How Hauler Contracts Make You Overpay on Waste Expenses: Part 2

What if news broke tomorrow morning that you didn’t actually have to pay your mortgage? That somehow, a swanky lawyer somewhere figured out that most Americans were not actually obligated to pay their mortgage? 

You’d probably be elated at first. But give it a day or two, and you’d probably start thinking, “Man, think of how much we could have saved if we had known this two years ago!”

At the risk of bursting your bubble, you definitely have to pay your mortgage this month. But you don’t necessarily have to be trapped into paying your hauler invoices. 

Read Part 1 of this series here!

It’s all in what your contract stipulates. We’ve helped a lot of companies significantly reduce or completely eliminate their ancillary waste fees. You don’t have to include them on your contract, and if they’re not on your contract, you don’t have to pay them.  

I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s look at some common contract fees that can be reduced or eliminated.

Your Hauler Invoice: Deconstructed

Take a look at your most recent hauler invoice. You’ll likely see a few fees listed near the bottom of your invoice, like this one. 

You’ll notice there are three fees listed in the left hand column: a container service plan, a fuel/environmental charge and a regulatory cost recovery charge. 

These are just three examples of waste fees that can be reduced or avoided altogether on your contract. 

Pull out your most recent invoice, and see which of the following fees you’re being charged. 

Want to stop overpaying? Download our free Guide to Reducing Your Waste Expenses!

The Most Common Waste Invoice Fees

There are dozens of waste fees that can appear on your invoices, but I’m going to focus on the ones you’re most likely to see. 

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. 

You Don’t Have to Overpay on Contract Fees

The fees in the list above - and a whole lot more that we haven’t mentioned - are not required to be in your contract. Local and state governments don’t mandate these; they exist because your hauler wants to make more money. 

If you aren’t interested in overpaying anymore, fill out our contact form! We’d love to hear from you. Or, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Four Ways You Are Overspending on Waste Expenses

You probably know something is off with your waste disposal. Your waste spend is too high, and prices seem to keep increasing. Your haulers are difficult to work with and provide less than stellar service.

You know something is wrong; you just don’t know what to do about it.

You can find relief from your waste worries. You can remedy and even prevent them.

Let’s take a close look at the top four ways you’re likely overspending and what you can do about it. In this post, we’ll look at the following categories in detail:

1. Expensive haulers

2. Bad hauler contracts

3. Using the wrong equipment

4. Weak customer service 

These are the top ways we’ve seen companies overspend on their waste expenses - and thus the areas where most savings can be had.

1. You Have Expensive Haulers

Haulers have a secret - they will increase their prices by 5-20% a year. This will happen at least once a year and sometimes up to four times per year. (They don’t warn you; it just happens.)

As time goes by, this pricing compounds - and not in a good way. Say you started employing a hauler in January 2015 at an initial rate of $1,000 a month. Now, you could be paying as much $1,500 a month or more. That’s a 50% increase!

Some businesses notice price hikes; others (unbelievably) don’t. The ones that do often try to fight the price hikes. But if you don’t have a clause in your contract that specifically precludes these price increases, it’s really difficult to win this battle. 

Too often, what you don’t know can be used against you. You don’t know the market rates, you don’t know what other companies are paying for the same service. So many haulers think they charge you what they want, and you’ll never know the difference.

How can you prevent overspending on haulers? Consider either renegotiating your contract or getting a different hauler (see the next section for more info on these options). Weight the benefits of partnering with a waste consultant, who knows the market rates and the waste industry inside and out. You’ll also need to monitor hauler invoices closely - they have errors about 10% of the time. You shouldn’t pay for someone else’s mistakes! 

2. You Have a Terrible Hauler Contract

Hauler contracts are often structured with one company in mind - and it’s not yours.

A terrible hauler contract:

• Does not preclude price spikes 

• Has inaccurate service levels

• Charges you for additional fees

• Makes it nearly impossible to cancel 

• Has no provision for bad service

Make sure you know your contract! The more you know, the more you can fight unfair terms - and the overspending that almost always accompanies it.

3. You’re using the wrong equipment

It’s entirely possible that you’re paying for equipment you don’t actually need. Don’t get me wrong - you need dumpsters (or toters or compactors)! But you may be using the wrong size. 

If your on-site dumpsters are less than half full when they are picked up, look into getting fewer or smaller sized dumpsters. 

But your problem may not with the 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. You need 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. 

How do you evaluate your equipment usage? Do a basic audit of your equipment. Take a picture of how full they are at the same time every day for two to four weeks. It will take less than five minutes from your (or your staff’s) day, and it will give you an exact idea of how full your containers are really getting filled. Why pay for four-day a week service when you only need two-day a week service?

4. You Have Weak Customer Service 

How often do you have problems with your waste and recycling hauler or broker? Do you or your staff constantly have to keep on top of them to receive quality service? 

Not many businesses realize the amount of effort they or their staff are putting into their waste management. 

You shouldn’t have to try to convince your waste partner(s) to show up and do what they’ve already agreed to do. It shouldn’t be work to get them to cooperate - they should be doing work for you.

Give some thought to the amount of time your and your staff is spending trying to solve waste-related problems. Your time - and theirs - is an added expense. How would they spend their time if they were unburdened from waste worries?

