Swapping the duplicate book for a digital transfer note record
If you are looking for a digital alternative to paper waste transfer notes, Skiplog records the note on a phone or tablet in the yard instead of in the duplicate book. It captures the waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, and it is built to be finished in under two minutes between the weighbridge ticket printing and the lorry moving off the plate.
The duplicate book does the job right up until it does not
You know the routine. A grab lorry pulls onto the weighbridge, the ticket prints, and someone writes the load into the book on the office windowsill. Waste description, EWC code off the chart on the wall, tonnage off the weighbridge ticket, the carrier's name and registration, where the load is going. Top copy to the driver, second copy stays in the book, book goes back on the shelf.
It works, and it has worked for years. The trouble is everything that happens after the pen goes down.
- The book sits in one place and the loads do not. A note written in the cab on a tip run is a note nobody in the office can see until the driver is back through the gate.
- The copy you keep is the faint one. Carbon paper and a wet day are not a good combination.
- At quarter end somebody sits down with the book, a calculator and a spreadsheet, adding tonnage by waste type off pages that were filled in at speed.
- When an officer asks about one transfer from eight months ago, you are flicking through a stack of books hoping it was written up properly.
- Nothing in the book tells you who wrote the note, so a query about a load turns into a conversation about whose handwriting that is.
And then there is the bigger thing
England is moving waste record keeping onto a digital tracking service, and the paper duplicate book is not the format that service is being built around. Check gov.uk for the commencement date that applies to your permit, because the date has moved before and it is not our place to nail it down for you. What is not in doubt is the direction: the record of a load becomes a digital record.
So the decision in front of you is not really whether to give up the book. It is what you give it up for, and whether the replacement survives a gate with no signal, a driver with cold hands, and a tablet that has already been dropped twice.
How a load gets recorded instead
- Open the note where the load actually is
On the yard tablet at the weighbridge, or on a phone at a transfer station gate. Sign-in is an email address and a password, so the office and the weighbridge reach the same records from whichever device is to hand.
- Fill the fields that head the note
Waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site are already on the form. There is no template to design and no blank spreadsheet to lay out, which is the part most yards never get round to doing twice.
- Save it while the lorry is still on the plate
The note is built to be completable in under two minutes on a mobile or a tablet. That is the window you actually have, between the weighbridge ticket printing and the lorry wanting to move off.
- The note saves on the device, then sends itself
Skiplog is offline first. The note is written to the device before anything is sent anywhere, and it carries a visible status of queued, syncing or synced, so the person at the gate can see where it has got to. When connectivity returns the queued note syncs automatically, with nobody having to remember to resend it. Screens you have already opened are kept on the device too, so the capture form comes up in a black spot rather than a browser error. The sending still happens while Skiplog is open on that device, so the habit worth building is leaving it open on the tablet through the shift.
- The load turns up on the dashboard
Once it has synced, the note joins the site operator dashboard with the rest: notes logged, tonnage by waste type for the quarter, and a compliance status overview. That is the screen the office looks at instead of asking for the book back.
- A note you take off the register stays on file
Waste records have to span quarters and inspections, so a transfer note you remove comes off your register and comes off your returns with it, while staying on file for the two years the regulations require. Nothing is quietly erased from the yard's history to tidy up a quarter.
- Carrier registrations get watched while you are busy
Carrier, broker and dealer registrations are tracked with their expiry dates on a dashboard, and anything inside 30 days is flagged there and emailed. While Skiplog is still in build the dashboard flag is the part to trust, and the reminder email is the half still being proved out. Either way, it is a check the duplicate book never made for you.
- The quarter comes out as a file, not an afternoon
The quarterly EA return is a one-click CSV export in a configurable EA-specified column layout, so the figures are not retyped out of a book and then reformatted by hand. A return you have already sent can be downloaded again unchanged.
The book against a digital note, job by job
| In the yard | Duplicate book | Skiplog |
|---|---|---|
| Writing the note | Pen, carbon paper, the EWC chart on the office wall | Waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site already on the form, filled on a phone or tablet |
| No signal at the gate | Fine, paper never needed signal | The note saves to the device first, shows queued, syncing or synced, and sends when connectivity returns |
| Reading it back six months later | The faint second carbon copy | Typed fields that read the same in January as they did in June |
| Finding the quarter's loads | Flick through the books | The dashboard holds the notes logged and the tonnage by waste type, so the record is on a screen rather than a shelf |
| Who wrote the note | Whoever's handwriting it is | Each person you add signs in as themselves |
| A note that should not stand | Crossed out, or left as it is | Taken off the register and off your returns, kept on file for the two years the regulations require |
| Adding up the quarter | Calculator, spreadsheet, an afternoon | Tonnage by waste type on the dashboard |
| Producing the EA return | Retype the totals into the format the EA wants | One-click CSV in a configurable EA-specified column layout |
| Carrier registration about to lapse | Nobody notices until a driver is turned away | Expiry dates tracked, with anything inside 30 days flagged and emailed |
| Time per load | As long as the writing takes | A short pre-set form, built for the window between the ticket and the gate |
What changes for a small yard
The copy you keep is the legible one
A typed EWC code and a typed tonnage read the same in January as they did in June. You are not squinting at a second sheet of carbon paper trying to decide whether that is a three or an eight.
