BC’s Construction Prompt Payment Act is moving forward — and for dump truck operators and earthworks companies, the documentation rules it brings are not optional.
Here’s what the act does and why paper tickets are a liability starting now.
What the Prompt Payment Act Actually Does
BC’s Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act (PPCLA) sets hard deadlines for payment throughout the construction chain:
- 28 days for owners to pay general contractors after a proper invoice is submitted
- 35 days for GCs to pay subcontractors and suppliers
- Disputes must be documented — if a GC disputes a haul or an amount, they need to provide written notice within 14 days
The key phrase in all of this: proper invoice.
Under the act, a “proper invoice” must include the work done, the dates, the amounts, and enough documentation that the payer can verify it without a phone call. That means a stack of hand-written paper tickets — where the date is smudged and the truck number is illegible — doesn’t cut it.
Why This Changes the Game for Haulers
For most dump truck operators in BC, billing has worked like this:
- Driver fills out a paper ticket on site
- Ticket gets signed (or lost, or left in the cab)
- At the end of the week, the operator assembles the tickets into an invoice
- Invoice goes to the GC, who may or may not dispute it
- Payment arrives somewhere between 2 and 6 weeks later
Under the Prompt Payment Act, this process has legal deadlines attached to it now. But more importantly: disputes freeze payment. If a GC raises a dispute, the clock stops. And if your documentation can’t back up your invoice — timestamped records, load counts, truck details — you lose that dispute.
3 disputed loads per week × $85/load = $13,260/year walking out the door in lost or delayed revenue.
The Documentation Standard Has Changed
The act doesn’t just speed up payment — it raises the documentation bar. Here’s what you need to be able to prove for every invoice:
- Which truck ran (plate, identifier)
- Which site (address or job number)
- How many loads were completed
- What time each load started and ended
- Who approved the work on site
A paper ticket can say all of this. But a paper ticket can also be lost, damaged, or disputed without recourse. A digital record — timestamped, signed off by the site supervisor, stored and retrievable in seconds — is a different story.
What Earthworks Companies Should Do Right Now
You don’t need to wait for the act to bite you to get your documentation in order. Three things to do today:
1. Stop relying on paper for billing evidence.
Paper tickets are not audit-proof. They get lost, they’re illegible, and they have no timestamp. Start every haul with a digital record.
2. Get same-day invoice capability.
The 28-day payment clock starts when a proper invoice is submitted. If your invoicing is still a Friday-afternoon exercise, you’re giving up a week of that window every single job.
3. Create a dispute-proof paper trail.
Timestamped haul logs. Digital supervisor sign-off. An immutable record of every truck, every load, every day.
Tragget Was Built for This
Tragget gives BC dump truck operators and earthworks companies everything the Prompt Payment Act requires — automatically.
- Driver taps “start round” → taps “end round” → load is logged with timestamps
- Site supervisor approves digitally — no paper, no dispute
- Invoice auto-generates from completed, approved tickets
- Every record is stored and exportable — dispute-ready from day one
When the act is fully in force, the operators who have clean digital records will get paid in 28 days. The ones still on paper will be fighting disputes they can’t win.