As the old adage goes, time is money. You are not obligated to overspend on either for waste management. 

Eradicate this expense by reconsidering your waste partnership. Want to become your staff’s hero? Ask them how much time they spend tracking down haulers. Evaluate how bad your waste management customer service really is. Can your issues be addressed by them? If not, how long will you pay for poor service? 

Evaluate Your Waste Management with Confidence

Haulers are not going to show you how a compactor could save you $80,000 in the next five years.

They’re not going to tell you that you don’t actually need service 5 times a week. They’re not going to tell you that they are the most expensive hauler in town. They’re not going to find ways for you to save on your waste and recycling expenses.

We will.

Schedule a free consultation to learn about how we can find the savings opportunities you’re sitting on.

What is the Industrial Recycling Process - and Can I Save?

When the word “recycling” comes to mind, most people think of paper, water bottles, and cardboard. 

But recycling is more than that! It can also include industrial recycling. 

Industrial recycling is different from other types of recycling. In this article, we’ll look at how different types of major industrial materials are recycled.

Different companies can benefit from recycling in different ways. 

Depending on what byproducts you produce, you can either resell them, or reuse them within your company or factory. 

Today, we’ll talk about three of the most common ways companies use industrial recycling, and how it affects their bottom line.

1. Recycling Oil

2. Recycling Metal Scrap

3. Recycling Construction Debris

Recycling Oil

Oil has always been a controversial topic in the waste industry. Although the thoughts behind the word “oil” have always been negative, i.g. BP oil spill, recycling it can have a more positive impact on the environment and on a company’s bottom line. 

Where does it come from?

Most of the oil that is being recycled comes from oil change shops, mechanic shops, and car dealerships. 

Although these are the top oil recycling companies, other companies are considering recycling due to its benefits. How could you gain by recycling oil?

How does it work? 

Let’s take a look at the process that goes into oil recycling.

To be recycled, all oil must be tested to see whether it is reasonable for refinement. 

After the oil is approved for refinement, then it goes through three stages of refining:

• Dehydration

• Defueling

• Vacuum distillation

These processes are used to separate water and extra chemicals that are still in the oil mixture. Then the oil enters its final processes, hydro-treating, where a sustainable process reduces the amount of carbon, acid, sulphur, nitrogen, etc.

The recycled product is often sold to lubricant manufacturers. They in turn often make their own oil-recycled mixture to benefit their company. Oftentimes, recycled oils are used to produce recycled engines and industrial oils. 

How can I benefit?

Oil can save a company thousands of dollars. It does not have an expiration date, meaning they can be reused and reproduced into renewable resources. Depending on a company’s specific operational needs, you can potentially recycle oil and reuse it to generate heating and cooling. This will reduce your electric bills. Oil recycling can also diminish the energy required to produce or process raw materials. For example, recycled oils can be reused to run engines and machines that are used in the manufacturing process. 

Recycling Metal Scrap

Many companies across the country recycle 30-40% of their metals. Recycling metals can be very beneficial for the company because one, it reduces extra costs that company does not need to spend more money on, and two, it allows companies to reuse their recycled materials to produce new materials. This will diminish the raw materials expenses of a company and its transportation costs.  

Where does it come from? 

Metals are collected from different sources (i.e. ships, railroads, cars, structures, equipment) then they are separated by metal types of chemicals that make up the metal. 

How is it done?

Different types of metals have different recycling processes, but similar processing methods.  The first step in metal recycling is collecting and sorting. 

After separating the metals, processing begins. First, metals are shredded, making it easier for metals to be melted. After shredding, metals are melted in large furnaces then purified using a direct electric current to eliminate contaminants. Lastly, the metals enter the purification cycle, where they are cooled and solidified.

Once the process is complete, the metal recycling company or scrap yard will transport the metals to corporations that will then use the new recycled raw materials to produce new goods, such as new metal beams for construction or recycled tinned cans. 

How can I benefit?

Recycling metals can save a company thousands of dollars. Not only does it diminish the disposal costs of a company, but companies who use their recycled materials to produce new products can save up to 90% of the energy required to manufacture a new material/product. If you do not own a company that reuses metals to produce products and simply just recycle your metals, you can sell your scrap metals to recycling companies who will reproduce new materials from it. This is good for your company because it will generate additional revenue. As recycling consultants, Waste Consultants can help help guide you on the current markets rates, the best available vendors, and best practices around collecting, sorting, and selling your metal recyclables.  

Recycling Construction Materials

Many have wondered where all  the leftover construction materials go after a demolition process or a construction. Well, many of them are sent straight to the landfill. Today, landfills are filling up by the minute and it is harder and harder to find land for landfills. By recycling construction materials, this will eliminate the need to send all of the unused materials to landfills. 

Less landfills = less toxic build up in the atmosphere.

There are many recyclable materials that can be recycled from a construction site. 

Some examples are: 

• Metals

• Wood

• Concrete

• Glass

• asphalt pavement

• Gypsum (drywall material)

How can it be reused? 

Wood: Untreated and clean wood can usually be reused to make boiler fuel, mulch or engineered board through the process of re-milling.

Metals: See previous section

Asphalt Pavement: leftover materials can produce energy savings. These are often re-melted and turned back into asphalt.

