Companies nationwide are making their haulers rich. And they have no idea! They’re giving away thousands of dollars a year - money that could be better allocated to new hires, training, equipment, or property upgrades.
They’re paying their waste haulers thousands of dollars more than they need to. They don’t know that there’s any other way to do business with their trash vendors.
But you don’t have to be like them.
In this post, you’ll learn how to stop lining your waste hauler’s pockets. You’ll learn how to spot your waste disposal problems, like costly contract issues and equipment service discrepancies. And you’ll be equipped with actionable steps to stop them.
You’re making your waste hauler rich by not:
Knowing about waste hauler problems
Eliminating waste or garbage vendor invoice fees
Eradicating the auto-renewal clause
Eliminating price hikes
Evaluating service levels
Knowing market rates
Having a waste ally
In the 17 years we’ve been in business, these are the issues we routinely fix for our client. Let’s take a look at these common waste disposal problems - and their solutions. We’ll take a deep dive into each one so you can start saving!
Newsflash: You likely have waste hauler problems!
But first…some of you may be asking, “How are you so sure that I’m overspending? Just because I have dumpsters on site doesn’t mean I’m overpaying!” Or others of you may be saying, “Hey! I just finished doing my own waste audit, and I’m pretty sure there are no other savings to be found!”
The first step to finding savings is realizing that there’s a problem! Ignorance isn’t bliss - it’s expensive.
Most people have no idea that the waste industry is set up to make haulers rich. If you spend more than $10,000 a month on waste, we know there’s a 90% chance you’re overpaying.
This estimate is backed by hard data - it’s the number we’ve come up with after being in business for over 17 years, and having saved our clients millions of dollars.
We know - this is a really high number! But it really speaks to the shadiness of the waste industry. It’s created a norm where most companies are overpaying and are completely in the dark about it. A lot of professionals think that it’s normal to have price spikes, or it’s normal to have to pay all kinds of fees, for example. But it doesn’t have to be - our clients certainly don’t!
Your waste hauler is betting that you’re going to be kept in the dark about what’s really going on in your waste management. He’s betting that you aren’t going to have the time or resources to really find and address your waste disposal problems.
But this article is going to make it easy for you to do both.
Not Eliminating waste or garbage vendor invoice fees
You’re making your hauler rich by paying the fees he asks you to pay. You don’t have to - if your contract stipulates this.
Most of you are already locked into a contract that makes you pay all kinds of fees. But you don’t have to!
We eliminate or reduce fees like the following on most of our client’s contracts - like Rhonda’s!
Here are some examples:
Container Service Plan: This is a fee that was automatically added to most Waste Management Accounts a few years ago. Enrollment in this plan (involuntary though it may be) allows you to replace your container ev as necessary. But most people don’t need to replace their garbage container frequently - some of our customers have containers that over 5 years old and still look fine.
So do you really need to be a part of this plan? Probably not.
Container Refresh fee: This one is specific to one of the biggest haulers out there, Republic. Republic has a fee called a “Container Refresh” fee that allows the customer to get a no-cost swap out of their container every 2 years. Which sounds great - if your container gets rusted out, you can replace it for free.
But most containers are good for much longer than that. This is a good example of a service that seems like it’s there to serve you, but is actually in the haulers best interest. Haulers wouldn’t offer it if they didn’t profit from it. They know most of their customers will pay $10 a month for a service they will never use.
Fuel/environmental fee: Almost everyone gets this charge on their invoice. Basically, the hauler is charging you for the gas it takes to get to your site and deliver your trash to the dump. But here’s the thing - they charge everyone on their route a fuel fee. They are more than recouping the cost of gas.
And those fuel charges add up. The location that got the invoice above is being charged almost $60 a month, or $720 a year. Supposing this is a three year contract, that’s $2160 they could be saving!
Recycling recovery fee: This fee is charged by the hauler to transfer your recyclable material from your site to the drop off site. You may rightly ask, “Well, aren’t they charging me already for fuel? What exactly does this fee cover?” Herein lies the problem. This charge often isn’t actually covering anything - it’s just another fee that the haulers often tack on because they can.
Minimum tonnage fees: The hauler will charge you this fee when the containers weight is below a specific threshold. These fees typically only apply to roll-off or open-top accounts. In other words, they are charging you for not having enough garbage in the container.
Basically, when you incur this fee, the hauler is saying “I made up this rule, and you broke it, so you have to pay.” The dump site does not charge a minimum fee - this is just something the hauler makes up because, well, they can.
Psst! See all of our resources on how to stop overspending!
Administrative fees: Typically charged if a client elects to receive paper invoices instead of electronic delivery of invoices. Most of the time, this administrative fee is pretty small - less than ten dollars per month. But small does not equal fair! You shouldn’t pay a penny more than you need to on your waste disposal.
