Two working days to record a load: how the clock works

Every load a permitted waste receiving site takes in has to be reported, and the deadline is short. Two working days, counted from the day after the waste arrives. The edges of that window decide whether a Friday load is a Tuesday job or already late, so they are worth knowing before you are up against one.

The rule, in the service's own words

GOV.UK's guidance puts it plainly: you have 2 working days from the day after receiving the waste to submit your report. The guidance gives an example: waste received at 9am on Monday must be submitted by 11:59pm on Wednesday.

That is the whole rule, and it applies the same way whichever route you use to report, whether software connected to the API or a completed DEFRA spreadsheet. The day the waste arrives is never one of the two days.

What counts as a working day

Working days are days other than weekends and bank holidays. A load arriving on Friday is counted in the working days that follow: Saturday and Sunday do not count, so Monday and Tuesday are the window, and the report is due by 11:59pm on Tuesday.

Bank holidays are not working days either, which stretches the window but can also swallow a day you were counting on. A load that arrives on the Friday before a bank holiday Monday has Tuesday and Wednesday as its two working days, so the deadline becomes 11:59pm on Wednesday. The four UK nations do not share one bank holiday calendar, so count against the dates that apply where your site is.

Worked examples

• Received 9am Monday, submitted by 11:59pm Wednesday (the guidance's own example).
• Received Friday afternoon, submitted by 11:59pm Tuesday.
• Received Friday before a bank holiday Monday, submitted by 11:59pm Wednesday.
• Received Wednesday, submitted by 11:59pm Friday.
• Received Thursday, submitted by 11:59pm Monday.

Why the early send is the safe send

The window matters most when something goes wrong. A submission that bounces needs the same two working days to fix and resend, so a record sent on the last afternoon leaves no room to correct it. The failures we see most are not exotic: a carrier registration number that does not match the register, a waste code that does not fit the material, or a send that fails for want of a retry. Our guide to rejected submissions walks each class.

The practical habit, then: send as close to the arrival as you can, not as close to the deadline as you can.

Fixing a record after it is submitted

If an error slips through, correct it rather than leave it. A correction goes through the same route as the original submission, and it carries its own deadlines: an error flagged by the service or your software must be fixed within the same two working days, and any other error must be fixed as soon as you can and always within one month of discovering it. A correction never reopens or extends the original reporting window. If the record went in by spreadsheet, it can only be updated once you have been given the waste tracking reference for that movement.

With LoadLog, a submitted note can be corrected in the app rather than left alone, and anything the service refuses stays visible as a note that needs attention until it goes through. The user guide covers where to find both.

What to do next

Two things make the window comfortable rather than stressful. The first is a workflow that does not depend on retyping: templates for the loads you see every day, or an import for the ones your weighbridge already recorded. The second is a habit of finishing the day's loads before the day finishes you. Your first submission walks the whole chain if you have not sent one yet.