Paperless dump truck ticketing for dirt crews
SpoilStack replaces the carbon-copy ticket book with a haul counter: one tap per load creates a timestamped digital record, attributed to the person who logged it and tied to the job.
Use it when paper tickets are the problem
- Carbon-copy books get wet, run out, or ride home in a pocket.
- The office retypes ticket totals into a spreadsheet every night.
- A trucker produces a tally that does not match the foreman count.
- The GC wants load backup with times, not a stack of smudged slips.
- You looked at e-ticketing platforms and they were built for plants, scales, and DOT jobs, not a 5-person dirt crew.
A paper ticket vs a SpoilStack load record
A carbon-copy ticket holds whatever got written on it. A load record fills itself in from one tap. Here is each field side by side, including the two things paper still does that SpoilStack does not.
Time
Written by hand, if someone remembers, often the day and not the time.
Stamped when the load is tapped. A load tapped with no signal keeps the time it was tapped when it syncs later (within 90 days).
Job
Customer and address written on each slip.
Logged on the job itself, next to its address, photos, daily logs, and documents.
In or out
Depends on the ticket form.
Every load is Load In or Load Out, with separate in and out counts.
Machine
The truck number, written by the driver.
The machine that moved it. Your own trucks can be set up as machines (Dump Truck is one of the machine types). A hired truck is not named on the load.
Material
A checked box or a scrawl.
Typed once, then one tap from recent materials, and held for the whole haul session.
Load size
Yards or tons written in, or left blank.
yd or tons in the US, m³ or t in Canada and elsewhere. Set once per haul session and carried by every load, lock screen and notification taps included. Fix any load later from its scale ticket. Never converted between units.
Who logged it
A signature, if it got signed.
The name of the person who tapped it, on every load.
Totals
Add up the slips at night.
Added up as you go: today, by material, and by machine. Yards and tons stay separate, and a total that is missing sizes says how many loads it leaves out.
Copies
Carbon copies split between the driver, the office, and the customer.
One record that syncs to everyone in the company when the phone finds signal.
Ticket number
Pre-printed and sequential.
None. A load is found by its time, its job, and who logged it.
Signatures
The driver and the foreman sign the slip.
Not captured. When a driver or GC needs a signed slip, print one from the free load ticket generator.
Keep paper for the loads that need a number and a signature, and stop rebuilding the count from slips.
5 in / 13 out
220 yd out · 100 tons in (3 loads without a size)
How the log settles a load count dispute
The trucker bills 16 loads and your foreman counted 14. Here is how the record answers it, and where it stops.
What DOT e-ticketing is, and why this is not it
If you searched for e-ticketing because a state DOT or highway job asks for it, here is the short, sourced version.
Sources: FHWA-HIF-24-036, Implementation of e-Ticketing at North Dakota DOT (May 2024), p. 1; FHWA, EDC-6: e-Ticketing and Digital As-Builts.
A tap is the ticket
One tap on the haul counter logs the load with a timestamp and the user who recorded it. That is the whole workflow. No printer in the cab, no QR codes, no scale integration to set up. The record is digital from the moment the truck pulls away.
Yards or tons on every ticket
Set the load size when the haul session starts, 22 yd a load for the truck or 20 tons off the scale, and every ticket in the session carries it, even the ones tapped from the lock screen or the notification. When a scale ticket comes back heavier, type the real weight onto that load. The job keeps a running yard and ton total, and it tells you how many loads still have no size.
Paperless that survives no signal
Excavation sites are the worst place for cloud software. SpoilStack is offline-first: the foreman keeps ticketing loads at the bottom of the hole with zero bars, and the records sync back when the truck route or the drive home finds signal.
Keep paper where paper still wins
Some drivers and scale houses still want a slip. SpoilStack publishes a free dump truck load ticket generator for printable tickets and pocket ticket books, so you can hand paper to whoever needs it while the running count stays digital.
Not built for
- DOT / agency e-ticketing requirements
- Scale house or plant integrations
- Trucking dispatch and driver pay
- GPS fleet tracking or ELD compliance
Frequently asked questions
What is dump truck e-ticketing?
The term covers two things. On highway agency jobs, e-ticketing means material tickets recorded electronically as material moves from the plant to the site and passed to the agency for acceptance and payment; FHWA has promoted it to state and local highway agencies through its Every Day Counts program. Contractors also use the word for any digital load ticket that replaces a carbon-copy slip. SpoilStack is the second kind: the foreman taps once per load and the digital load record is created on the spot.
Does a digital load record have a ticket number or a signature?
No. A load is identified by its time, its job, and the person who tapped it, and nobody signs it. When a driver or GC needs a numbered, signed slip, print one from the free dump truck load ticket generator and keep the running count in SpoilStack.
Can the load log settle a dispute with a trucker?
It gives you a timed record to check against. Every load carries the time it was tapped and who tapped it, so you can line the trucker’s tickets up against your log and find the loads that do not match. Corrections show in the job’s activity feed. It is your crew’s count, not a signed receipt, so keep any signed or weighed tickets the contract asks for.
Do I need special hardware for paperless ticketing?
No. SpoilStack runs on the phones the crew already carries, on iPhone and Android, plus the web for the office. There are no in-cab printers, tablets to mount, or per-truck devices to buy.
Does paperless ticketing work with no cell signal?
Yes. SpoilStack is offline-first. Loads logged in a dead zone are stored on the phone and sync automatically when signal returns, so the pit, the rural site, and the basement dig all keep a full record.
What if a driver still needs a paper ticket?
Use the free dump truck load ticket generator to print tickets or a pocket ticket book for signatures, and keep the running count digital in SpoilStack. Paper for the handoff, digital for the record.
How is this different from DOT e-ticketing platforms?
DOT e-ticketing moves plant and scale ticket data to the highway agency for acceptance and payment, on the projects where the agency requires it. SpoilStack does not connect to plants, scales, or agency systems, and its records are not DOT e-tickets. It is the contractor’s own count of loads in and out of a site, with the time and who logged it, plus machine, material, and size when set.
Can a digital ticket carry the tonnage from the scale?
Yes, typed in, not pulled from the scale. Each load can carry a size in yards or tons. Set it once for the haul session and every load gets it, or correct one load from its scale ticket later. The totals add up per job, by material and by machine, and they say how many loads have no size.
How much does paperless dump truck ticketing cost?
SpoilStack is $99 per month flat for the whole company with unlimited users, and there is no per-load or per-ticket fee. The 14-day free trial needs no credit card.
Free tools for this work
Do one piece of it by hand right now. These run in your browser with no signup.
- Dump truck load ticket generatorPrint load tickets or a pocket ticket book when someone still needs paper.
- Dump truck load count sheetEvery truck on the site on one printable daily tally, with the time of each dump.
- Cartage docket generator (AU)The same ticket tool in Australian earthmoving terminology.
- Truck cycle time calculatorWork out how many trucks keep the excavator busy on a given haul.
How it compares
See how SpoilStack stacks up against the tools crews use for this today.