Regulatory Cost recovery fee: Some haulers, (like Waste Management) will charge this fee to cover costs in other regions - not necessarily yours. Your fees go towards paying other people’s garbage disposal.
So you’re likely paying one or more of these fees. The good news? You can renegotiate your contract. A warning: if you’re in the middle of your term, you may not have a lot of leverage with your hauler to do so. But if you’re close to the end? You’ll have a lot more leverage.
When you’re renegotiating, (or getting a new hauler and a new contract) make sure the new contract includes a phrase limiting or completely eradicating these fees.
Does this sound a little unrealistic? We do it on almost every contract we’ve created for our clients over the past 17 years. Haulers want your business. So you may be surprised how much they are willing to negotiate your contract terms.
Not eradicating the auto-renewal clause on your waste contract
You’re making your hauler rich by not eliminating your auto-renewal clause.
Most haulers are betting on the fact that you’re not going to remember when your contract expires three or five years from now. They know that if you do, you may choose to go with a different hauler, or start changing your contract. So they, in effect, limit the possibility of that happening.
Your contract will automatically renew without your input. So we’ve seen a lot of our customers get stuck with a service that may or may not be ideal.
The language often looks like this:
Allowing your contract to auto-renew wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing - except it doesn’t allow you a chance to review what is really best for your company.
Waste needs often change over time, and waste service levels may need adjusting. When we cancel the autorenewal clauses for our clients, it allows us the opportunity to find better pricing or to renegotiate new contracts, both of which contributes to thousands of dollars in savings over time.
Because contracts inherently have terms, any savings that are enacted accumulate over time. Suppose you stop your auto renewal and are able to find $1000 in savings each month by renegotiating your contract with better rates and no price spikes. Over the five year life of your contract, you’ll save over $60,000. That’s not pocket change!
And it’s savings that are made possible by stopping contract auto-renewal. You deserve the chance to get the best rates you can on your waste disposal - and for your waste management process.
Not eliminating price hikes in your waste management
You’re making your hauler rich by not eradicating or limiting price spikes on your contract. Most trash haulers schedule regular price hikes and service charge increases. This is a massive waste disposal problem!
Your hauler knows that he will raise prices at least once a year. Don’t let them get away with that.
We’ve seen haulers raise prices as much as four times a year at a 5-10% increase. (Just recently, we actually had one try to increase rates 900%!)
If price spikes happen at least one a year, think about how much you’ll be paying a year from now, or two, or ten. Again eradicating the possibility for price spikes now means you’ll be saving more later.
Not sure if your contract limits them? Pull out your contract and let’s have a look!
Look in the Payment Terms of your Waste Hauler contract. It’s typically titled something like “Charges, Payments, Adjustments.” If you do not find language that limits or prohibits spikes, you need to re-evaluate your contract ASAP. Because what this means is that a hauler could increase your rates at will - and you would have very little recourse.
In effect most price spikes make you pay higher and higher rates for the exact same services.
Now don’t get me wrong - some price spikes are actually legitimate. As fuel prices increase, the cost of providing services increases. But most haulers are not raising prices because the cost of service is increasing. They’re raising them because they can.
How do we know? Because we know how haulers calculate their costs. And we know the legitimate costs from the shady ones.
It costs a lot to run a waste disposal business. Here are some of the costs they incur to provide you service.
Disposal cost to drop off waste materials at disposal facility.Waste disposal facilities charge for the garbage they receive? Haulers have to pay this fee, and this fee often gets passed onto you - and not always in part.
Cost of hauler equipment. Dumpsters, garbage trucks, and compactors are expensive to make and they can be extremely expensive to service. The trash business isn’t exactly gentle on equipment. Dumpsters lose tops, or get rusted out. Compactors inexplicably stop working. Since most companies rent the dumpsters or compactores from the hauler company, the haulers have to buy the equipment and service it.
Cost for servicing account. It’s expensive for haulers to drive their trucks to and from your locations. Haulers have to take into account employee compensation, the fuel charges, and the cost of maintaining the trucks. Haulers will typically divide up the number of locations they have to service to figure out how much to charge each customer. This means you aren’t necessarily charged exactly what it takes to get from your location to another; it’s presumably divided up equally among those who are on the same route. However, it has to be said, there’s no external oversight on this. Most companies trust that their haulers are accurately and fairly charging them. But we’ve found that haulers can widely vary on how much of legitimate charges are passed on to the client - and how much is added in on top of that. Haulers should make a profit doing what they do - it’s important work! But they don’t need to overcharge simply because they can.
