Junk removal KPIs that moved: what to check before you act

What to take away

Run the review in the same four steps

The review only works when it runs in the same order every month. Pull the numbers, compare each with your own baseline, pick the one that moved most, and diagnose it before touching anything.

Every baseline here is your own on purpose. Disposal rates, wages and facility drives vary too much between markets for a published threshold to mean anything, and a number borrowed from somebody else's business is worse than no number.

Revisit the baselines after any structural change: a new vehicle, a new facility, a new service, or a move in your service area.

When contribution per truck-hour slips

Start with the service, not the total. Contribution per truck-hour is revenue minus disposal, divided by truck-hours from yard to facility release, and it only means something per service. When one service sits consistently below the others, reprice it before dropping it.

The reason for the order is that underpricing and unprofitability look identical in this number. Rework the quote first using the pricing method, and only a service that still trails after a fair price is a candidate for dropping.

The blind spot is duration risk. A large clearout with good contribution can still wreck a day by filling the truck early, and that cost never appears here. The arithmetic behind a fair rate card is in the contribution per load article.

When disposal share of revenue rises

A sustained rise means either your material mix got denser or the facility raised its schedule. Both mean re-deriving the rate card rather than absorbing the cost.

Check the facility's current schedule first, because that is one phone call. Then look at the mix of recent jobs. Disposal share is total tipping and disposal cost divided by revenue for the same period.

Treat a rise as a signal to investigate, not as a verdict on the crew. This number moves on the facility's decisions as much as on yours, so blame only follows evidence.

When the productive share of paid hours falls

Look at the facility drive, the queue timing and how tightly jobs cluster. Almost never at the people. Productive share is hours spent loading and unloading, divided by hours paid, so travel and waiting drag it down.

Clustering is the cause an owner controls most directly, and booking jobs without gaps covers how to tighten it.

Beware the reverse reading as well. A crew that skips floor protection looks more productive by this measure and is more expensive in every other way. What those paid hours cost is worked through in the article on pay rates and labor costs.

When quoted and realized drift apart

For each job, set the quoted amount beside the amount invoiced, and the estimated hours beside the actual. When a specific job type is consistently over, fix the estimating step for that type. When everything is over, the rate card is stale.

Never average this one. The average of a job you underquoted and one you overquoted is a comfortable number describing two failures, so split it by job type before reading it.

The estimating step itself is the subject of the eight-step quoting method, which is the place to look when one job type keeps coming in over.

Three numbers that point at capacity

Loads per truck-day, same-day acceptance and diverted weight all describe how much capacity you hold and how well you use it. None of them says anything about profit on its own, so read them beside the money numbers.

A day of four cheap loads can earn less than a day of two good ones, which is why loads per truck-day is about capacity use and never about money. Check same-day acceptance weekly, since you can act on it inside the week.

If the phone goes unanswered, acceptance looks fine while the business quietly leaks jobs. A heavy diverted load can be a cheap one to divert, and a light one can cost a whole extra stop.

Keeping the record behind the review

None of this works without a consistent per-job record. What that record should contain and which tools genuinely help is in the software and KPI guide.

Those records also serve your tax file. The IRS says that good records help you keep track of deductible expenses and support items reported on your tax returns.

They hold customer addresses and photographs, so they need protecting too. The Federal Trade Commission's business guide notes that most companies keep sensitive personal information in their files that identifies customers or employees.

Sharing the numbers with the crew

Numbers describe people, and people know when they are being measured. Share the ones the crew can influence and explain what each is for.

Never judge someone on a productivity measure alone when their real job includes protecting a customer's floors. Where measurement touches employment decisions, consistency keeps it fair.

Common questions

How do I tell a real move from a seasonal one?

Track direction over three months, not this month's level, because seasonality tells a story every quarter.

What if two numbers move in opposite directions?

That is usually the most informative moment you will get. High productivity with falling contribution, for example, means you are efficiently doing unprofitable work.

Should I track anything weekly?

Loads per truck-day and same-day acceptance. Both can be acted on inside the week. The rest are noise at that frequency.

Can I fix two things in the same month?

You can, but you will not know which one worked. An owner who changes routing, pricing and crew structure in one month has learned nothing about any of them.

Do I need software for this?

No. You need the per-job record captured consistently. Software helps when a handoff is failing, not before.