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Missed service due to locked gate: who gets charged?

Hector V.asked 0 viewsDelivery, Placement & ServicingDelivery and servicingConstruction sitesCosts and quotesMissed serviceTruck access

We have a 6-month commercial job with 60 workers. I ordered four standard portable toilets and one ADA-compliant portable toilet on weekly service. The units are on level ground, but the gate gets locked sometimes when the driver shows up. Last week, the vacuum truck couldn't get in, and the rental company billed us for the missed service. The driver left a tag saying 'unit inaccessible.' Who pays for that? Is it on me to guarantee access every service day, or should the company call first? What's standard in the industry for locked gates?

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Tyler R.Columbus, OH

Access is on you. Almost every rental agreement I've signed puts clear access on the customer for each scheduled service day, and a trip where the truck shows up and can't reach the units usually gets billed as a trip charge or missed service. The driver tag saying unit inaccessible is their proof they came.

What fixed it on my jobs:

  1. Ask the company for your route day and rough window. Most can give you a day, few will promise an hour.
  2. Give them a gate code or put a lockbox on the gate with a key they can use. That was the end of the problem for us.
  3. Put the gate contact's cell number on the work order so the driver calls before leaving.
  4. Tell whoever locks up that the toilets get serviced on that day.

Also worth knowing: with 60 workers on five units, a skipped week hurts. OSHA 1926.51 requires sanitary facilities be kept clean and working, so a missed service is your compliance problem too, not just a billing one. Ask them to come back the next day rather than waiting a full week. Make sure the standard units and the ADA unit all sit where the truck can back up close.

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