How Much Should A Skip Bin Cost

One of the most frequently asked questions we get from customers is: how much is a Skip Bin?  The price itself doesn't tell a full story and if you don't ask additional questions, you might set yourself up for a very dissapointing experience, both timewise and budget wise.  There are a number of critical questions to ask from a Bin Supplier, when obtaining a Skip Bin Quote so that you can compare the suppliers based on the most important factors.

EPA Victoria has published a very important article in 2019, titled "How To Hire A Skip Bin - Your Responsibilities" and one of the main points there was to be aware of very cheap prices for Skip Bins.  One of the major concerns of EPA is of cause Illegal Dumping and when the price sounds too low to be true, EPA suggests to ask the following questions from a potential bin supplier:

1. Ask Skip Bin Supplier how they dispose of Waste
2. Don't use Skip Bin Supplier if they can't prove that they use a licensed facility to dispose of waste

In addition to the above, we also suggest to consider the following questions:

1 - What happens to my bin, once it leaves my house / building or construction site

2 - How Many Days of Hire does your price cover

3 - Are there any limitations on the weight of the bin

4 -Do you have a customer support centre (it is especially critical if you are a business and service is important to you)

5 - Can you guarantee a pickup on a given date

Like with everything else in the market place - you get what you pay for.  We will now discuss the most common 7 Risks of Hiring Very Cheap Skip Bins and what to look out for.

Risk 1 - Illegal Waste Dumping

One of the biggest costs that go into Skip Bin Hire Price is the cost of Waste Disposal.  If you are speaking to a brand new Skip Bin Supplier, that you've never dealt with before, one of the most important questions to discuss is how they deal with the waste, the minute the bin leaves your premises.  For instance, here at Need a Skip Now, we always talk about our process of dealing with the waste and make it very clear to our customers that the minute their bin is picked up from their premises, it goes straight to our waste recycling facility, where a dedicated team of our waste recyclers are going to separate all the materials from the bin, put some materials through the recycling trommel, further clean and separate and then take each separate material to a further dedicated facility, which might recycle the waste further.

Therefore, when the quote for bin hire is very cheap, compared to the competition, this is one of the signs that the supplier is not disposing of waste in a legal way.  If the Bin Supplier cannot articulate what the process of waste disposal is - you can always ask for receipts of their waste disposal and you need to check that they dispose in a licensed facility, which is authorised to receive waste.

In order to research your supplier, its important to order directly from the supplier and not from the Price Comparison Website, which might pose as a skip bin supplier.  The danger of ordering via Price Comparison Website is that it will run an algorithm and select "The Cheapest Bin" however by that time you will already have put in your credit card details and effectively have purchased a "cat in the bag" as only once you pay for the bin, will the system reveal who your bin supplier is.

Hence, to ensure that you are dealing with a legitimate Bin Supplier, who disposes of waste in a legal way, you need to ensure that you are ordering from a supplier directly and ask all of the above questions first, before moving on to other questions.

Risk 2 - Incomplete Price Disclosure

It is a common practice when you call to get a quote for a Skip Bin, that bin supplier will give you a price EXCLUSIVE OF GST.  You might then call another supplier and get a price (inclusive of GST).  Hence, you are automatically getting a perceived  10% cheaper price, while in reality it is not. 

GST is only one of the factors to consider when trying to compare skip hire quotes from various suppliers. 

Risk 3 - Minimum Tonnage Coverage

One of the unpleasant "surprises" you can get on a pickup of your bin is when the supplier will tell you that your bin is too heavy and you are required to pay for extra tonnage on a pickup. The tonnage rate will differ from supplier to supplier but could exceed $250 per tonne.  Hence, even if you think you've got a bargain and got your 6 cubic meters bin for around $517, your weight limit could only be 4 tonne.  Therefore if your bin will be filled with brick, concrete or soil and be approximately 6 tonne, your minimum cost for this bin will be $1,017. 

To ensure that you don't get nasty surprises like that - one of the important questions to ask when obtaining a bin quote is:

• how many tonne does this price cover me for? 
• What is the additional cost per tonne, if I exceed this tonnage.  Must check if the additional charge quoted includes GST

One thing we do differently at Need a Skip Now is offer an all inclusive price for all the bins between 2 cubic meters and 12 cubic meters, with no extra charges for heavy bins.  That is why our building and landscaping customers like our offer as they don't need to worry how heavy their bin will be and quote their jobs to potential customers with confidence.

