PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Weekly Service Scheduling

Assigning Weekly Service Days to Trucks: Building a Service Week That Repeats

From Data to a Working Week

Once the schedule is off paper, as covered in Moving a Recurring Porta Potty Service Schedule Off Paper and Spreadsheets, the next question is how to shape the week. Which truck services which sites, and on which day? A good answer makes every week look much like the last one. Drivers learn their routes, customers learn their day, and the office spends less time rebuilding the plan.

Start With Areas

The simplest way to build a repeating week is to divide your service area into zones and give each zone a day. North on Monday, east on Tuesday, downtown on Wednesday, and so on. If you run more than one truck, each truck can cover a different zone each day.

The Waiting List map makes zones easy to see. Weekly service pins cluster where the building is happening, and you can draw your zones around the clusters rather than around city limits.

Assigning From the Waiting List

Each morning, or at the start of the week, look at the due pins on the Waiting List. Select the ones in today's zone and assign them to the right truck and day. They move to the Scheduled List, where the dispatch board shows them by day and truck. Over a few weeks, each site settles into its zone's day, because it comes due seven days after its last completed visit.

Balancing Trucks

Zones are rarely equal. One area may have forty sites and another fifteen. Use the dispatch board's totals of stops and dollars per day to see the imbalance. Filter by truck to see each driver's load. If Monday's truck carries far more than Tuesday's, move the edge of the zones until the days even out.

Also count the heavy stops. A day with restroom trailers, banks of units at events, or many hand wash stations takes longer than its stop count suggests. The units listed under each address help you see which stops are big.

Twice-Weekly Sites

Twice-weekly sites need two days in the same week, three or four days apart. Put their zone on two days, such as Monday and Thursday, or let a truck pass through the area twice. Plan these first, because they are the hardest to fit. Twice-Weekly Porta Potty Service: When One Visit a Week Is Not Enough covers twice-weekly service.

Leave Room for the Unplanned

A week that is fully packed with weekly service has no room for extra pump-outs, deliveries, pickups or catch-up from a rained-out day. Leave some slack on each truck, or keep one lighter day for overflow. When an extra pump-out request comes in, it lands on the Waiting List and can go on the truck already in that area.

When Sites Come and Go

New sites start every week and old ones end. A new site goes into the zone for its area and comes due on that zone's day after the first visit. When a site ends, end its service so it stops coming due. Every few months, look at the map again. If a part of town has grown, it may need its own day.

Route Order Within the Day

Once a truck has its sites for the day, set the route order. Drag stops into place, or auto-route Closest First or Furthest First from the yard. The driver sees the same order on the phone. Route Order for the Pump Truck: Closest First, Furthest First and Your Own Order covers which option fits which day.

Drivers Who Know Their Zones

A driver who covers the same zones each week learns the gate codes, the superintendents and the shortcuts. That familiarity is worth keeping. But do not let it become the only place information lives. Keep placement and access notes on every job, so a fill-in driver can run the zone too.

When a Truck Is Down

Trucks break down. When one is in the shop, its zone still needs service. Because every site carries its due status on the Waiting List, the office can see exactly which of the down truck's sites are due and how much room each one has before it turns overdue. Spread the most urgent ones across the other trucks and let the rest wait a day within their due window. When the truck comes back, the sites drift back to their usual days on their own.

A Week That Runs Itself

Build the zones once, adjust them a few times a year, and let the Waiting List and dispatch board carry the rest. To see how assignment works on the map and the board, visit PortaPottyBossPro portable toilet service scheduling software.