One record per load, wherever it was written
A note taken on a tip run and a note taken at the weighbridge end up in the same list, so the office is not waiting for a book to come back through the gate before the quarter can be totted up.
The weighbridge and the office each sign in as themselves
You can add the people who work the site, invite them by email, and have every note name who wrote it, instead of the whole yard sharing one login and one password taped inside a cupboard door.
Nothing to design before the first load
The fields are pre-set on the note and the quarterly return comes out in a configurable EA-specified column layout, so nobody has to invent a spreadsheet or work out the column order the week a return is due.
The quarter is already added up
Tonnage by waste type sits on the dashboard as loads come in, rather than being reconstructed from three months of handwriting in the week the return is due.
No dedicated compliance clerk to hire
A yard with a handful of staff does not have someone whose job is paperwork. The form is short and the fields are already there, so the person who is already on the weighbridge can do it without training up as a records keeper.
The records stay readable while the account is open
Waste records have to span quarters and inspections, so everything you record is kept while the account is open, and a lapsed trial does not lock the records away: they stay readable and exportable. Deleting the account removes it all at once, so download anything the EA still needs from you first.
The switch happens on your timetable
Moving off the duplicate book during a quiet week is a different job to moving off it the week a mandate bites. Getting the habit into the yard early is the point of doing it now.
Where Skiplog is today
Skiplog is not open yet. It is being built for UK skip yards and transfer stations with roughly one to twenty staff, the operators who have a permit, a weighbridge, a duplicate book and nobody spare to sit on compliance paperwork all week.
The first thing being built is the thing on this page: a waste transfer note carrying the waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site, written on a tablet at the weighbridge, saved on the device first and synced when connectivity returns. The dashboard, the registration expiry tracking and the quarterly CSV all follow from having a clean digital record of each load. Sign-in is an email address and a password, and you can add the other people on site so each of them signs in as themselves.
Two plans are planned, both with everything on them and a limit of one site: Annual at £1,188 a year, which works out at £99 a month billed once a year, and Monthly at £129 a month, cancel whenever you like. Transfer notes and tracked registrations are unlimited on both. Each plan starts with a 60-day free trial that does not ask for a card up front. Card payments are handled by Stripe, so card details never touch Skiplog, and the application and its database are hosted on Amazon Web Services.
If that is the job you are trying to get done, join the waitlist. You will hear from us when there is something real to put on the yard tablet, and not before.
Questions
Can a digital record replace the signed paper copy?
That depends on your permit and the Environment Agency's current guidance, and it is not something we will promise on your behalf. What Skiplog does is capture waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site on the note. Check gov.uk for what your site is required to hold, and see our separate page on whether you still need to keep paper transfer notes.
Does it work with no mobile signal at the gate?
Yes for recording the load. The note saves on the device first and carries a visible status of queued, syncing or synced, then syncs automatically when connectivity returns. A copy of the screens you have already opened is kept on the device, so the capture form comes up in a black spot. The sending happens while Skiplog is open on that device, so leave it open on the tablet through the shift rather than closing it with notes still queued.
What goes on the note?
Waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site. They are on the form already, so there is no template to build before your first load. That is what Skiplog captures rather than a full list of what your permit demands, and our transfer note template page walks through each field if you want to see them written out.
How long does one note take?
It is built to be completable in under two minutes on a mobile or tablet, which is the realistic window between the weighbridge ticket printing and the lorry moving off.
How does signing in work on a shared yard tablet?
People sign in with an email address and a password, and you can add the other people on your site and invite them by email so the weighbridge and the office each sign in as themselves. Every note then names who wrote it, which is the part the duplicate book could never tell you.
What if a weight or an EWC code goes in wrong?
A transfer note you take off your register comes off your returns with it, and it stays on file for the two years the regulations require, so nothing disappears from the yard's history. The best defence is the form itself: waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination site are pre-set fields rather than free handwriting, and our EWC code page is there for the loads where the code is the arguable part.
What happens at the end of the quarter?
The site operator dashboard shows notes logged and tonnage by waste type, and the quarterly EA return can be exported as a one-click CSV in a configurable EA-specified column layout, so the figures are not being retyped out of a book. A return you have already generated can be downloaded again unchanged.
What will it cost, and can I start now?
Annual is £1,188 a year, the same as £99 a month billed once a year, and Monthly is £129 a month. Both start with a 60-day free trial and no card at the start. Skiplog is still in build, so the waitlist is the way in for now.