TrashCanBossPro Blog — Routes by Trash Day

The "Leave Your Cans Out" Text: Reminders That Keep Bin Cleaning Routes Moving

Of all the things that slow a bin cleaning route, the one you can fix most cheaply is the customer who brings the cans in before you get there. They are not trying to cause a problem. Bringing the cans in after the truck is a habit, and habits beat memory. A well-timed text beats habit.

Why the Reminder Matters So Much

An add-on, as in Same-Day Add-Ons: Fitting a New Trash Can Cleaning Into Today's Route, is a stop you gain. A put-away can is a stop you lose, or at least one that takes three times as long. On a twenty-stop route, a few put-away cans can cost an hour of walking up driveways and messaging customers about locked gates.

The reminder costs one text. It is the cheapest route improvement there is.

The Night-Before Reminder

TrashCanBossPro sends automated reminders by text and email ahead of a scheduled cleaning. The classic bin cleaning version is short: "We clean your cans tomorrow after trash pickup. Please leave them at the curb until we've been by."

The night before is the right time for most customers. It reaches them when they are home, probably when they are rolling the cans out for the morning pickup. That is the moment the message sticks. A reminder two days early gets forgotten. A reminder the morning of can arrive after the cans are already back in.

Keep the wording plain. Say what you need them to do, when, and nothing else. If you have a habit you want to break, like customers putting cans behind the gate, say it directly: "Please leave them at the curb, not behind the gate."

Let Customers Choose Their Alerts

Customers can pick the alerts they want: the night before, when they are next, and when the tech arrives. Most bin cleaning customers should have at least the night-before alert on. The "when they're next" alert is the safety net for the customer who forgets: it tells them the trailer is about to arrive, which is often just in time to stop them from rolling the cans up the driveway.

Ask about alerts at sign-up and explain why they matter. Customers who understand that the alert keeps their cleaning on schedule are happy to keep it on.

On-the-Way and Arrived Texts

On route day, on-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically from the tech's phone. They reinforce the reminder and give the customer a reason to check the curb. Customers who use the customer app also see a live map of the route with their place in line. On-the-Way and Arrived Texts on a Bin Cleaning Route covers those in more detail.

Replies Go to the Office

Reminders invite replies. "Cans will be on the side of the house." "Gate code changed to 2290." "We're out of town, please skip this week." With two-way texting, those replies come back to the office, not to a tech's personal phone.

Someone in the office should read replies the evening before and the morning of a route day. Update the can location notes when something changes for good, and pass one-day changes to the tech. A reply that sits unread until noon is a missed stop.

Watch the Text Allowance

TrashCanBossPro plans include a monthly text allowance: 500 segments on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew, counting texts sent and received. A short reminder is usually one segment, so keep the wording tight. Long messages, special characters and emoji can push a single text into multiple segments. If you have a large customer base, consider sending the night-before reminder by email to customers who prefer it and saving texts for the ones who need them.

When Reminders Are Not Enough

Some customers will bring the cans in no matter what. For them, do not fight it. Ask where the cans live and write it in the can location notes, such as "cans always back on left side of garage, gate unlatched." Then the tech goes straight there instead of checking the curb first. A put-away can with a good note is a slower stop, not a missed one.

Track the repeat skips. If the same addresses show up as "cans put away" every week, call those customers, confirm their alerts are on, and agree on where the tech will find the cans.

The Short Version

Send a short, plain reminder the night before, turn on the "when they're next" alert for forgetful customers, read replies before the route starts, and write notes for the customers who will never leave cans out. For more ways to keep routes moving, return to the bin cleaning route software page.