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In a small waste haulage company, order visibility isn't usually such a big problem. The orders, for the most part, will be manageable, with very little variance from day to day. People can remember any changes, no problem, and people will know what's going on without really needing to check a system, and everything just works.
But once the business grows, things living in people's heads no longer work. And before you know it, things get missed, communication gets confused or is nonexistent, and customers start to feel the brunt of your issues. And that's where things become unstuck.
Now, the issue isn't your workload itself, although this is causing issues; it's how you work, it's how you handle your orders, and the gap between these suddenly feels huge.
This post is going to dive into the reasons why you might find order visibility breaking down as you grow, and what you can do about it.
Orders stop being created with the same information
The thing here is that you need to have every single order created with the exact same information. Every single one. There's no flexibilityonce you reach a certain point, and this will come at different times for different companies.
When you have consistency, you reduce any order visibility issues, and to do this, you need to ensure you have a system in place that enables you to collect the same set of details from each and every company. You need to know service type, pricing logic, duration, access, scope, etc. Any important information that will impact how you approach the job needs to be collected at the same point.
Once this happens, orders will flow neatly, and then if extra information is required, the customer can be contacted, and these details can be entered into the same form, which is easily accessed and shared between all parties involved in completing the job. No changes, no passed messages, just one set of details everyone has access to.
Changes are being handled verbally, not being absorbed into the order
Again, as with the last point, order visibility breaks down when you rely too much on people passing orders and changes verbally. They can be easily missed, misinterpreted, or even not communicated at all.
This is your changes, such as pick-up locations, changes to dates, size of dumpster rental, etc. You don't want to, nor should you, be communicating these verbally. As soon as any changes are made, it needs to be updated within the order immediately, not later as it comes through, no questions. Because if the system is working blind, so is everything else, and this not only impacts day-to-day operations but customer service too.
Dispatch decisions never make it back to the order
As you scale, operations need to move fast; that's a given. However, if orders coming in from dispatch aren't getting through at all, or on time, the potential for disruption and things to go sideways increases exponentially.
Neither dispatch nor the drivers should be working separately at different times. If dispatch has an update, they need to inform delivery, and vice versa. It's not an additional operational task; it's an integral part of the workflow: the change comes in, it becomes a priority, and all parties are informed immediately. Utilizing technology to streamline the order process means you can keep everyone in the loop at all times. Job dispatch and scheduling tools are what's needed here to bridge the gap and smooth out workflows on the move.
Drivers become a source of truth for what actually happened
OK, here's the thing: this isn't to say drivers aren't trustworthy. However, if an issue arises, do you really want to put them in a position of their word against the customer? Not really, and they won't want to be there, too.
As operations expand, you need to be able to support drivers to enable them to log any important details at the scene and be responsive, so things aren't being passed around to get back to the office.
Here, you need digital proof of service tools to assist your drivers. They need to be able to capture photographs, video, update logs, or attach evidence to the order system that syncs back to the office immediately.
This helps with resolving disputes, faster invoicing, and delivers clear accountability if things go wrong, as you have the required evidence, or not, as the case may be.
Billing is reconstructed after jobs finish
You probably won't realize you're doing this if you're doing it automatically when you're small. But you'll notice the problems once you take on increased workloads.
Billing should never have to work out what happened. If they do, your order visibility has already failed before it reaches them.
You don't want to be rebuilding jobs from fragments of information; you want the complete picture, whole, ready for billing to send out invoices. You don't want it coming through as the original booking, then dispatch notes, messages, and assumptions, because no specific details were logged.
This is where order management for waste haulers comes into play. You get to log the initial job and then track it and update it from start to completion. You see jobs in real time, and billing knows exactly what needs to go on the invoice, and nothing is falling through the cracks.
Order status has to be verbally requested
Another sign of order visibility failure is that you're asking for the status of the order instead of seeing it update within a system automatically.
And from here, it's simply a game of cat and mouse to find the people with the information you need and collate it together. No one wants to be doing that, and your customers don't benefit from that either.
Real-time notifications and alerts can help track orders in the moment they're occurring. When drivers are en route, you can see where they are up to, what is happening, and the data you need can be updated as soon as they have ticked it off. It's that easy.