Glass: Leftover windows can be recycled for other projects. Glass can also be melted and reformed into a material that can be used.

Gypsum: This is drywall materials and can be reused to produce recycled drywalls, cement, or be used in the agriculture industry. 

How can I benefit?

You and your company can benefit from this! In a recent study, construction companies who recycle have saved and earn profit by recycling their leftover/wasted materials.

In the study, they calculated that companies are able to gain $50/ton of profit for cardboard, $5/ton for materials containing paper, $150/ton for PET materials (which are materials from packaging/ similar to polyester), $250/ton for HDPE plastics (bottles, plastic bags, boxes), and $1,325/ton from recycling metal materials such as aluminum. 

Industrial Recycling is Your Ticket to Savings

We’ve looked at specific methods of how industrial materials can be processed and recycled. Here, at WCI, we can help you and your company with your waste management so that you have the opportunity to find savings and protect your bottom line.

We will help you find the right haulers who will not take advantage of you and we’ll make sure you don’t leave any saving opportunities behind.

Want to learn more about how your company can start saving and recycling? Don’t hesitate to contact us and schedule a consultation. We’ll share how our services can benefit you and help you save!

Industrial Recycling and Your Bottom Line

Many companies today are being charged more that they need to on industrial waste. Are you one of them?

These business have unnecessary fees and bad contracts that are made to take advantage of their company!

Here at WCI, we work exhaustively to examine your waste processes, contracts, and invoices.

Our consultants work hard with you to make sure that you save as much as possible. We want you to take every savings opportunity. So after examining your processes and invoices, we will come up with a recommendation list for you and your company. For many clients, this means that we recommend industrial recycling as a cost-cutting measure.  

With a 90% success rate, we believe that we can help you diminish your waste management cost and save thousands of dollars.

In this article, we will be discussing  the three different parts of industrial recycling:

1. What Industries Use Industrial Recycling

2. What materials constitute industrial recycling

3. How industrial recycling can affect your bottom line. 

Let’s dive in!

What Industries Use Industrial Recycling

Industrial wastes come from manufacturing industries, office buildings, or any other corporation that generates oil, scrap metals, lumber, masonry and concrete.

Many large corporations around the United States produce industrial waste every day. For example, companies such as Intel, Estée Lauder, Texas Instruments, and Nike are some of the highest contributing companies to Industrial waste.

Some people think that industrial waste only comes from companies that produce metallic waste, but this is not the case. Industrial waste can include waste from cafeterias, such as leftover oil, to scrap metals from an Apple product.  

What Materials Constitute Industrial Recycling

Here are some examples of industrial waste:

• Debris from construction sites (e.g. pipes, leftover gravel, lamps containing mercury, asphalt).

• Demolition materials (wood floor, screws, scrap metal, paint/lead paint).

• Wastes from car and body shops (car engine, parts, wastes created from paint, scrap metal, used oil, tires, broken batteries).

• Leftover paint, brushes, or tools from a paint or furniture store. 

• Unused or leftover chemicals from Labs (science labs, photography development, etc).

• Pesticides used in farming (agricultural waste).

• Waste from printing (leftover ink, ink cartridges, chemicals used to produce specific forms of printing).

• Wastes from clothing industries/factories (chemicals used to produce color on clothing).

These are only a few examples of industrial waste. There are many more out there, but this should give you an idea whether or not you or your company fall into this situation. 

How Industrial Recycling Helps Companies

Many industrial companies have taken the leap to better improve their waste management. For example, some companies such as Intel and Estée Lauder have decided to recycle more than half of their waste. Intel has recycled more than 75% of its waste since 2008 and Estée Lauder has had a recycling rate of roughly 89% since 2016.

Other industries, including Nike and Texas instruments, have recycled their waste to better their production efficiency. Nike has used Industrial Plastic Recycling, to produce shoes from recycled waste products. Companies like Texas Instruments are reusing the water used in fabricating their materials to feed cooling towers in their utility plant. 

Clearly, many industries have benefited from industrial recycling. Can you?

How Industrial Recycling Can Affect Your Bottom Line

When you  work with us, we’ll help you save by recycling your byproducts. We can help create alternative solutions to your waste management problems. 

Let’s look at how your company can benefit from Industrial Recycling:

• Reusing recycled materials to produce new materials can result in an emission reduction, but also waste cost reduction. You won’t need to spend more money on producing new materials.

• Industrial recycling will diminish your landfill/waste costs (e.g. disposal and material costs).

• Reduced resource extraction, resulting in a lower raw materials transporting and processing costs.

• Industrial companies will be able to save money on landfill taxes and enhance their site efficiency/logistics.

• Industrial recycling also benefits the environment. Less waste = fewer landfills

• Lastly, industrial recycling results in social benefits and a sustainable brand. This increases the value of your company to customers and prospective investors. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us and schedule a consultation. We’ll share how our services can benefit you and help you save!

5 Ways You're Overpaying for Dumpsters (and How to Stop!)

You’re overspending on your dumpsters. 

How do we know? Because we’ve seen it over and over again with our clients. 

Of the hundreds we’ve worked with over the past 18 years, we estimate that over 60% of our clients have  benefited from equipment changes. 

