We all take it for granted; garbage service, trash collection, recycling. We throw out our trash, it is picked up, and then we pay the bill. If we don't like the price, we find someone else. Pretty easy right? As a commercial business, we are not privy to discounted flat rates that residents are offered. We must find a commercial hauler and then trust they are going to give us a  fair price for the term of our contract. 

There's a reason your trash hauler will not advertise a price.

We can buy just about everything online, shoes, groceries, cars, even gas! But a quick internet search for local garbage collection prices will leave you with a list of "click for quote" or "call us for best pricing.' Not one garbage company will show you a list of prices.

And to be fair there is a good reason, the highly competitive nature of the business will give the local competition a leg up and know what price to beat; also some routes for some garbage companies are less profitable than others. But it leaves us the consumer with more questions than answers.

I'll beat that price.

Competitive bidding in the garbage industry means the sharks are out at all times. If you are like me, then you have fielded a cold call or two from local haulers who ask how much you pay for trash collection, then you tell them, and without blinking an eye, they say they can beat that price.

Even a novice business person as myself knows these services can not be free for the hauler, they have fuel costs, dumping costs, trucking costs, maintenance costs so there has to be a bottom line where they start to lose money on a route, yet they keep lowering the price. What gives?

My uncle once told me if you haggle with someone at a flea market and you get to the point where they refuse the sale and let you walk away then you know where the bottom is. Best to go back to their best offer and take it. If a garbage company ever tells you, they can't make money picking up a route for what a competitor has quoted you, thank them for their honesty and take THEIR lowest offer.

Bottom line if someone can beat every price they may be trying to get you to pay more when you aren't looking. Hidden fees on your garbage bill will add your total bill up to more than you were paying before and once you are locked into a contract with a shark, you will have a hard time getting out of it.

Route fill

Your hauler may also give you a better deal to fill in their route! If a hauler is running a cross-town route and your pickup days are the same days as the day he or she will be there anyway, then they can pick your trash up for almost no money on their way to your neighbor. So while your neighbor is paying full price, you may be able to get a better rate just because you are in the same area as the garbage man.

Watch for hidden fees!

Many garbage companies are feeling the pinch of poor business decisions in betting on the future of recycling as a revenue stream. With demand for raw recycle material at a minimum, many garbage companies are being faced with either holding recycling in their yard or facing significant fines for dumping recyclables into landfills.

This cost may be passed on to you through hidden fees on your next statement. While some variable expenses are expected so it makes sense to keep simple fees separate from your bill since they can vary. Fees such as fuel surcharge or state/municipal/county/environmental fees can vary based on your state budget, and surcharges for paper billing are meant to encourage you to streamline your billing. However, if you see things on your bill such as an open container fee, administration fee, convenience fee, additional environmental fees can be nothing more than a money grab by your hauler.

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Garbage brokers say they can save me money, but how?

Another myth. How a 3rd party broker operates, their business is through target marketing to your lowest level employees. They are under the assumption you do not have time to worry about your garbage costs, and you have handed this duty down to an administrator in your accounting department who has also been given the assignment of making sure these costs stay low.

Many large companies with 100s of locations take advantage of brokers because they do not think they are getting a good deal using one of three national haulers, so they rely on the broker to find the best deal in each state utilizing local or regional haulers who are more likely to offer discounts.

Results are mixed, however.

While bills may be lowered, pickup schedules can become sporadic since brokers will sometimes switch your hauler mid-contract. This can happen for multiple reasons, the regional hauler exits the contract because there is no money left after the broker takes the commission, the regional hauler gets bought out by another company and voids the tract or the regional hauler is just not big enough to stay on schedule with the demands of the from the broker.

In all cases, you will save more money by handling your garbage hauling without using a broker. A broker is selling you a billing convenience, nothing more.