Trash Valet

[ray hernandez]

Has anyone ever dabbled in the idea of starting a Trash Valet service in their area. For those not familiar with this service, it entails scheduled trash pick up, especially in residential areas where trash needs to be walked to an external bin. I know its a need in my area but have not done enough research on whether its worth the time. Any thoughts?

 

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[sparechange]

Look up 1800 Got Junk?

They're doing like 200 million a year in revenue I think, same idea.... Canadian business I believe

 

[ray hernandez]

Look up 1800 Got Junk?

They're doing like 200 million a year in revenue I think, same idea.... Canadian business I believe

Hmmm that's interesting. Going to look into them. I live in a very populated area and haven't seen this service marketed much or used

 

[ray hernandez]

Look up 1800 Got Junk?

They're doing like 200 million a year in revenue I think, same idea.... Canadian business I believe

I looked into their website. I see disposal for big items such as couches etc. What I don't see if disposal for daily items such as trash from everyday use like what you throw away in your kitchen etc.

 

[Kak]

Or an app for big trash. Snap a picture. Get a quote. Check out. Crew comes to haul it away.

 

[Paleo]

This is definitely doable in the right area.
I know a guy-he and a partner started a trash valet in my town a couple of years ago with one truck and a medium sized trailer with steel mesh sides. Now they have a second truck that pulls a large solid sided dump trailer.
They got a contract early on with a large vacation oriented HOA that doesn't allow rolling bins and full sized garbage trucks- the people put their trash bags on the curb and it is picked up every day by 10 am. They also service some apartment complexes that have small bins outside the apartment doors and do special pickups of bulk items. They charged me $150 to haul off assorted stuff from my garage- wood, metal, plastic and old paint, which I thought was a fair price. Lots of people don't have pickups or don't want to spend hours loading up junk and driving to the dump on a Saturday.
You need to do some strategic analysis if you are serious. Research the locations of the waste transfer stations and landfills in your area, what type of waste they accept at each one, the tipping fees, who can dump there, and the drive time to each. Research competitors prices and decide if you can make a good profit given the market prices. A critical point will be how much waste you can pick up before you have to make a dump run. The more, the better- frequent dump runs will kill your profitability. I'm sure that's why my acquaintance bought a much larger self-dumping trailer as soon as he could. I've seen guys trying to do this with just a pickup with homebuilt wooden sides and I can't imagine they are making much money.
Ideally, to start off right you would need an older truck with a high towing capacity like a Silverado HD 2500 or Ford F250 (8-15k) or at least a full sized truck with a towing package (5-10k) plus a good sized dump trailer (4-6k). Also check the regs in your area to see if you need some kind of license or permit. Get a decent website and start marketing hard.

The GOTJUNK guy recognized this is a real need that was being underserved and made a fortune.

 

[ray hernandez]

Or an app for big trash. Snap a picture. Get a quote. Check out. Crew comes to haul it away.

this sounds like a genius idea I wonder if anything like that exists

 

[ray hernandez]

This is definitely doable in the right area.
I know a guy-he and a partner started a trash valet in my town a couple of years ago with one truck and a medium sized trailer with steel mesh sides. Now they have a second truck that pulls a large solid sided dump trailer.
They got a contract early on with a large vacation oriented HOA that doesn't allow rolling bins and full sized garbage trucks- the people put their trash bags on the curb and it is picked up every day by 10 am. They also service some apartment complexes that have small bins outside the apartment doors and do special pickups of bulk items. They charged me $150 to haul off assorted stuff from my garage- wood, metal, plastic and old paint, which I thought was a fair price. Lots of people don't have pickups or don't want to spend hours loading up junk and driving to the dump on a Saturday.
You need to do some strategic analysis if you are serious. Research the locations of the waste transfer stations and landfills in your area, what type of waste they accept at each one, the tipping fees, who can dump there, and the drive time to each. Research competitors prices and decide if you can make a good profit given the market prices. A critical point will be how much waste you can pick up before you have to make a dump run. The more, the better- frequent dump runs will kill your profitability. I'm sure that's why my acquaintance bought a much larger self-dumping trailer as soon as he could. I've seen guys trying to do this with just a pickup with homebuilt wooden sides and I can't imagine they are making much money.
Ideally, to start off right you would need an older truck with a high towing capacity like a Silverado HD 2500 or Ford F250 (8-15k) or at least a full sized truck with a towing package (5-10k) plus a good sized dump trailer (4-6k). Also check the regs in your area to see if you need some kind of license or permit. Get a decent website and start marketing hard.

