What software do skip hire companies use?
Most skip hire companies use several tools rather than one: something for quotes, bookings and driver runs, something at the weighbridge, an accounts package, and then whatever holds the waste records. Skiplog is built for that last job only, the duty of care paperwork and the loads a permitted site has to report, so this page sets out the whole stack and where it fits.
What a skip yard's software stack actually looks like
Ask ten operators what software they use and you get ten answers, because "skip hire software" covers at least four separate jobs.
- The hire side. Quotes, bookings, skip exchanges, tip runs, driver routes and the invoice at the end.
- The weighbridge. The ticket, the weight, and whatever the indicator is wired into.
- The books. Accounts, VAT, payroll.
- The waste records. Transfer notes, EWC codes, carrier, broker and dealer registrations, the loads a receiving site has to report to Defra's receipt of waste service, and the quarterly return to the Environment Agency.
Groups with several depots tend to buy one large platform that attempts most of that. A yard with one to twenty staff more often ends up with a job and route app, an accounts package, a printer at the weighbridge, and a drawer of duplicate transfer note books for the waste side. The drawer is the part an inspector asks about, and it is the part digital waste tracking changes.
Skiplog does one of those four jobs. It is built to record a digital waste transfer note with the EA-mandated fields, waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, in under two minutes on a phone or tablet, to carry the receipt-of-waste fields Defra asks for on the same note so a load is typed once, and to show the yard where it stands on a site dashboard. It does not quote a skip or plan a round.
Questions
What do skip hire companies use for waste transfer notes today?
Three things, broadly: carbonised duplicate books filled in at the weighbridge, a spreadsheet typed up afterwards in the office, or a purpose-built digital record. The book is fastest in the moment and slowest at quarter end, because someone has to read the handwriting and retype it. Skiplog is built to replace the book at the point of transfer: the note carries the EA-mandated fields, waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, and is made to be completable in under two minutes on a phone or tablet while the lorry is on the bridge. The same note also holds the receipt-of-waste details, date and time received, containers, hazard and POPs information, so the load is not typed twice.
What do yards use to report the loads they take in to Defra?
There are two routes: type each load into Defra's own spreadsheet by hand, or use software that produces the rows for you. Skiplog has a receipts screen beside the quarterly return: pick a date range and export the rows in the column order of Defra's template, for your yard to upload. Before it exports, it checks each row against Defra's upload rules and sends out only the rows that pass, saying how many were held back and linking each failing row to the field that needs fixing. The same check runs when a note is saved, so a field that would bounce is flagged in the yard rather than a day later. After you upload, you confirm it, which marks those notes reported, stores Defra's reference against each load, and lets you record a rejection with its date so the correction deadline is on the screen rather than in your head.
What do yards use when there is no signal at the weighbridge?
This is the question that rules a lot of general-purpose software out, because a form that needs a live connection is no use in a cutting or behind a wall of baled metal. Skiplog's capture is offline-first: a note saves to the device first, shows a visible queued, syncing or synced status, and syncs on its own when connectivity returns. The status matters as much as the sync, because the operator needs to know whether to keep the paper ticket. It is the reason the product is built around a tablet in the yard rather than a desktop in the office.
Do I need job management software as well as compliance software?
If you are booking skips, planning drivers and raising invoices, you need something for that, and Skiplog is not it. Skiplog does not quote, schedule, route or invoice your customers. The only service a customer deals with directly is Stripe, which takes the subscription payment; behind that, Skiplog is hosted on Amazon Web Services and sends its emails through Resend. So a yard running a job app keeps it and adds the waste record alongside, rather than replacing one with the other. The comparison with a job management app is set out on the Skiplog and BigChange page.
What does the office actually look at day to day?
On a small site, four things: how many notes went on today, what tonnage went where, which loads still have to go into Defra's system, and whether a registration is about to lapse. Skiplog's site operator dashboard shows waste transfer notes logged, tonnage by waste type and a compliance status overview in one place, with a card listing the loads not yet reported, grouped as overdue, due today and due tomorrow against the two working days the receipt of waste rules allow. Alongside it, carrier, broker and dealer registrations are tracked with their expiry dates, with email alerts for anything expiring within 30 days. The quarterly EA return comes out as a one-click CSV export in a configurable EA-specified column layout, so the figures are not retyped.
What does the site screen have to hold for all this to work?
Defra wants the receiver's own details on every load, not just the waste, so the yard's record has to sit somewhere. Skiplog keeps the receiver site name, the environmental permit or authorisation details, the contact email and phone, the region and your return columns on the site screen, and heads every note and every return with them. That is also why a typo there is worth checking once rather than on each load. What is stored, and for how long, is set out on the page about where your waste records are stored.
Could I use the government waste tracking service on its own instead?
For some yards, yes, and it is worth answering that before you spend anything. The honest trade-off is between a free service you operate yourself and software that keeps the yard's own records, holds the registrations, produces the receipt rows and builds the return. We have written that comparison out in full rather than squeezing it in here, on the page about whether the government waste tracking service is free. Read it first if cost is the deciding factor.
Is any of this software approved or endorsed by DEFRA?
Be careful with any vendor that says it is. Skiplog is built to help you meet the mandate's requirements and is pre-configured for EA formats and Defra's receipt template, which is not the same as a guarantee of compliance: your records are only as good as the weights and codes entered, and a format can change. The separate page on software approved by DEFRA explains what the phrase does and does not mean, and the guide to choosing waste tracking software for a small permitted site covers what to ask a vendor instead. On price, Skiplog is £129 a month, or £1,188 a year which works out at £99 a month billed once a year, both covering one site with unlimited transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked, and both with a 60-day free trial.