Waste management routing software

First, what this page is not. Dumpster Controls does not plan residential curbside collection routes, does not do weight-based route planning and is not sold to municipalities. If "route software for garbage companies" means a truck that stops at hundreds of houses on a fixed day, that is a different product and this page will not pretend otherwise. What Dumpster Controls does is waste management routing software for the other kind of hauler: the roll-off, junk removal or scrap company whose truck makes a short list of stops a day, each one an order, with a landfill run in between, where the hard question is not the shortest path but whether the truck has a can on it when it arrives.

That question is the whole difference. A roll-off truck carries one container at a time, so the order of stops decides whether a driver shows up at a delivery with nothing on the truck, or at a pickup with a full can still on the rails. The routing below is built around that cycle, and it is on the free plan.

What the routing does, and does not do

The route map: color for where, line for what

On the Dispatch board, click a driver's block and the Map panel opens on that route. Legs are curved arrows colored by destination: green is Delivery, orange is Pickup, brown is Landfill, blue is a special stop, and a thin Back to yard line closes the day. A solid line means the truck is carrying a dumpster, full or empty; a dashed line means it is driving empty, what drivers call bobtail. Each stop in the list shows the transition, for example bobtail to full can or empty can to bobtail, so the dispatcher can check the sequence is physically possible before the driver leaves.

When it is not, the map says so: "Truck arrives with no can. Stop at HQ for an empty one?", "Truck still carries a can. Landfill or HQ first?", "Size differs from the can on the truck". You fix it by reordering the stops or adding one. A full dumpster stored for later, because the landfill was closed or the day ran out, adds an ST point before the landfill leg and a via storage chip on the stop.

AI Routes: a suggestion, checked against the truck cycle

The purple AI Routes button, in the driver's lane or at the top of the route panel, reorders that driver's remaining stops for the shortest day. It is checked against the real roll-off cycle: empty truck, carrying a full can, carrying an empty can, swaps, stored dumpsters and landfill runs. Stops in progress or completed never move, it works for today's date only, and it needs at least two stops that can still be reordered.

The preview is explicit about its assumptions. It states whether it took the truck to start empty or with a full dumpster, and where that came from: the truck's live status, today's finished stops, or a best guess, in which case it asks you to confirm before applying. The map shows the suggestion as purple curved arrows with renumbered pins, the list shows the position changes, trips back to the yard appear as their own rows, and a dashed purple line ending in a "?" marks a landfill stop with no landfill chosen yet, so its position is an estimate. Nothing changes until you click Apply. The dispatch board around it is described at waste management dispatch software, and the dumpster-specific guide is dumpster route optimization.

The landfill leg: chosen by distance, priced on the order

The stop a routing tool for garbage companies rarely gets right is the one with no customer on it. In Dumpster Controls the landfill is set per task, by the dispatcher or by the driver from a list sorted by distance from the yard, with hours, a rating from other drivers and a tipping fee estimate carrying a source badge: Verified, Reported or Unknown. Private sites you add sit in the same list. At the gate the driver photographs the receipt and the app reads the net weight and the cost off it, so the disposal cost of that leg lands on the order it belongs to, which is what makes profit per order possible.

In the cab: phone, tablet and no signal

Drivers run the route from the iOS and Android app, with a driver map and a Truck mode for navigation, or from a tablet mounted in landscape in the cab: the day list on the left, the map on the right, the shift clock always on, and any driver signing in with a 4 digit PIN because the device belongs to the company, not to a person. Both keep working without signal. Positions for the live marker come from the phone or the tablet, so there is no GPS unit to buy. Tresha, the built-in assistant, reads the day back by voice from the tablet and marks a stop done when the driver says so.

What it costs

Nothing per month, per truck, per route or per user, at any fleet size. The only optional cost is card processing when a customer pays online, 2.99% + $3.99 per transaction, or 2.99% + $0.30 on the optional $169 per month Unlimited plan, both on the pricing page.

Waste management routing software: FAQ