Most haulers will pass the cost of administrative and overage charges to you. Most companies assume they have to pay them, but in fact, it is not mandatory for them to appear on your invoices.
We reduce or eliminate most of the following fees on all client contracts:
Fuel/environment fees: This fee supposedly helps recoup the cost of gas, but is actually a huge profit center.
Recycling recovery fee: Covers the fees incurred by hauler to transfer recyclable, but again, is typically a profit center.
Minimum tonnage fees: Fee charged by the hauler (typically on roll-off or open-top accounts) when a container’s weight upon pickup is below a specific threshold.
Administrative fees: typically charged if a client elects to receive paper invoices instead of electronic delivery of invoices.
Regulatory Cost recovery fee: Some haulers, (like Waste Management) will charge this fee to cover costs in other regions - not necessarily yours. They explain it like this:
“This charge is not specifically tied to such costs to service your account, but instead helps us cover Waste Management’s enterprise-wide costs for host community fees, waste disposal taxes and similar charges to service all WM operating company customers in the United States and Canada, and to achieve an acceptable operating margin.” (From Waste Management, retrieved July 23, 2019.)
The regulatory cost recovery fee is not “tied to . . . your account.” In other words, you’re helping cover their costs to service other companies. Why should you pay for what you don’t benefit from?
Where will these fees appear on my invoice?
These fees will most often appear as itemized entries on your monthly billing invoice. Their names may be confusing, but once you know what to look for they are easy to spot.
In the picture above, you can see this company is paying $71.82/month. These fees may not initially seem like that much, but over the course of a five year contract this company will pay $4309.20. This is why we always ask the haulers we work with to cap or completely eliminate these fees. Otherwise, you'll continue to overpay.
Not sure about the quality of your contract? Want to know its weaknesses for sure?
Get access to our on-demand webinar, “7 Ways You’re Making Your Waste Hauler Rich!” Just put in your email below, and we'll redirect you to the video.