Prior to us coming on board, these companies were paying thousands of dollars for commercial waste equipment. But they weren’t being used efficiently! They didn’t know - but they do now. 

They stopped overpaying, and you can too.  

You may need:

• fewer dumpsters 

• a compactor

• more dumpsters (with fewer pickups)

• larger containers

• smaller containers 

How will you know what your true needs are unless you get a waste audit?

Let’s take some time to dive into each of these categories. At the end of this blog post, you’ll know a few ways you’re likely overpaying for waste containers. 

You Need Fewer Dumpsters

You need fewer waste or recycling dumpsters at your locations. 

Are your dumpsters full each time they are serviced? Does your dumpster usage differ seasonally? Do you need every dumpster at every location?

What you don’t know is costing you 

Your ideal service levels are those where you are receiving the right number of picks-ups for each dumpster. If your dumpsters aren’t full when they are picked up, you’re paying for wasted space. 

Stop paying for inefficient equipment levels

If your dumpsters have different usage rates based on tourist season, for instance, you need a contract that reflects that. Why pay for additional services that you can’t use?

We often remedy this situation by evaluating your unique location needs. First, we’ll scour your invoice history. Do you have any overages? If so, how many? If you have none at all, that can be an indicator that your dumpsters are not being used at maximum capacity. 

If you have a waste container that is charged by weights, we’ll look at your tonnage history. If you consistently have low container rates, this means that either you need few containers - or that you ended fewer pick-ups. 

Our recommendations will take into account pricing from other market providers and your waste hauler contract specifications. 

We’ll find the solution that’s right for you. And what saves you the most money. 

(Psst! Equipment is only one way you’re overpaying on waste disposal. Your contracts are costing you. )

You may need a waste compactor

There are many reasons you may need a compactor, but these are the top two:

1. You’re a higher trash generator. Does an 8-yard dumpster picked up every day meet your service needs? If you’re generating more trash, you need equipment that can perform accordingly. 

2. You generate food waste. You don’t need us to tell you this, but food can reek if it’s left out too long. Compactors help contain liquid and smells, keeping your location tidy and clean. 

A waste compactor crushes garbage so that fewer pick-ups are necessary. The most frequently used size is 30 cubic yards. It requires an investment upfront, but it can save quite a bit of money over time. 

We typically recommend compactors to clients who produce large amounts of waste and those who have space at their site.

You may need more dumpsters

You need more dumpsters but with fewer pickups.

As contrary as it sounds, you may be in a situation where it’s cheaper to pay for additional dumpsters but fewer pick-ups. 

Assuming your dumpsters are being emptied when they are completely full, adding more dumpsters can be a cheaper option than paying for more pick-ups. 

This solutions depends on:

• What your haulers charge for pick-ups

• What your waste haulers charge for dumpster rentals

If you are facing a situation where you have increased usage at a particular site or multiple site, schedule a 15 minute Discovery Call with us today. 

You can’t afford not to know what options are best for you, and what money you can save. 

You need larger waste containers

On the other hand, you may have the opposite waste disposal problem. Instead of needing more dumpsters, you may just need larger ones. 

Suppose you have three 6-yard waste dumpsters on your site location that are picked-up 3 times a week. Our audit finds that these dumpsters are not used to capacity and that you could instead install 2 8-yard waste containers instead. 

The larger size will allow you to decrease service to once a week. The rent for the larger dumpsters will be more expensive, but you’ll save more over time because you’ll be paying for fewer pick-ups. 

You need smaller waste containers

More companies need this solution - and they have no idea! As a result, they’re overspending by hundreds if not thousands of dollars each year.

How to tell when you may need a smaller container

If your dumpsters are not full when serviced, you may need to downsize the containers. For each one of our audits, we get in touch with every site manager and go over waste and recycling details. We ask questions about current service levels and pick-up frequency. We ask about the equipment they have on site. 

We ask these things to ensure that we have accurate information. Hauler invoices sometimes say one thing, but the reality may be something completely different!

How to tell when small waste containers really are a solution

We also find it invaluable to talk with those who have day-to-day knowledge of your current waste management process. We’ve found that they often have information that allows us to tailor our recommendations to the real needs of that location. 

For instance, when our senior analyst will often ask “I’m thinking about “X” solution for this particular problem. Have you all ever tried that before? Would that work for your location from your perspective?”

Sometimes the site manager will give us really good reasons why that idea may or may not work. Maybe there’s a construction issue we don’t know about. Maybe there’s a vendor issue we haven’t heard of.

Finding out about these things from those on the ground is an invaluable part of our process. 

Smaller containers vs. fewer pickups

Some of you may be asking, couldn’t you just get fewer pickups instead of pulling a few dumpsters?

The short answer? It depends. When we evaluate a location, we weigh the benefits of getting smaller containers vs. keeping the current containers and instead getting fewer pickups. 

We do the math, and we figure out which solution is right for you and your locations. 

Smaller trash dumpsters can mean big savings

Suppose you have four 8 yard dumpsters, but we find that they’re only half-full when they’re picked up. So long as there are no seasonal usage issues to keep in mind, we would likely recommend that you remove two of those dumpsters. Why pay for what you’re not using?

