Having a current waste hauler contract is not an obstacle for us; it’s an opportunity.
We are frequently able to renegotiate the terms of your contract with your current vendor. You stay with your service provider but get better rates and more favorable terms. You get recourse for service issues, and your ancillary fees are either limited or completely reduced.
Take Rhonda Cummons of Presbyterian Homes. She had waste contracts in place, but we were still able to save her 22% of her gross waste expenses. We renegotiated several current contracts so that they did not include ancillary fees. We also adjusted their service levels since they were being serviced too frequently.
As a result, her gross waste savings was $25,000 yearly - or $100,000 in the next four years! So having a waste contract is not an obstacle for our services. Every client we’ve had in the past 18 years have had waste contracts in place.
This is typical because the term length for contracts tend to be long. Most trash hauler service agreements have terms of 5 years. This means that you only have the opportunity to find better pricing once every 5 years! This is not ideal because so much can change in your area from year to year. There may be better pricing available to you, but you almost certainly can’t take advantage of it if you’re in the middle of a long contract term.
Additionally, your service levels may change significantly over this period of time. What you need now may not be what you need in five years.
So when we negotiate our client’s contracts, we include 3 year terms, not 5 year terms. This shorter time frame allows your waste and recycling streams to be reviewed more frequently. It gives us more opportunities to find the best pricing, thus potentially finding savings for you.
When a client’s contract term is up - and it’s not one that we were originally able to update through renegotiation - we will not only evaluate pricing, but ensure the ideal provisions are included in it to maximize your savings. We cap or eradicate price hikes and fees, we include service provisions, and we prohibit the auto-renewal of terms. These adjustments eradicate waste issues (and overspending!) before they happen.
How likely is it that my waste contract is a bad one?
There’s a really easy way to tell if your contract is costing you. Pull out yours and ask these questions:
Does my contract cap or eliminate rate hikes?
Is there recourse for service issues?
Is there an auto-renewal clause?
Are my terms limited to 3 years?
Are my service levels accurate?
If the answer is no to any of these, there’s a high chance that you’re overpaying. Most waste hauler contracts are not structured with the provisions and clauses that will protect your bottom line. Most waste hauler contracts, in other words, tend to be bad.