TrashCanBossPro Blog — Routes by Trash Day

Can Location Notes and Gate Codes: Getting to the Cans Fast at Every Route Stop

On a perfect route, every can is at the curb. On a real route, some are behind a gate, some are beside the garage, and some are in a corral at the back of an apartment complex. The time a tech spends finding the cans is time not spent cleaning them. Good can location notes turn a hunt into a walk.

Where the Notes Show Up

The cards in The Tech's Phone in Route Order: Working a Bin Cleaning Route Stop by Stop show the address, the cans and the trash day. Right below them are the can location notes. In TrashCanBossPro, those notes live on the address and show under it on the office lists and on the tech's phone. The tech reads them before getting out of the truck.

Because the notes belong to the address, not the job, they carry forward to every future cleaning. Write them once and every tech sees them every time.

What a Good Note Answers

A good can location note answers the questions a tech would otherwise call the office about:

• Where are the cans if they are not at the curb?
• How do I get there: which gate, which side, what code?
• Is there anything to watch for: a dog, a sprinkler head, a low branch, a steep driveway?
• Where do the cans go back when I am done?

That last one is easy to forget. Customers notice when the cans come back to the wrong spot.

Good Notes and Bad Notes

Bad: "Side."

Better: "If not at curb, cans are on the left side of the garage, behind the wood gate. Gate code 4471. Return cans to the same spot."

Bad: "Dog."

Better: "Friendly lab in backyard. Cans are outside the fence on the right side, no need to open the gate."

Bad: "Same as last time."

Better: whatever last time actually was, written down.

Write the note the way you would explain it to a new tech standing next to you. Short, specific and in the order they will need it.

Gate Codes

Gate codes are the most valuable thing in the notes and the most likely to go stale. Customers change codes and forget to tell you. HOAs change community gate codes on a schedule. A wrong code means a locked gate and a skipped stop.

Two habits help. First, when a tech hits a wrong code, they should skip with the reason "gate code didn't work" so the office can text the customer and update the note. Second, when you send a reminder, customers sometimes reply with a new code. Two-way texting brings those replies to the office, and someone should update the note right away. See The "Leave Your Cans Out" Text: Reminders That Keep Bin Cleaning Routes Moving.

Apartments, HOAs and Commercial Pads

Multi-unit stops need more detail. An apartment complex might have three can corrals. An HOA might have a clubhouse pad and a pool pad. A business might have a dumpster enclosure with a key kept at the front desk. Write the note so a tech who has never been there can find every corral, get in and know how many cans to expect. Can counts on the address help here: if the note says three corrals and the count says twelve cans, the tech knows when they are done.

Who Writes the Notes

Notes start at sign-up. Ask the customer where the cans live if they are not at the curb, and whether there is a gate code. Then the first tech to visit improves the note based on what they find. A quick text or call to the office ("cans at 412 Maple are on the right side, not the left") gets it fixed for good.

Office users should own the notes. Techs report what they find, the office updates the address, and everyone sees the same thing next time.

Review Notes When Routes Change

When you move a neighborhood to a new route day or a new trailer, a new tech is reading those notes for the first time. That is the best moment to clean them up. Read through the notes on the route before the first day and fix anything that only made sense to the old tech.

The Short Version

Can location notes live on the address and show under it on every list and every tech's phone. Write where the cans are, how to get there, what to watch for and where they go back. Keep gate codes current. For the rest of the routing tools, return to the bin cleaning route software page.