Risk 4 - Time Limitation on Bin Hire

One of the risks of very cheap bin prices is they might have a very short rental period b/w 1-3 days.  When price sounds too cheap to be true, it is important to always ask - what rental period is included in the price and how much is it per extra day / week of hire? An example would be a very cheap price on 6m bin, say $490, however if it only covers you for 3 days and then you will end up paying $30 per day thereafter, it's not going to end up very cheap after all.

At Need A Skip Now, we have a standard bin hire of 7 days included in the price of the bin, however if the weather is wet and cold and our customers need more time, we will gladly extend the hire with no extra charges.  For our repeat customers, we offer very long bin hire with no extra charges.  It is not uncommon that some of our VIP's might hold a bin on some project for up to 3 months.

Risk 5 - Non Existent Customer Service

Have you heard the saying: "you get for your pay for"?  That saying is so true, especially when it comes to skip bin hire.  When the price is too low, it means that Skip Supplier is cutting some corners.  If it's not illegal waste dumping, it could be the most important pillar - CUSTOMER SERVICE. Perhaps if you only order one bin in your lifetime, customer service might not be important to you or it might be.  But if you are in construction industry and order bins weekly, daily or monthly - customer service will either make or break the relationship.

When we talk about customer service, we don't just mean that you will be greeted by a friendly voice every time you call (which in some companies is non-existent) but you will actually be dealing with proficient and professional logistics coordinators, who will be willing and able to prioritise your jobs when required, change the schedule to accommodate their clients, regularly update you on the status of pickup or delivery and be not just an annoyance and hindrance on your project but an extension of your team.

Therefore, to establish whether the supplier does or doesn't not offer Customer Service - evaluate carefully your conversation with them, do they ask you all the details about your project, your preferred delivery times, your site contacts details, any deadlines and specifics about your property and site?  Do they discuss truck access with you, patiently answer all your questions, offer various means of contacting them and volunteering all the information instead of blandly answering your questions?

At the end of the day, if the bin is cheap as chips but none of your requirements were listened or adhered to, nobody picked up the phone or they were simply rude and unresponsive, this cheap bin can leave a bitter taste in your mouth and end up costing you in time and money if the supplier is not attuned to your project's needs.

Risk 6 - Not Enough Drivers

One of the pitfalls of very cheap bin hire is that when the provider is a one man operator, trying to sell bins very cheaply out of desparation, however doesn't have the operational capacity to deliver on service.  One of the biggest complains we hear about in the industry is that while bin has been delivered, the customers couldn't organise a pickup for weeks and in some circumstances for a few months.  Various excuses were given, such as truck breakdowns, traffic issues, busy schedule or the customers were simply screamed at.

It is important to ensure that when you evaluate your potential relationship with a bin supplier, you enquire about the size of their fleet and the number of bins that they have.

Risk 7 - Non Compliance with Permits

One of the classical scenarious we have witnessed time and time again is that in order to offer the lowest price, some suppliers forgo to mention the necessity of obtaining a council permit for bins on the road or nature strip. This is a direct violation of law and while we understand that first time customers might not realise that bins on council land cannot be placed without a permit, it is a direct responsibility of every bin supplier to comply with the law and inform their customers of local laws obligations.

While it might be tempting to go with the non-compliant supplier, who chooses to knowingly break the law and place the bin without a permit, the consequences might be far more costly than the cost of permit itself.  Just couple of examples: a minimum fine for not obtaining a permit is $250 from some councils, while City of Melbourne and others are happy to charge $1,000 fines for bins without a permit.  Have no doubt in your mind that once the shonky operator receives a fine, he will be forwarding the fine to his customers plus GST plus admin costs.

Therefore one of the important questions to ask when obtaining a quote for skip bin on a road or nature strip is not only the price of the bin but also the price of the council permit and how long the permit is for as each council offers different rates.

In Summary

When evaluating a bin supplier, choosing one based on the cheapest price and no other factors is equivalent to buying a Rolex Watch in a $2 Dollar Shop and expecting  a real deal.  To ensure that you get the whole package, it is important to ask all of the above questions and also don't forget to check out their Google Reviews to ensure that you are getting the value for your buck.

To read about what to look out for when ordering cheap skip bins, check out our recent blog post.

Should you have any questions about skip bin hire, our friendly team will be more than happy to discuss your project and answer any questions you might have.  We are open monday to Saturday on 1300 605 624 and look forward to speaking to you soon.