And a lot of times, they do. How do we know this? Because we’ve worked inside the waste industry before. Most haulers will not enter an agreement unless they are making at least a 15% profit. (We’ve actually seen some companies make as much as 100% or more in profit!)
Profit margins for the haulers almost always increase every year. We’re talking 99% of the time.
A vendors profit margin is also dependent on you, the client!
When these price spikes happen, the majority of businesses either don’t notice them or don’t question them. Haulers often bet that you won’t notice, or that you won’t care if you do.
This is exactly why we make our client’s contacts airtight - and why we review your waste invoices. Our clients pay what’s fair. Make sure you aren’t making your hauler rich by getting a waste ally.
Not evaluating waste disposal service levels
You’re making your hauler rich because you’re paying for services that you don’t need.
I wish I could tell you this is a limited problem - that only a handful of companies we’ve audited have this issues. But it’s not. It happens to almost every account we’ve had regardless of where they’re located or what hauler they’re using.
Companies are paying for 5 pick-ups a week when they only actually need 2. They’re paying for dumpsters that are too big. They’re paying pricey overages that could be eliminated with different equipment or additional pick-ups. Or they’re not using a compactor, but they should be.
Haulers are not going to find ways for your to save on your service levels. Why? Because it doesn’t line their pockets.
This is exactly why our pricing is performance based. When you win, we win. So we make sure you win. We make sure no savings are left on the table, and we evaluate every possible aspect of every waste stream at every location.
When we perform our audits, we look closely at your service levels and the waste
If your on-site waste dumpsters are less than half full when they are picked up, look into getting fewer or smaller sized dumpsters.
But your problem may not be with the waste equipment you have, but with the equipment you don’t have.
Maybe you have too much cardboard, and want to start packaging it for resale. We’d recommend a baler. Or maybe you can reduce the number of pick-ups per week with a compactor.
Or you may have a situation where you need bigger dumpsters. If you have a six foot front loading dumpsters that is picked up every day, it may make more financial sense to upgrade to an eight foot dumpster that only gets picked up three times a week.
You’re making your hauler rich because your waste management is operating at ineffective levels. But a waste review will find these issues and correct them.
We find waste problems, create solutions and implement them on your behalf. It’s why our audits are so effective, and how we’ve found hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for our clients.
Why not sign up for a free consult today? Tyler Brunson, our CEO, will give you a crystal clear picture about what we do and how we can help you.
Knowing waste market rates
You’re making your hauler rich because you don’t know what “normal” or average waste disposal pricing is in your area. You don’t realize, for instance, the company across the street is paying half of what you’re paying for waste services. And your haulers sure as heck isn’t going to volunteer that information.
If you know what’s normal - and if you know what other vendors are charging - you’ll ensure that you’re not wasting valuable resources.
But knowing the market goes beyond just knowing what most haulers waste disposal rates are.
Sometimes, you need expertise to help you get somewhere. It’s why you went to school for the degree that you have, and it’s why some professionals have career mentors. You need guidance for your career path or direction.
We give our clients expert market knowledge, and they stop being overcharged. We know the waste industry, and we speak its language. We know where to look for savings, and we have a 90% success rate of finding them.
We know how to make airtight contracts, how to prevent price spikes, and how to reduce fees. These are things we do for our clients every day, in almost every industry - and it’s what we can do for you, too.
Not having a waste ally
You’re making your hauler rich because you don’t have a waste ally. You don’t have someone who will find billing discrepancies and fight for billing credits on your behalf - so your staff’s time and resources are taken up. Waste hauler invoices are incorrect 10% of the time. Are you catching those mistakes?
What you don’t know is costing you. You’re likely being charged at rates that are too high because your contract ensures that your rates will steadily increase, unchecked. You have equipment on site that you don’t need because your haulers don’t care that your dumpsters are half full when they’re serviced. You’re paying too much for your service, because you only need pick-ups three times a week instead of five.
How much longer will you overspend?
You need a waste ally - someone who knows how to find these issues and permanently resolve them.
We give our clients the peace of mind they deserve about their waste spend. When their pricing is regulated, they know exactly what to expect to budget for years to come. When their contracts are airtight, they know that when incorrect invoices happen, they have recourse. And when service issues happen, they know that we’ll promptly resolve the issue on their behalf.
We’ve found our clients hundreds of thousands in savings. How much are you sitting on?
How long will you wait to start saving?
Our risk-free audit process requires zero capital outlay, and is guaranteed to be cash-flow positive. In other words, we’ve made sure you have nothing to lose - and everything to gain!
There’s a 90% chance that you’re sitting on savings. Why keep ignoring those opportunities. Schedule a call today with our CEO, Tyler Brunson. He’ll explain in even more detail how we do what we do and exactly why it’s effective for 90% of companies nationwide.