As a dumpster rental business, your first and foremost priority is generating a profit.

You can provide the best customer service in the world, the cheapest price, and the highest customer satisfaction rates, but if you’re not making money you’re simply wasting your time.

Obviously, without happy customers, your business will also suffer. But many businesses are leaving money on the table and under compensating for things like time, turnover, and rental pricing.

Here are a few tips you can implement to squeeze some additional profit out of your dumpster rentals.

1. Rental Price Increases

Every customer is going to want to pay a low pay as little as possible for their dumpster rental. However, when it comes to running a business, the lowest price isn’t necessarily going to generate the most profit.

If you’ve been in business for some time and customers are used to a certain rate, raising your prices has to potential to harm your business.

But considering gas prices, inflation, and equipment costs recently, if you’re not raising your prices your profit margins are certainly going to be impacted.

You don’t have to raise prices a significant amount to have an impact on your bottom line.

Consider how much your general operating expenses have gone up over the last year and try raising prices accordingly.

Additionally, if you’re landing every lead that comes your way, chances are you’re one of the lowest-priced businesses in your market.

Test different pricing strategies work to find a balance between volume and profitability.

For example, you can try quoting customers rates 5-10% more than what you’re currently charging, and see if they bite or walk away. You may get lower volume, but the price increases should cover any lost business.

2. Daily Rates & Extensions

How long is your standard rental period? Do you charge by the week? Bi-weekly?

If you offer 14-day rental periods, do you know how many customers actually keep their dumpster for 14 days? If you notice that most of your customers end up only keeping the dumpster for a week, it might make sense to reduce the length of your standard rental period to 7 days and offer to extend at a daily or weekly rate.

Reducing the rental period can have a number of positive effects on your business.

First, you’ll be able to rent the dumpster out to more customers given you’ll have more inventory available with shorter rental periods.

Secondly, you can generate additional revenue from customers who need additional time with their dumpsters. 

In many markets, the daily additional cost to rent a dumpster can range anywhere from $20 to $75 per day. Calculate that cost over the span of 2-3 days and you’re able to generate an additional $40 to $225 per rental!

3. Same Day & Next Day Pricing

If your company has the bandwidth and equipment available to offer same-day and next-day dumpster delivery, it’s another opportunity to generate revenue in exchange for convenience.

Think of how many calls you get every week with customers who needed a dumpster yesterday.

The big guys like Waste Management or Republic usually require days if not weeks notice to get their dumpster delivered.

If you’re able to offer same-day delivery to your customers not only will they feel like you’re doing them a huge favor, but in most cases, they’ll be happy to pay the additional cost to get the dumpster delivered quickly.

Plus, if the customer has labor being held up by the dumpster, they’d end up paying for it in the end.

Like any pricing strategy, you should always try it out with a subset of your customers to see what kind of results it generates.

Try tacking on an additional $100-$200 for offering same-day delivery.

4. Upcharge Dump Fees

Dump fees are undoubtedly one of the biggest expenses for any dumpster rental company. Aside from gas and labor, dump fees are incurred daily.

Many dumpster rental companies will tack on an additional $10-$20 per ton at the landfill and pass it on to the customer. 

But what if you charged an additional $40-$50 per ton?

Say for example the average dump weight on your 20-yard dumpsters is 3.5 tons and you include 2 tons in your base pricing.

If you’re only charging $10 above tipping fees you’ll make $15. Or, you could be making $60 if you increase the rates on your dump fees.

Obviously, you don’t want to get carried away with price increases and stick it to the customer at the end of their rental. Unhappy customers are no way to run any business!

But, if you’re offering great customer service, prompt delivery, and fair pricing upfront, most customers won’t have a problem with it and just view it as part of the cost of renting a dumpster.

5. Waiting Time Fees

Most of us have run into this issue at one time or another. Sometimes even on the daily. 

You get to a job site, the customer is not there and there’s a gate to get into the property.

How long do you wait before you send the driver to another job?

Many times a customer will say they’re on their way or will have someone move a vehicle if it’s blocking the way for the truck. But sometimes, this wait time can end up being 30-45 minutes.

And since drivers are usually paid hourly, the wait time ends up eating into your profit margins.

One way to counteract the loss is by charging a fee for waiting times. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to start charging for wait times the minute your driver arrives on site. But, if they’ve crossed a window (say 15 minutes) it makes perfect sense to start passing those costs to the customer.

Make sure you clarify to the customers in advance that you bill for waiting times in your rental contract.

Most people won’t want to incur additional charges. By charging for wait times you’ll likely have more successful deliveries and be able to recoup any costs you had to pay your driver.

Conclusion

As with any business, your end goal is to make a profit. If you’re not making money with your dumpster rental business you can try increasing your prices, charging for rental extensions, upcharge for same-day deliveries, increasing your dump fees, or charging for waiting times.

Whichever strategy you choose, you’re still going to need to make sure you’re making the customer happy if you want to continue to grow your business. 

In any case, make sure you’re getting compensated for the great service you provide to your customers!