You could keep the same pick-up schedule; but you’d be paying significantly less.

Solve your waste problems today!

Solve your waste problems starting today. 90% of businesses are overpaying on waste - and you’re likely one of them. 

But you can take the steps toward savings today!

Let us evaluate your locations to see if you need:

• fewer dumpsters 

• a compactor

• more dumpsters (with fewer pickups)

• larger containers

• smaller containers 

You won’t pay us anything unless we find savings.

Schedule a 15 minute Discovery Call with us, and we’ll show how you can save. 

5 Common Waste Disposal Problems for Businesses - and Their Solutions!

Waste disposal problems can seem never-ending. But there are solutions to be had.

This article will show you what your known (and unknown!) waste issues likely are and what you can do about them.

Your waste disposal problems will likely fall into one or more of these categories. 

1. Missed Trash Pick-ups

2. Overages at Waste Dumpsters

3. Poorly Performed Service of Waste Dumpsters

4. Illegal Dumping at Waste Containers

5. Wrong Container Sizes and Service Frequency

Most businesses have experienced at least one of these issues in the past - or are currently experiencing them. 

These problems can cut into your bottom line. They reduce staff efficiency and can create a poor impression for your visitors or residents. 

So it’s important to not only know the extent of these issues, but how we solve them. Today, we’ll take some time to do both. 

Missed Trash Pick-ups

Missed pick-ups don’t make anyone happy - and they rarely go unnoticed. 

Your staff, residents and/or visitors to your property rely on getting trash picked up quickly and efficiently. When this doesn’t happen, it’s abundantly obvious. 

Why missed pick ups happen

Sometimes missed pick-ups happen because haulers are human. Sometimes, they’re running behind schedule and your location gets accidentally skipped. 

But other times, haulers intentionally miss your location. Maybe they don’t feel like going all the way to your property, or they don’t feel like navigating your tricky corral. 

And still other times, haulers try to service your location but can’t access the dumpsters. Occasionally, this happens when there has been an influx in trash - perhaps after a holiday, or during a seasonal rush. Trash piles up outside the dumpster, and some haulers won’t service these dumpsters when this occurs. 

But haulers may also be prevented from accessing your dumpsters due to illegal dumping.

Most often, this happens at multi-family complexes where neighbors - those who do not live at your property - use dumpsters at your locations. (We’ve seen everything from toilets, to furniture, to mattresses!)

What you can do about missed garbage and recycling pick-ups 

Have a waste ally who will resolve waste problems on your behalf. 

No one wants to waste their time trying to figure out why their service was missed. No one wants to spend hours on the phone trying to convince their hauler that serviced was missed and that they do in fact know what they’re talking about. 

That is exactly why we exist. We take care of service issues, but we also do everything we can to prevent them in the first place. Our clients’ contracts ensure they have recourse when service is constantly sub-par. 

Overages at Waste Dumpsters

Just this past month, one of our clients got an invoice that included six overage charges. This amounted to hundreds of dollars in extra fees. As their waste ally, we’re getting to the bottom of why these charges occurred. 

I wish we could say this is an isolated incident - but most businesses have seen one or more overage charges.

What are waste overages fees?

Overages fees are charged when the waste does not fit into the confines of the dumpsters. When trash spills over the sides of your containers, you’re in trouble. 

And unfortunately, most haulers are not going to overlook it. The nicer haulers will toss the excess garbage into their truck, then empty the dumpster and go on their merry way. 

But your typical hauler will make a note of it, and an overage charge will appear on your invoice the next month. 

For some businesses, overages occur due to seasonal influxes. Restaurants and hotels, for instance, may experience an increase in trash output during the busy summer months. (We typically negotiate contracts that take seasonal fluxes into account.) Multi-family units may experience higher volumes of waste output before or after new residents move in. 

Whatever the reason they occur, when you get them repeatedly, it’s not ideal.

What You Can Do About Overage Charges on Your Waste Bill

When you see them on your bill, always ask for pictures of the overages from the hauler. If they can’t provide proof, they shouldn’t appear on your invoice. 

If you can prove you’ve mistakenly been charged for your overages, your hauler will likely provide a credit on the following month’s bill. 

Pro Tip: Always take notes when you are talking to your hauler about anything that pertains to your bill. You’d be surprised how often there are communication gaps between what your customer rep has agreed to and what your hauler’s accounting department actually sends you on your invoice. 

Poorly Performed Service of Waste Dumpsters or Compactors

This past summer, one of our multi-family complex clients had an on-going issue with their hauler. The hauler was emptying the compactor on schedule, but he was leaving behind a mess every time he emptied it. 

Piles of garbage bags were left where the compactor broke away from the main unit. And to make matter worse, the hauler left trails of garbage throughout the property after each pick-up. 

Needless to say, the residents were less than thrilled. 

The project manager for this client, Allen Banfield, knew that the compactor was being emptied incorrectly - hence the spillage issues. He was able to explain to the client exactly what was wrong, and hold the hauler accountable for emptying the bins correctly. 

This client hasn’t had another compactor issue since. 

At the end of the day, your hauler is supposed to do their job. When they do it poorly, it’s a problem - and not one that is easily ignored. 

