TrashCanBossPro Blog — HOAs & Commercial

Pricing HOA and Commercial Bin Cleaning: Per Can, Per Pad and Per Address

Pricing residential bin cleaning is mostly settled in your market: so much a month for one can, a bit more for two. Commercial pricing is wide open. An HOA wants a discount for volume. A restaurant pad is three times the work of a cart. A property manager wants one number she can pass to owners. There is no single right price, but there are a few sensible ways to build one.

Routes Shape the Price

In Building HOA Bin Cleaning Routes Around the Neighborhood's Trash Day we saw how an HOA can fill a trailer for a day with almost no drive time. That density is the single biggest factor in commercial pricing. Homes packed on one street cost you far less per stop than rentals scattered across town. Price for how the work actually routes.

Per Can

Charging per can is simple and fair. Every can cleaned is a line item. It works well when can counts vary a lot by address, like a property manager whose rentals have anywhere from one to four cans, or an apartment complex with corrals of different sizes.

The downside is that the bill changes when can counts change. Some treasurers dislike that. Keep can counts accurate on every address so the statement matches reality.

Per Address

A flat price per address, covering up to a set number of cans, is easier for a board or manager to budget. "$15 per home per month, up to two cans, $5 for each extra can" is the kind of example a company might use. The HOA can multiply by the number of homes and know the annual cost.

Per-address pricing suits HOAs that pay for every home and managers who want one number per rental.

Per Pad

Dumpster pads deserve their own pricing. Size, grease and how long since the last wash all change the work. Many companies price pads individually after a walk-through, with separate services for:

• An initial deep clean or degrease, priced high, done once
• Recurring pad cleaning at a lower price, since the pad stays manageable
• Enclosure walls and gates as an add-on

Never fold a greasy pad into a per-can price. That is how commercial work loses money. For more, see Dumpster Pad Cleaning and Grease: Adding Pad Work to a Bin Cleaning Route.

Frequency Changes the Math

Weekly cleaning of the same can is less work per visit than monthly, because it never gets as bad. Many companies charge less per visit for more frequent plans and more per visit for monthly. Set your plans by minimum days between visits, 7, 14 or 28, and price each one so the monthly total makes sense to the customer and to you.

Volume Discounts, Carefully

HOAs and managers will ask for a volume discount. Sometimes that is fair, when the addresses are dense and easy to route. Sometimes it is not, when the addresses are scattered. Tie any discount to route density, not just to the count. Eighty homes on one street earns a better rate than eighty homes across three towns.

Also consider what you save in billing: one monthly statement covering every address instead of eighty separate charges. That is real time saved, and it is fair to reflect it. Just make sure any discount is written down with the reason, so it can be revisited if the account changes shape later.

Putting Prices on Your Service List

Whatever approach you choose, put each price on your service list in TrashCanBossPro. Estimates are built from that list, so quotes stay consistent, and the same lines appear on invoices and monthly statements. A board that approved "Monthly cleaning, per home" sees exactly that on the statement.

Sales tax is applied on invoices where it applies; check your local rules for commercial customers and tax-exempt organizations like churches and some schools.

Check Your Prices After Three Months

Your first commercial price is a guess. After a few months, look at the account: what it bills, how much route time it takes, how often stops are skipped and how fast it pays. If it does not pay its way, adjust at renewal. More on that in Reports by Account: Knowing What Each HOA and Commercial Bin Cleaning Client Is Worth.

Next Steps

Per can, per address or per pad, priced for how the work routes. For the commercial tools that hold the quote, the schedule and the statement together, see the commercial bin cleaning software page.