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How much should you charge for trash pickup?

Price each pickup from what it costs you: time at the curb, the drive between stops, disposal fees, truck costs and your share of overhead. Add the margin you want, and the calculator gives you a price per pickup and per month.

Average drive from the previous stop.

Wage plus payroll costs.

Fuel and wear for the drive to this customer.

Insurance, phone, software, equipment payments and other fixed costs.

Your overhead is spread across these. Use your average across the year.

The share of the price you keep after costs. 30% of a $100 visit is $30.

$11.07 per visit

$47.96 a month

Cost per visit: $8.30 · Profit per visit: $2.77

Wages $2.80 · Disposal fees per pickup $2.50 · Vehicle $1.50 · Overhead $1.50

That's $94.86 for each hour the job takes, including the drive.

Driving to this customer is 57% of the job's time and costs you $3.10 a visit. See what driving costs across all your routes

Keep the drive out of your margin

Routova groups each day's stops by area and orders them by real road drive times, so less of every visit goes to the road. Route optimization is on every plan, from $49 a month.

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What goes into a collection price

Collection is a high-volume route business, so a few cents per stop add up. Use your average drive between stops on a full route, and spread disposal fees across the pickups that fill each load.

How this calculator works

It adds up the cost of one visit: wages for everyone on the job for the time on site and the drive, materials, vehicle cost, and your monthly overhead divided by your visits each month. Then it sets the price so that your chosen margin is left after those costs: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). The monthly and yearly figures multiply the price by the visits in that period.

Why the drive belongs in the price

Customers don't see the drive, but you pay for it on every visit. If your stops are spread out or in a poor order, the same price earns you less. Shorter drives lower the cost of every visit without changing what the customer pays.

Questions

Weekly or every other week?
Choose the frequency to see the monthly price for each. The cost per pickup barely changes, so the monthly price for every-other-week service is about half of weekly.
Where do landfill or transfer station fees go?
In disposal fees per pickup: divide what you pay to tip a load by the number of pickups in that load.
What do other collection companies charge?
It varies a lot by area. This calculator starts from your own costs so every price covers them. Compare the result with local quotes before you set your rates.

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