We ensure that our clients receive their ideal service levels as contract - it’s one of the five main ways we find substantial savings.

Illegal Dumping at Waste Containers

This is mainly a problem that happens at multi-family complexes, but we’ve seen it occasionally occur at business parks as well. 

Illegal dumping, as we briefly mentioned above, happens when people who don’t work or live at your locations or properties dump their trash into your containers. 

It’s a fairly common problem, unfortunately. But there are simple solutions to it. 

What you can do about illegal dumping

You may not be able to prevent every instance of illegal dumping, but you can prevent a lot of it.

Consider one or more of these possible solutions.

• Putting a lock on your containers

• Post private property signs

• Use security cameras

• Put your dumpsters in corrals

• Use landscaping to deter dumping

An ounce of prevention will go a long way. Investing in one or more of these options can save you headaches down the road.

Wrong Container Sizes and Pick-Up Frequency

All of the problems to this point have been about obvious problems. This last one is not as obvious - but it’s one that happens on appropriately 80% of our accounts. 

Suppose you have 1 6-yard dumpster that is getting picked up 3 times a week. Pick-ups happen on time, and you rarely have overages. But, unbeknownst to you,  if you switched out this 6 yard dumpster for an 8 yard dumpster, you could drop down to twice a week service. This switch could save you an estimated $150 a month. 

But you don’t know what you don’t know. Everything is going smoothly, right? So there’s no reason you would necessarily know about the savings potential you’re sitting on. 

This is why our exhaustive audits are the backbone of what we do. We look at every possible revenue stream, and we have a 90% success rate doing so.

Waste and Recycling Audits Find Savings Opportunities 

Our waste audits are exhaustive, so they find every savings opportunity available to you. 

As Tom Driscoll, VP of PS Business Parks told us just a few days ago, “You gave us clear and actionable steps to vastly improve our waste management process.” 

On average we cut waste spend by 20-40%. You don’t have to keep throwing money and resources on overpriced, less than stellar waste service. 

Sign up for a discovery call today to take the first step towards saving big!

7 Things You're Doing That Make Your Waste Hauler Rich

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. 

How Hauler Contracts Make You Overpay on Waste Expenses: Part 1

Say you’re at Thanksgiving, and your sweet great-aunt Hilda offers you a piece of her legendary pumpkin pie. Of course, you say yes.  

But instead of bringing you pie, she brings you a plate full of green bean casserole. Would you be happy? 

Of course not. 

Unfortunately, this describes a lot of people’s experience with their waste hauler contracts. You thought you were getting a good thing! But you ended up feeling tricked.  

This post will show you how to determine whether you’re getting the short end of the stick on your contract. 

A terrible hauler contract:

1. Allows for unlimited price spikes 

2. Has inaccurate service levels

3. Charges you for additional fees

4. Makes it nearly impossible to cancel 

5. Has no provision for bad service

Even if your hauler contract only does one of these things, it could mean a ridiculous amount of overspending. 

And while reading your hauler contract probably isn’t at the top of your to-do list, it’s completely worth it. You’ll likely be shocked with what your hauler is getting away with, but you’ll also know whether you need to consider renegotiating your contract. 

Download our free Waste Hauler Scorecard!

Price Spikes Allowed On Contract

Your hauler is assuming that he will raise prices at least once a year. Don’t let him get away with that. 

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. Eliminating the possibility for price spikes now means you’ll be saving more later. 

Getting your price hike situation under control also means that you’ll be able to budget your waste expenses with more accuracy. If you know what to expect, you can factor that into your company budget. 

Now, dust off your hauler 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. 

Ensure your contract doesn’t allow price hikes, and you’ll protect your company - and your budget - for years to come. 

See all of our resources on how to stop overspending!

Inaccurate Service Levels

If your dumpsters are only half-full when they are serviced, you are paying for too many pick-ups. And if this is the case, you’re in good company: roughly 90% of the companies we’ve worked with over the past seventeen years have containers that are being over-serviced. 

One quick pro tip: even if your dumpsters are full when picked up, you can re-arrange your pick-ups for optimal pricing. If you have five dumpsters, you can reduce your costs by requesting that each dumpster gets picked up at a different frequency.

Contract Includes Additional Fees

Most haulers will pass on the cost any number of administrative and overage charges to you. A lot companies pay these outright because they think they have to. You don’t.

Look for these on your current hauler contract:

• 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?

You can reduce or eliminate all of these fees; you don’t have to pay them.  But you have to do it prior to renewing a contract, or getting a new one. It’s extremely difficult to negotiate these fees in the middle of a contract.  

Waste Contract is Nearly Impossible to Cancel 

What’s worse than a bad contract? Not being able to get out of it.

Most hauler contracts are written such that it’s extremely difficult to exit the contract. A lot of haulers probably do this simply because it’s industry practice - not because they’re intentionally unscrupulous. They’re doing what is unfortunately normative in the industry.

But just because it’s normal doesn’t mean you have to roll accept it. This isn’t how transparent people do business. 

And let’s face it: if hauler services were prompt and honest, they probably wouldn’t have to make contracts that trap their clients.

You know what’s best for your business. You should be able to make decisions about which services are the best for your company. If you can’t get out of your contract, you’re powerless to make those decisions.   

