How to choose skip hire software: a fair checklist

Every software firm says it is the best, including us. So instead of a ranking, here are the twelve questions we would ask any supplier if we were buying skip hire software, what a good answer sounds like, and our own answers alongside. If another product answers them better for the way you work, use that one.

Start with how you work, not with features

A feature list is written to make every product look the same size. Your business is not a feature list. It is a day, and the right software is the one that fits that day with the fewest workarounds.

So before any demo, write down a normal day in plain words. Keep it to one side of paper:

• How jobs come in. Phone, website, email, a builder who texts the driver directly.
• How drivers get them. A sheet on the dashboard, a group chat, a call at 7am.
• How the paperwork comes back. Carbon books in the cab, photos on the driver's phone, nothing until Friday.
• How you get paid. Cash on delivery, card over the phone, invoices at the end of the month.

Take that page into every demo and ask the salesperson to walk through your day, not theirs. A product that looks brilliant for a 40-vehicle firm with a planning office can be a burden for three skip loaders and a part-time bookkeeper, and the other way round.

The driver app

Drivers decide whether any system works. If the app is slow or confusing, they go back to paper and the office ends up typing everything twice.

• 1. Does it work with no signal? A good answer: the driver can open the job, take photos and get the note signed in a dead spot, and it all sends itself when signal comes back. Ask what happens if the phone is switched off before it sends. A weak answer is "most sites have signal".
• 2. Can the customer sign on the driver's phone? A good answer: the customer draws their own signature on the screen, and it lands on the transfer note. A name typed by the driver is not a signature, so check how the app handles a customer who is not there.
• 3. Do I pay for every driver? A good answer is a straight number. Some products charge per user, so ten drivers costs ten times one. Others count only office staff. Ask for the price with your real number of drivers, including the part-timer who covers holidays.

The diary

The diary is where a skip firm makes or loses money: skips left out too long, exchanges forgotten, a skip sitting on the road after its permit ran out.

• 4. Can I see every skip out on hire, and for how long? A good answer: one list, by customer and address, with the days each skip has been out and the ones past their collection date. If the answer depends on someone updating a spreadsheet, it will be wrong within a week.
• 5. How quickly can I book an exchange? Ask them to do one in front of you, from a customer phoning in to the job appearing on a driver's phone. Count the screens. An exchange is your most common job, so it should be your quickest.
• 6. Does it warn me before a skip permit runs out? A skip on a public road needs a council permit for a set number of days, and the council comes to the skip firm when it overstays. A good answer: the office is warned before the date, with time to extend it or collect. Our guide to skip permits explains the rules.

Paperwork

This is the part with the law behind it, so it is the part to test hardest. Every load needs a waste transfer note, and hazardous waste needs a consignment note instead.

• 7. Are transfer notes and consignment notes made from the job? A good answer: the customer, address, waste description, EWC code and your carrier number fill themselves in from the booking, and the driver only adds what changed on the day. Ask to see a finished note as a PDF and read it the way an Environment Agency officer would. Ask, too, how you find last March's note in under a minute, because you must produce one within seven days if asked.
• 8. Does it file to DEFRA, and is that included or extra? Since 1 October 2026, permitted receiving sites in England and Wales report every load they take in to DEFRA's digital waste tracking service within two working days. Carriers are due to follow from October 2027. A good answer says plainly which of those the product files today, and whether filing costs extra per load or per month.

Money

Software that runs the jobs but leaves the invoicing to someone else's evening has only done half the work.

• 9. Do quotes and invoices come from the job? A good answer: the quote becomes the job, and the finished job becomes the invoice, with extra days on hire and surcharges already on it. Retyping a job into an invoice is where money goes missing.
• 10. Can customers pay by card, and what is the fee? Ask for two numbers: what the software firm keeps, and what the card processor charges on top. Ask whether anything is charged on invoices paid by bank transfer or cash.
• 11. Does it send to my accounts package? Ask which one, and whether it is a live link or a file you export and import. Both work. You just need to know which you are getting before your bookkeeper finds out.

Price

Software prices are hard to compare because each firm counts something different.

• 12. What exactly is counted, and what is extra? Loads, office users, drivers, vehicles, text messages, set-up, training. Then ask for the price at your size today and at twice your size. A product that is cheap now and doubles when you add a second skip loader is not cheap.

Ask too what happens to your records if you leave. You must keep transfer notes for two years whatever software you use, so you need a way to take them with you.

The twelve questions on one page

Print this and take it into every demo. Write each supplier's answer next to each question.

1. 01Does the driver app work with no signal?
2. 02Can the customer sign on the driver's phone?
3. 03Do I pay for every driver?
4. 04Can I see every skip out on hire, and for how long?
5. 05How quickly can I book an exchange?
6. 06Does it warn me before a skip permit runs out?
7. 07Are transfer notes and consignment notes made from the job?
8. 08Does it file to DEFRA, and is that included or extra?
9. 09Do quotes and invoices come from the job?
10. 10Can customers pay by card, and what is the fee?
11. 11Does it send to my accounts package?
12. 12What exactly is counted, and what does it cost at twice my size?

Our own answers

Fair is fair, so here are LoadSnap's answers to the same twelve.

LoadSnap team

Running a waste business

Written by the team building LoadSnap, the UK waste compliance platform for carriers and receivers.