Un-permitted “roll off companies” who you can legally use: Dumpster Rental Austin Brokers.
Revealed in this article are secrets that until now was only discussed behind closed doors with fellow executives of Austin trash removal companies.
What? Dumpster brokers can rent a dumpster to you in the Austin area legally even though they are not permitted with the City of Austin.
How? These companies put up websites all across the United States and use search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to rank highly in the search results for phrases like “Austin Dumpster” or “Austin Junk Removal”. You look at their site with a real looking Austin address, a 512 phone number, and they claim to be a “local” company.
Truth: If they are ranking in the search engines and are not on the list of 90+ permitted private waste haulers, they are a broker.
What is a dumpster broker?
It is a call center in some other state or country like India who will be very convincing at getting you to rent a dumpster around Austin with them. They are great at answering the phone, unlike many legitimate local trash removal companies who are hard to get ahold of on the phone.
The sales pitch some rolloff brokers deploy will go something like this saying: “The local roll off dumpster companies will try to rip you off with inflated prices. We, the roll off container broker, go in and find a local garbage removal haulers who actually can get you the right size roll off box at the correct delivery time. We negotiate everything for you, and get you a better deal than you can get on your own because we do lots of business with the local haulers.”
Fact: As the owner of a local Austin waste management company myself, I deal with brokers on a regular basis who are needing me to service deals they have sold. It is a good deal for me because we always charge our regular rate that we quote all of our prospects and valued clients. Then the broker adds on a nice service fee for themselves. The broker quotes you the all-in rate that includes my price, plus their rate.
How much extra does it cost to use a broker versus booking direct with a permitted Austin garbage collection service? It varies per dumpster broker, but is usually 10% to 20% more expensive. If you work through a broker, the agreement the broker has me sign is that I won’t disclose my pricing to you, and that I do all communications through them, and not directly with you. Will you always pay a higher rate if you work with a rolloff container broker instead of me directly? Yes, but using a broker is your choice. If you start out with a broker, and need several trash dumpsters, they will not allow you to cut them out of the transaction.
When does it make sense to use a garbage dumpster broker?
The benefits: If you rent dumpsters all over the country and don’t want to work with Waste Management, Republic, or Progressive (three billion-dollar giants) and you prefer to work with local companies, then a broker can coordinate the details for you. Although they will often end up using a huge company rather than working with small local garbage haulers. One example of where this happens is Best Buy. They use a national call center to rent dumpsters locally at their stores. Also big races like Mud Run and Warrior Race have used brokers to coordinate with dumpster companies. A third scenario, is you have a project in a small town where no local dumpster rental company is listed on the search engines, the broker will call a company like mine and ask us to service you. This is a good back up option if you cannot first get a local company to work with you directly.
My Dumper Rental Broker Story
Trash dumpster brokers are good people, but as always when working with a third-party, things get lost in communication and can results in problems between you and the actual garbage dumpster company. For example: we had a broker call us to deliver a roll off container to Lockhart, which is in our service area. The broker said the customer needed a 10 yard dumpster for a garage clean out which means light material. We asked the broker as we do every customer if there was any concrete because we have serious restrictions on concrete. The broker said no. We informed the broker that they are bound by our Terms of Service Agreement, and all the other things that we do to prevent problems.
Sadly, the broker never provided the necessary information to their client, the homeowner. We delivered the Lockart roll off dumpster. The customer calls the broker for us to pick up the garbage dumpster. Our driver goes to get it and reports that the roll off container is full of concrete. We were confused because it was supposed to be light miscellaneous household debris. Having a 10 yard dumpster full of concrete means it weighs about 20-tons, which is more than any rolloffs company can lift or legally haul. We called the broker to try and sort out the situation. Guess what? The broker was nowhere to help. They told us and the client, “sorry, too bad, there is nothing we can do”.
I went out to the clients house to see what was really going on, and hoping that I could unload some of the concrete in the dumpster by hand myself to fix the situation. When I arrived I saw that the concrete blocks each weighed 200 – 600-pounds each. There was no way I could move it, an no way the client could move the concrete to lighten the load without renting a Bobcat or front end loader. The client obviously didn’t get our FAQ: “Can I use a Bobcat to load the construction dumpster?”
So the client and I discussed that nobody else can physically load or haul our 10 yard dumpster on their refuse truck. No other waste management company can haul that much concrete at once. The solution is to unload the material into a small dumpster for concrete and make a couple trips to dispose of it. Sadly, this meant the client had to rent the machines to move the concrete, and pay skilled labor (for the second time) to do the work.
I felt sorry for the client because the broker failed to do their job. If the client would have come to me direct, I could have refunded their money if needed. But in this situation the client would not be able to get a refund from the broker because nobody in this business provides a money back guarantee except for us. Long story short is that for this client, using a broker is a decision that didn’t cost them a $50 broker fee, it cost them almost $1,000 for the mistakes. In the end, the client unloaded everything from the construction dumpster and we simply picked up the empty garbage dumpster.
What is the bottom line on Austin dumpster rental brokers?
Nearly every industry has brokers, or lead generation companies that function like these rolloff broker companies do. They serve a purpose and for some people, a broker is needed. It is your choice to use a broker or not. Just make sure that they properly represent themselves to you as a broker, not as the person who is actually operating the equipment and owning the dumpster that comes to your job site.
List of 28 Dumpster Rental Brokers serving Austin metro:
- Big Red Box
- Budget Dumpster
- Austin Dumpster Rental Pros
- Home Advisor
- Top Dog Dumpster Rental
- Big Dumpster Austin
- Next Day Dumpsters Austin
- ASAP Dumpster Rental
- Dumpsters4Cheap
- 123 Dumpster Rental Austin
- EZ Dumpster Rentals Austin
- Deliver My Dumpster
- 1 Stop Dumpster Rental
- Zters Dumpster Rental
- AMESD Dumpsters Austin
- Discount Dumpsters Austin
- Dependable Dumpsters
- Austin Dumpster Rental Made Easy
- BRB Dumpster Rental Austin
- Dumpster Direct
- Cobblestone Container Services
- Local Dumpster Rental
- RentaADumpster
- Kerneli Dumpster
- Cheap Dumpsters
- DumpstersRUs
- Local Rolloff Austin
- 123 Disposal
What does it all mean?
Between Austin dumpster rental brokers, private waste management companies companies you have 118+ options. How do you choose the best trash removal companies?
Most people want to see the rating and review sites like Angie’s List, Yelp, and the BBB. While these rating sites are a top resource in many industries, the refuse industry is not frequently rated and many haulers are not listed.
Here is what to do next:
The best way to make a decision is to continue reading the Secret Guide to Rolloffs. Then call and interview your top 10 best Austin dumpster rental companies with the criteria in described in What to Look for in a the Best Rolloff Companies. Compare companies and make an educated choice.
I hope you find the information valuable, and if you have any questions please call my office at 512-774-5666.