Has no provision for bad service

When there are service issues, you should be able to get them resolved quickly and promptly.

When a hauler misses a pick-up, it should be easy to get in touch with them to resolve it. If they’re leaving stacks of garbage around the dumpsters or make a mess every time they service them, the hauler should only need one request to service more conscientiously. But this isn’t often the case. 

Why pay someone for a service who is actually making your life (and your staff’s lives) more difficult? If you had multiple hauler problems with no resolution in sight, you need to know that you have an out if you need one. 

A thorough contract will include steps for resolution - and what will happen if you continue to be dissatisfied with service levels.

You Don’t Have to Overpay for Waste Services

By default, your haulers are going to let these things happen to your contract. But you don’t have to let them. You can solve current problems and prevent new ones from happening - all it takes is effort, and some persistence.

We help companies across the nation find waste solutions and implement changes on their behalf. Don’t be part of the 95% of companies that are overspending on their waste disposal! Drop us a line to learn how you can fix your contract.

Why Should I Care About Overpaying for Waste Expenses?

You should care about overspending because there’s you’re doing it - and by no small margin. 

 In the seventeen years we’ve been in business, we’ve helped companies save at least 20-40% on their annual waste savings. (Tad Dolbier, for example,  is saving $6500 a month on his gross waste spend)

If you’re paying for garbage and recycling disposal, there’s a 95% chance you’re paying too much. Why pay more when you don’t have to?

Waste Hauler Contracts Make You Overpay

Waste expenses aren’t like other business expenses because they - unintentionally or otherwise - are set up to exploit profit centers. 

What’s a profit center? 

A profit center is something haulers like Waste Management or Republic use to generate revenue. The ancillary fees on your waste hauler contract, for instance, are a huge profit center. These fees are often not actually tied to covering costs - they exist in your invoice because they can. 

We regularly limit or completely eradicate these fees for all of our clients.

Any recurring fee will compound over time, so we limit it as much as we can - especially since most waste contract tend to have terms anywhere from 3-5 years! Paying a $40 fuel fee every month may not seem like that much. But over 5 years, that’s $2400 you could have saved - and that’s assuming that the fuel does not increase over those 5 years, which it most certainly will.

Download our free Waste Hauler Scorecard!

This means that unless you’ve been extraordinarily vigilant - and, in some cases, even if you have - you’re overpaying on your waste expenses. 

Pricing is also another massive profit center. 1-4 times a year, most haulers will increase their rates by as much as 10%. They can do this because your contract lets them; it doesn’t have language prohibiting or limiting price hikes. Most people don’t fight them because a) they can’t and b) they don’t notice them. Or, they do notice and think it’s normal!

But just because everyone tolerates price hikes doesn’t mean it’s a good thing! (Remember your mom saying, “If everyone you know jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?!”)

Profit centers make it easy for waste haulers to charge you way too much for a service that, really, is pretty straightforward. 

You Can Stop Overspending on Waste

Most companies know that their waste management is really awful. They know that something is wrong, but they can’t seem to find relief from constant waste headaches. 

But you have more options than you realize! Spending a little time familiarizing yourself with your waste management will show you where your problems are - and how you can fix them. 

Take some time to conduct a basic waste audit (or learn how we conduct an extensive one!), then take a look at how to evaluate your waste hauler contract.

You can take charge of your waste and recycling disposal expenses - and you can start today!

What To Do With A $20,000 Waste Bill

Just a few months ago, one of our clients got an unwelcome surprise. They got their hauler invoice for the month and found that their service rates had increased not 9, not 90, but by 900%!

As you can imagine, they were somewhat less than thrilled.

They didn’t have any service or equipment changes. In fact, nothing had changed. 

And yet here they were. They paid a little over $2,000 in April, but found themselves being charged over $20,000 in May.

So naturally, they got in touch with their vendor. 

Now I wasn’t there but based on what they told us, I imagine the conversation went something like this:

“Hey guys, Apartment Complex X here. There’s got to be something wrong with our invoice this month - it jumped over $18,000! Can you tell me what’s going on?”

Hauler: “Hmmm. Um, it’s a rate increase.”

“A what?”

Hauler: “A rate increase.”

“You’ve got to be joking. What kind of rate increase entails a 900% jump? That’s ridiculous!””

Hauler: “ Well ma’am, standard price increases are typical and frequently occur after a certain period of time…”

I can’t tell you what I would have said to end this conversation. But I can tell you that Apartment X got in touch with us rapidly. 

And their WCI project manager jumped in immediately. 

He stayed on the the haulers like a hawk to get a sound answer. After several rounds of calls, the WCI project manager was finally able to speak to someone at this particular hauler’s office who could help. And - surprise, surprise - this person told tell him that the increase was indeed due to an internal error. 

But the issue wasn’t all cleared up.

The next month’s invoice came out and was not quite as high, but it was still way off. It wasn’t until the following month’s invoice came out - 2 months after the $20K bill - that the pricing was finally corrected.  Our project manager fought for the client at every turn and he didn’t stop until the issue was completely resolved.

What would they have done if they couldn’t have called us? Gone back and forth with their service provider for hours and days and weeks to try to reach a resolution? Paid the invoice? Filed a lawsuit?

