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Can Your Garbage Company Raise Your Price After Merging With a Different Hauler?
If you have an existing contract for commercial waste management services, you may have noticed significant price increases that coincide with a new company name or a publicly announced business merger. Perhaps the name remains the same but suddenly you are paying high fees for overages or disposal costs for recyclables.
Why Do Merging Waste Collection Companies Raise Prices?
While combining two competing waste disposal companies expands their reach and can streamline their routes, these advantages never seem to be passed on to the residential or commercial waste management customers. Instead, the higher of the two rates becomes the norm, and local competition is reduced.
Recent major mergers include Waste Management, Inc. with Advanced Disposal Services, Inc. in 2019, and GFL Environmental, Inc. with Waste Industries in 2018. If you were impacted by one of these, you may have received a notice and new contract that appeared the same at first glance but includes fees and surcharges you have not been required to pay in the past.
Although it is commonplace for waste management services to raise their customers’ prices over time, a series of mergers that happened over recent years has caused many business owners to see a sudden spike in their cost for waste and recycling service. Some companies, mirroring other large haulers in the US, have sent out “profit teams” to single out “underpriced” accounts and bring their pricing into line with the profit margins they are accustomed to making on the east coast.
Piling Fees on Top of Fees to Blindside Your Budget
Each company in a merger brings its old fees and extra charges along, or begins enforcing fine print fees that have become the norm in other areas of the country. In addition, commercial waste management companies are struggling to find markets for recyclables, after the 2018 ban on waste imports by China. Only extremely low contamination rates are allowed, rendering most commercial and residential recycled materials without monetary value.
Rather than working with customers to reduce waste and improve sorting and handling processes, waste management companies charge fees for collecting contaminated recyclables that may be higher than that for collecting garbage. Despite producing the same or even less commercial waste, businesses wind up paying more than they should for service.
Advocating for Your Bottom Line With Expert Consultants
Global Trash Solutions has gone head-to-head with merging companies on behalf of our clients when their contracts were changed to a higher monthly rate or extra fees began to double or even triple their bills. At GTS, we do everything within our power to protect our clients from price gouging by the new monopoly company.
By leveraging our nationwide network of vendors and with the combined power of the large group of commercial clients we represent, GTS can help your business lower waste hauling costs and fight back against the seemingly invincible new merger. If your business is among the thousands of companies affected by a commercial waste management merger, please contact us today for the industry-specific guidance and money-saving options you need to protect your bottom line.
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