Pickups
What is a Pickup?
Pickups represent instances when waste materials were collected from a specific location by a hauler. They encompass details such as the pickup date and the weight of the materials gathered. While pickups are invariably linked to a location, they can also be associated with services, work orders, and vendor invoice line items.
Pickups are created through one of five methods:
- Manual creation through the New Pickup form.
- Manual creation via Bulk Insert.
- Automatic creation from schedules of scheduled Commercial Services.
- Automatic creation from Vendor Invoice Line Items on Approved Vendor Invoices.
- Automatic creation from Rebates.
Fields on a pickup can be adjusted after its creation. Pickups that have been created or altered by a user won't be modified by automated processes, except when attaching line items from approved vendor invoices.
How do I?
- How do I manually create a pickup?
- How do I bulk import pickups?
- How are Pickups created from Commercial Service schedules?
- How do Vendor Invoices affect Pickups?
- How do I detach a Vendor Invoice Line Item from a Pickup?
- How do I connect rebates to pickups?
Pickup Components
This section outlines the primary details and attributes regarding an Incident.
- Location: The location this pickup happened at.
- Service: The service this pickup happened for. When creating or editing a pickup, only services at the selected location will be shown.
- Work Order: The work order this pickup resulted from. When creating or editing a pickup, only work orders at the selected location will be shown.
- Material Type: Material type of the pickup. If a service is chosen when creating or editing the pickup, this will update to match the material type on the service's bin. However, you are always able to override the material type to correct data.
- Pickup Date: The date this pickup happened on.
- Weight Value: The number of weight units this pickup weighed.
- Weight Unit: The unit this pickup's weight value is recorded in. Valid values are below:
- kilograms
- pounds
- short tons
- metric tons
- Disposal Method: Method indicating how this pickup was disposed. Valid values are below:
- Composted
- Incineration
- Landfill
- Recycling
- Reuse
- External Reference Id: External system or user-defined Id for this pickup.
Additionally, pickups are also attached to vendor invoice line items when invoices are approved. These line items show up near the bottom of the page when viewing a pickup.
Pickups can also be connected to rebates. When a pickup is created from a rebate, the pickup source will be "Rebate."
How Pickups Are Created
Pickups in Discovery can come from several different sources, and the way they are generated depends on the type of service they belong to.
Part 1: Where Do Pickups Come From?
Every pickup has a source that tells you how it entered the system. There are six possible sources.
Entered Manually
A user added this pickup directly in the application, or it was submitted through an external integration connected to your account.
Bulk Import
This pickup was created as part of a CSV file upload. One pickup record is created for each row in the import file.
Service Schedule
Discovery automatically generates these pickups based on your active service schedules. They are created at the start of each month and can also be triggered when a service is changed or cancelled.
Vendor Invoice
These pickups are created or updated when a vendor invoice is processed.
Work Order
For compactor-monitored services, pickups are created or updated based on work orders. This happens automatically overnight and also when work orders are reported by the monitoring system.
Rebate
A user created this pickup directly from a rebate record.
Part 2: How Does Pickup Generation Differ by Service Type?
The behavior of automatic pickup creation depends on how a service is classified. Every service in Discovery falls into one of three categories that determine whether pickups are generated and how.
Measured Services
Examples: Roll-off containers and compactors
These services track actual, measured activity. The vendor reports the real weight or number of hauls, and Discovery uses that data to build precise pickup records.
- Scheduled pickups are pre-generated at the start of each month, based on the service's known pickup days or estimated frequency. These act as placeholders until the invoice arrives.
- When a vendor invoice is processed, the pre-generated pickups are replaced or refined. Actual weights and haul counts from the invoice line items are applied directly to the pickup records.
- For compactor-monitored services, work orders from the monitoring system also create or update pickups — even before an invoice arrives — based on confirmed pull requests.
- Overage charges (e.g., excess weight on a haul) adjust the weight on the relevant existing pickup rather than creating a new one.
Weight on these pickups reflects what was actually collected, as reported by the vendor.
Estimated Services
Examples: Commercial dumpster services
These services are billed at a flat or recurring rate — the vendor does not report individual weights per pickup. Discovery estimates the weight of each pickup based on what is known about the service.
- Scheduled pickups are pre-generated at the start of each month, based on the service's pickup days or frequency. Weight is estimated using container size, material type, and an expected fullness percentage.
- For scheduled services, when a vendor invoice arrives with a base service charge, that cost is distributed across the pickups already on record for that period — it does not create new pickups.
- For on-call services (no set schedule), a new pickup is created when the vendor invoice is processed, since there are no pre-existing pickups to apply the charge to.
- Extra charges (e.g., extra pickup charges, overage fees, contamination charges) on the invoice create additional pickups or adjust the weight on an existing one.
Weight on these pickups is an estimate — not a measured value from the vendor.
Non-Waste Services
Examples: Rentals
Some services exist in Discovery for tracking or billing purposes but do not involve waste collection. No pickups are generated for these services automatically.
- The system will not auto-generate pickups for these services, regardless of schedule or invoice activity.
- If a pickup needs to be associated with one of these services for any reason, it must be added manually.
- These services do not contribute to waste diversion or tonnage reporting.
Part 3: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Measured Services | Estimated Services |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup weight | Actual — reported by vendor on invoice | Estimated — calculated from container size, material type, and expected fullness |
| Pre-generated pickups | Yes — created at the start of each month (for scheduled services) | Yes — created at the start of each month (for scheduled services) |
| Invoice updates existing pickups | Yes — replaces or refines pre-generated pickups with actual data | Yes — distributes invoice charges across existing pickups |
| Invoice creates new pickups | Only if no matching pickup exists for that haul | Only if there is an extraneous extra pickup charge, or if the service is on-call and not matching pickup exists. |
| Work order integration | Yes — compactor monitors create and update pickups via work orders | No |
| Extraneous Charges | Adjusts weight on the existing haul pickup | Creates a new pickup for extra pickup charges and adjusts weight on an existing one for overage/contamination charges. |
| Applies to on-call services | Yes | Yes — invoice creates pickups since no schedule exists |
Tip: The source and service type of a pickup are both shown on the pickup detail page. If you see unexpected pickups or weights, check whether the service is measured or estimated — this determines how invoice data is applied.
If you have additional questions or need more in depth information, please feel free to send us a message using the help beacon in the lower right-hand corner.