TrashCanBossPro Blog — Running a Bin Cleaning Business

Pricing Your Trash Can Cleaning Plans: Weekly, Every-Other-Week, Monthly and One-Time

Pricing is the decision owners agonize over most and revisit least. They pick a number in the first month, often by guessing what the neighbors would pay, and keep it for years. A better approach is to start from your own costs and your own route, then build plans that steer customers toward the work you want most.

Before You Pick a Number

Switching systems, covered in Switching Systems Without Losing Customers: Moving a Bin Cleaning Business to New Software, is a natural moment to look at prices again. But whether you're new or established, the process is the same. We won't tell you what the market charges, because it varies a lot by town and nobody has a reliable number for yours. What we can give you is a way to build a price you can defend.

Start with three numbers from your own business:

• Cost per hour on the road. Truck, trailer, fuel, water, chemicals, insurance, wages, and the software and phone bills, divided by the hours you actually clean.
• Stops per hour. How many addresses you really finish in an hour on a typical route, including drive time between them.
• What you want to earn. Profit is not what's left over. Decide on it up front.

Cost per hour plus the profit you want, divided by stops per hour, gives you a floor for a single stop. Price below that and every cleaning loses money no matter how many you do.

Monthly: The Backbone

For most residential bin cleaning businesses, the monthly plan is the core product. It's often enough to keep cans from getting truly nasty, cheap enough for most households to say yes, and predictable for you. Price it so that a typical stop on a dense route clears your floor with room to spare.

In TrashCanBossPro, a monthly plan is set to a minimum of 28 days between cleanings, so it comes due on its own every cycle. For example, you might set a monthly plan at $30 for one trash can and one recycling can. That's an example, not a recommendation. Run your own numbers.

Every-Other-Week and Weekly: Charge Less Per Visit, Earn More Per Customer

Customers who want cleaner cans, often in hot months or homes with pets and kids, will pay for more frequent cleanings. Price these per visit a little lower than monthly, because the cans are less dirty each time and the stops are already on your route. But keep the total per month higher. A weekly customer should be one of your most valuable accounts, not a discount.

Every-other-week plans come due after 14 days, weekly plans after 7. Both build density fast, since the same streets appear on your route more often.

One-Time Cleanings: Price for the Hassle

One-time cleanings are worth more per visit than any plan. They're often filthy, often outside your normal route day, and they don't come back automatically. Price them clearly higher than a single monthly visit. That does two things: it covers the real cost, and it makes the monthly plan look like the obvious deal. Many one-time customers become plan customers once they see the difference.

Extra Cans and Add-Ons

Decide your rules for extra cans before you need them. How many cans does a base plan include? What do you charge for each additional trash, recycling or yard waste can? Put extra cans on your service list as their own line, so they appear on estimates and invoices instead of being forgotten. A forgotten extra can is one of the quietest losses in this business, which we cover in Unbilled Add-Ons: Extra Cans and One-Time Cleanings a Bin Cleaning Business Forgets to Charge.

Other add-ons to price clearly: deodorizing, heavily soiled cans and dumpster pad cleaning for commercial accounts.

Commercial and HOA Pricing

Commercial and HOA work is priced differently. You're often cleaning many cans in one stop, or many addresses in one neighborhood, for one payer. That's efficient, so you can offer a lower per-can price while still earning more per hour. Build these as estimates from your service list. The customer approves online, and the approved estimate becomes scheduled services. With monthly account billing, they get one statement covering every address.

Raising Prices Without Losing Customers

Prices should go up as your costs do. Give customers notice by text or email, explain plainly why, and make the change on a set date. Most customers who value the service stay. The few who leave are often the ones farthest from your routes.

Keep Your Price List in One Place

Put every service and add-on on your service list in the software with its price, so sign-up forms, estimates and invoices all use the same numbers. One price list means one answer, whether the customer signs up online or asks the tech at the curb. For more on running the business, see the trash can cleaning business software page.