver who knows the round before setting off does not come back to the yard.
Put a driver against every job
A job with nobody on it is a job that will not happen. The most useful filter on a schedule is the one showing what is still unassigned.
Send the details in writing
Address, time, customer, skip size and waste type. An SMS saves the checking call from the cab, and it can be looked at again.
Group by area
A delivery and a collection in the same area belong in the same run. A map of live sites makes those pairings obvious.
Watch the hires that drag
A skip that has been down for three weeks is either money waiting to be billed or a customer to chase. Either way you need to see it.
Building a price list
Two things drive the price of a hire. Setting them once stops you renegotiating on every call, and stops two people in the office quoting differently.
The waste type
Rubble, mixed construction waste, wood, green waste. Each stream costs something different to dispose of. That is the first axis.
The skip size
The second axis. A price list crosses the two, and leaves blank the combinations you do not offer.
What gets charged on top
Hire days beyond the included period, waiting time on site, tonnage over the limit, contaminated loads, a wasted journey when the skip cannot be reached.
How you quote
Decide once whether you quote excluding or including VAT, and keep the same rule everywhere. It is the most common misunderstanding with domestic customers.
Invoicing and getting paid
The most common way to lose money in this trade is not a bad price, it is completed work that never gets invoiced. So you need a list, kept automatically, of finished orders with no invoice against them. While an order is on that list, the job is not done.
Then there is collecting. Plenty of customers pay in instalments, and the outstanding balance disappears quickly if it is not written down as the payment arrives. Every payment needs recording with its date and method, and the invoice needs to show what is still owed.
Larger customers often want one document for the month rather than ten separate invoices. A statement grouping a period's invoices answers that without extra work.
Common questions
- How many skips do you need to start?
- It depends on your area and your customers, but the thing to watch is turnaround. A skip sitting on a site for three weeks is not earning. Tracking real hire lengths will tell you faster than anything else whether you need to buy more.
- Should you charge per day or a flat rate?
- A flat rate covering delivery, a set hire period and collection is the clearest for the customer. Days beyond that period are then charged individually. What matters is that the included period is written down when the order is taken.
- How do you avoid arguments about what was ordered?
- By getting the order agreed in writing before you go out. An order form emailed and signed online fixes the size, the address, the date and the price. If there is a disagreement later, the signed document settles it.
- When is it time to move to management software?
- Usually when a second person starts touching the schedule, or when you begin finding hires that were never invoiced. While it all fits in one head, a spreadsheet is fine. As soon as the information has to travel, it is not.
Read next
How to invoice a skip hire
The hire, the extras, VAT, part payments and chasing what is owed.
What is skip hire software?
What this kind of tool covers and how to choose one.
Order management in BenneCRM
The day's schedule, the jobs and the map of live hires.
For one and two lorry operators
What changes when you are the only one in the office.
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