How Far in Advance Should You Book Portable Toilets?

Events: a month ahead, longer in spring

An event booking should be made a month ahead, and longer for a spring Saturday. Spring in Lake County is wedding season and festival season — Leesburg Bikefest, the Lake County Fair, the Mount Dora festivals — and the same weekends that fill the venues fill the delivery routes. A booking made a month ahead has margin for the site check, the delivery window and the pickup plan. A booking made the week before a spring Saturday has less margin, and a restroom trailer booked that late may already be reserved.

The site check is the reason to book early. A trailer needs firm, level ground, a tow-vehicle path, water and power. A lakefront lawn needs a ground check after rain. A barn venue needs a gate-width check. Each of those checks takes a visit or a call, and a booking made early leaves time to fix a problem — a spot that cannot take a trailer gets standard units instead, and the plan is set before the event week.

Construction: book with the phase

A construction booking is made when the phase is planned, not when the crew arrives. The units need to be on site before the crew starts work — the first day of framing is too late to discover the ground is soft or the gate is locked. The booking gives the provider the site address, the crew size at its largest, the job length and the placement, and the units arrive before the crew does.

The crew size is the part that changes. A site that starts with 8 workers for grading can reach 30 when the trades overlap, and the booking should plan for the largest crew, not the first week's headcount. Extra units can be added later by a call, but a booking that plans for the peak crew from the start avoids the queue at break time in the busiest week.

What happens when you call late

A late call is not a lost booking, but it has less margin. The provider checks what is available on the route, and the delivery may land the day before the event instead of the week before, or the trailer may be replaced by presentable standard units. The site check still happens, and the placement is still planned — the difference is that there is less time to fix a problem if the ground is soft or the gate is narrow.