Production sanitation, the way location managers actually want it
If you’re reading this you’re probably a location manager, production coordinator, or unit production manager who has dealt with a sanitation vendor that didn’t understand call sheets, didn’t know what a honeywagon is, and showed up with a generic delivery driver who didn’t know which trucks were okay to park where. We don’t do that.
Our production-services dispatchers know the difference between a base camp and craft services, why principal cast needs a private climate-controlled room, and why you may need every truck on your set to be unmarked. Quick reference for everyone else who lands on this page:
Production sanitation glossary
- Honeywagon — A multi-stall trailer with 2–4 private rooms (each with its own toilet, sink, and door). Climate-controlled, mirror-equipped. Used at base camps for principal cast, directors, and producers.
- Base camp — The off-set staging area where talent trailers, wardrobe, hair-and-makeup, and craft services live. Usually 100–500 yards from the actual shooting set.
- Crew restrooms — Standard porta potties placed near craft services and the shooting set for the working crew (typically 50–200 people).
- Talent restrooms — The private rooms inside the honeywagon, or sometimes a dedicated luxury restroom trailer for A-list productions.
- Closed set — A set with restricted access. Vendors are signed in/out by AD; deliveries scheduled around shooting windows.
- NDA package — Non-disclosure agreement signed by all vendor personnel who’ll be on set. Standard on most major productions, especially streaming originals and tentpole features.
Standard production deployment patterns
From years of dispatching to commercial shoots, episodic TV, and indie features, here are the patterns we see most often:
| Production type | Crew size | Typical sanitation |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial / spot | 15–40 | 2 deluxe + 1 ADA, 1–2 day rental |
| Indie feature | 30–80 | 3-room honeywagon + 4 standard, weekly |
| Episodic TV | 80–200 | 4-room honeywagon + 8 standard + 2 ADA + 4 hand wash, weekly |
| Tentpole feature | 200–500 | 2× 4-room honeywagons + luxury trailer for talent + 12–20 standard + 4 ADA + 6 hand wash |
| Music video | 20–60 | Luxury trailer for artist + 4 standard for crew, 1–2 day rental |
Honeywagon configurations
- 2-room honeywagon — Two private rooms (each with toilet + sink), 24-foot trailer. Ideal for small commercial shoots or 2-principal-cast scenes. $1,000–$1,400/week.
- 3-room honeywagon — Three private rooms, two with toilet + sink, one larger talent suite with vanity and full mirror. 28-foot trailer. $1,400–$1,900/week.
- 4-room honeywagon — Four private rooms (one ADA-equipped on request), full vanity in the talent suite. 32-foot trailer. $1,900–$2,500/week.
- Luxury restroom trailer for talent — For A-list productions where the honeywagon isn’t enough, our luxury trailer tier with marble finishes and zoned climate control. $2,500–$5,000/week.
Logistics for closed sets
Major studio productions and streaming originals routinely require:
- NDA signed by every driver / service crew member who will be on set. We pre-execute production NDAs at our ops office and provide signed copies before first delivery.
- Unmarked trucks — Our delivery and service trucks can be magnetic-decal removed for closed sets. Our 53-foot service trucks can’t be unmarked, but our 26-foot units can.
- Scheduled delivery windows — We’ll work to your call sheet, delivering between specific hours that don’t conflict with shooting (typically 4–6 AM on shoot days, or full days on company-move days).
- Single point of contact — We assign one ops lead per production who handles dispatch, billing, and on-set issues. The ops lead is reachable on a direct line during shooting hours.
- COI and W-9 — We supply Certificate of Insurance ($2M general liability) listing your production entity as additional insured, plus W-9 for vendor onboarding, within 60 minutes of booking.
Servicing during principal photography
Our standard service window is overnight (2–6 AM) on shoot days. On company-move days we service mid-afternoon. Honeywagons get a daily interior detail (mirrors, vanity, hand-towels) in addition to the standard restock.
For productions with extreme call times (overnight shoots, off-schedule blocks) we’ll route servicing windows around your call sheet. Just send us the call sheet at the start of each week and we’ll adjust.