But they did call us. They knew we had their backs. We fought on their behalf, and they didn’t have to pay the inaccurate invoices or even accept any sort of rate increase. 

This is an extreme example of something that actually happens frequently. We find errors on client bills about 10% of the time. And when we do, we do exactly what we did here - we encourage the provider to correct the invoice. 

What would your staff do with an error like this? Would they have the time and resources to devote to it?

We help companies eliminate their waste worries - and prevent overpaying on hauler contracts and invoices. Learn how we can help you by scheduling a free consult today!

How to Figure Out How You’re Overspending on Waste

There comes a point in every dealing with a hauler where you are done. Maybe it was when you’ve called for the hundredth time only to wait on hold for half an hour. Maybe it was when you found garbage strewn about your site after pick-up. Or maybe it was when they raised prices unannounced for the second time this year. 

No matter how you’ve arrived at this point, you know that there has to be a better way. And there is!

But you may find yourself wondering how to move forward. How do you get to a place where your waste management is under control?

Use these six steps to review your waste management process. 

1. Recruit colleagues. 

2. Pick a time frame.

3. Conduct the Basic Audit. 

4. Review your contract. 

5. Analyze findings. 

6. Evaluate next steps. 

Each of these steps will allow you to find where you are overspending on your waste disposal. 

See all of our resources on how to stop overspending!

It will require some work and persistence, but with a little effort, you will have the relief of knowing that your waste spend is firmly under control. 

Let’s look more closely at each step. 

Recruit Colleagues

As any superhero will tell you, you need a buddy or two. In your fight against price-gouging haulers and unruly contracts, you’re going to need support. 

 If you only want to evaluate one site, and you may be able to conduct the audit yourself - or with just one or two colleagues. You’ll want to pick someone who is detail-oriented, organized, and ready and willing to chip in some time on behalf of your efforts. 

Pick a time frame

Decide which weeks will work best for your audit. Set yourself up for success! Schedule this audit before holidays so that you’ll get a good picture of disposal trends.

Decide what time of day will work for you (and your team).  Keep in mind when your containers are most frequently used. Also be mindful of your team’s availability and limitations.

Conduct the Basic Waste Audit 

You can’t fix problems you don’t know about. So it’s vital to assess your waste process. In this section, we’ll take you through each step of evaluating your waste spend. 

Want a detailed guide about waste audits?

The person in charge of the audit will first take down all of the info about the equipment that will be evaluated. They’ll record dumpster size, etc.

For four weeks, at the same time each day, take pictures of the fill status of your dumpsters, toters, or compactors on all of your sites. This will help you figure out if you are being serviced too frequently, as well as if your hauler is missing pick-ups.

Use a shared document like a google sheet if you have multiple people who will be recording this information!

(Click here for all the details about conducting an audit!)

Review Your Waste Hauler Contracts

The three biggest ways people overpay on waste is by not paying attention to contract length, pricing, and ancillary fees. 

Your contract term length may be anywhere from 2-5 years. This is really important to know! If you have a bad contract, it may be far more feasible for you to get out of a 2 year contract than one that extends to 5 years! 

You’ll also want to look at pricing - does your hauler contract prohibit or strictly reduce hauler price hikes? If not, you’ll need to take that into consideration as you evaluate the pros and cons of your contract. 

Ancillary fees are often listed on the left side of invoice: like these. 

The examples here include Fuel/Environmental Charge and Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge. Some others are recycling recovery, minimum tonnage, and container service plan fees.

Ancillary fees are not mandated by local or state government. They don’t absolutely have to appear on your bill. So if you’re paying a few extra hundred dollars a month for these fees, it’s critical to evaluate whether this is sustainable long-term. 

Download a free guide that makes evaluating your contract easy!

Analyze Findings

At this point in the six steps, you are officially armed and dangerous. You know your contract(s) and you’re familiar with your current service levels. Take some time to review your findings.

Did you find that your dumpster is never picked up when it’s full? Find other equipment issues? Did you find major problems with your contract? Take a bird’s eye view of your current waste management process and make a pros and cons list to determine what is working for you, and what isn’t ideal long-term. 

One other thing to keep in mind: it can be truly valuable to evaluate your waste management from a service standpoint. Your hauler may never miss a pick-up, or never leave trash on the ground, but they may be impossible to reach. This is annoying at best, and a time drain at worst. 

Evaluate Next Steps 

Now that you know where your waste management has problems, you can look at possible solutions. Maybe you need additional pieces of equipment. Or maybe you need a new hauler contract entirely!

Consider getting other bids from area haulers, or trying to renegotiate your current contract. 

Moving forward, keep in mind that whatever changes you make will not only likely have a financial impact, but an impact on people as well. 

Ultimately you want visitors (or residents) at your property to have a positive experience. This can be difficult if, say, your dumpsters are constantly overflowing.  And your want you and your staff to be free to work on true priorities. Making sure your waste management is streamlined and effective ensures that you and your people are taken care of. 

Eliminating your waste worries will serve you financially, but you can’t put a dollar amount on  the peace of mind you’ll also have as a result. 

Want to learn more about how to review your business’ waste process? Feel completely overwhelmed at the very thought? Let us know your thoughts in the contract below, or reach out to us!