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.
Watch this short video to learn more about pickups!
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 lists the main details of a pickup.
- 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.
- Start Date / End Date: The date this pickup happened on. Use an End Date when the pickup covers more than one day.
- 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, named as they appear in the pickup's Source field and the Source filter on the Pickups list.
User Input
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 ahead of time, up to a month out, and are updated when the service changes.
Vendor Invoice Line Item
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. They are updated automatically as the monitoring system reports work orders.
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 created ahead of time, up to a month out, from the service's schedule. They act as placeholders until the invoice arrives.
- When a vendor invoice is approved, the pickups are updated with the actual weights and haul counts from the invoice.
- For compactor-monitored services, work orders from the monitoring system also create or update pickups, even before an invoice arrives.
- Overage charges, such as excess weight on a haul, update the weight on an existing pickup instead of adding 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, and the vendor doesn't report a weight for each pickup. Discovery estimates the weight of each pickup based on what is known about the service.
- Scheduled pickups are created ahead of time, up to a month out, from the service's schedule. Weight is estimated from the bin's size, quantity and material.
- For scheduled services, the base service charge on an approved vendor invoice is spread across the pickups already in Discovery for that period. No new pickups are added.
- For on-call services (no set schedule), the approved vendor invoice creates the pickup, since there's no schedule to create one ahead of time.
- Extra charges, such as extra pickup, overage or contamination charges, add a pickup or update 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 the vendor on the invoice | Estimated from the bin's size, quantity and material |
| Pickups created ahead of time | Yes, for scheduled services | Yes, for scheduled services |
| Invoice updates existing pickups | Yes, with the actual weights and haul counts | Yes, the invoice charges are spread across existing pickups |
| Invoice creates new pickups | When a haul on the invoice isn't already in Discovery | For extra pickup charges, or for on-call services |
| Work order integration | Yes, compactor monitors create and update pickups through work orders | No |
| Extra charges | Update the weight on an existing pickup | Extra pickup charges add a pickup. Overage and contamination charges update an existing one. |
| Applies to on-call services | Yes | Yes, the invoice creates the pickups |
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. That decides 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.