The GOTJUNK guy recognized this is a real need that was being underserved and made a fortune.

Absolutely. I definitely see a lot of people in my area picking up with large trucks. The idea of trash valet was more for what you had mentioned above, how your friend got a contract with the HOA. But like KAK said, an app, now we are talking. An app where you could choose when you needed your trash disposed and what kind of trash you need disposed. Like a trash uber.

 

[Michael1359]

A lot of higher end apartment complexes in my area are doing it and have been for a few years. That’s the only place I’ve seen it, and it’s usually a requirement that they be used from the apartment leasing company.


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[LittleWolfie]

I looked in to it,but the cost of a waste management license makes it somewhat impractical here. I would have to show I'm transporting storing and finally delivering in a suitable manner with all the appropriate permits at each stage.

 

[Arun Siva]

waste management license

this is the ridiculous commandment of control displayed by municipalities. Especially cities suffer with this due to labor bargaining. Even though it is an immediate need the cost of proper entry offsets the overall figures. Maybe a way to target this is in densely populated towns with manageable red tape and fees and then scaling to similar towns, localities. Trash collecting is and always be big $ if done right. However forget the cities, as there are unions, and department of sanitation corruption and red tape to deal with.

 

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[LittleWolfie]

andment of control displayed by municipalities. Especially cities suffer with this due to labor bargaining. Even though it is an immediate need the cost of proper entry offsets the overall figures.

To be fair I can understand this. If you can't afford the license, the chances are you would just end up dropping trash all over the street because you can't afford a suitable vehicle and you can't afford the dump fees.

 

[minivanman]

No need to have a big trailer or store or transport anything. The guys around here get the contract with the apartment complex, collect the trash, take trash to the complexes roll away trash bin, end of story. They never take it off the property. A guy here has a John Deer lawn tractor with a little trailer that he takes to the complex. Then he rides that around and collects the trash. They do not leave the trash on the curb, there are special black trash cans by each apartment door the tenant uses. He walks by each door, takes bag, replaces with new bag.

I looked in to doing this but in the end it just didn't get me excited. I do think it would be easy to find workers though. I was going to put just 1 guy per complex and pay a set rate since I already knew how many cans he would check/empty each time.

I think 800 GOT JUNK missed the ball on this one. They should have got in on this and I think they would have done well. I know of a guy that has a big hauling business, I think I will ask him why he doesn't add this service. I bet he has never thought about it.

 

[Arun Siva]

you would have to do some serious calculations of how far each site would be from the central dump, and how much fuel etc would consume on a per trip basis, and you can easily buy any old dodge or chevy gas truck that can tow a flatbed trailer of about 5000-7500lbs and go from there. The trucks in good working order can be roughly $2000-4000 and the trailer can be easily bought and found at construction auctions or auctions in general.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Set it up as a lead gen site. Think limos by MJ.

 

[minivanman]

I think some of you have the wrong idea. The OP is not talking about a company that would clean out your garage or haul away your sofa. The OP is talking about a company that goes around and collects trash from a 13 gallon trash can. They do this at the same place day after day after day. The apartment complex hires this company, not an individual person.

 

[ray hernandez]

I think some of you have the wrong idea. The OP is not talking about a company that would clean out your garage or haul away your sofa. The OP is talking about a company that goes around and collects trash from a 13 gallon trash can. They do this at the same place day after day after day. The apartment complex hires this company, not an individual person.

Exactly! That’s the idea I am going for.

 

[ray hernandez]

Set it up as a lead gen site. Think limos by MJ.

This might be a great idea. I was honking of making a simple website, see if anyone requests the service and take it from there.

 

[ray hernandez]

No need to have a big trailer or store or transport anything. The guys around here get the contract with the apartment complex, collect the trash, take trash to the complexes roll away trash bin, end of story. They never take it off the property. A guy here has a John Deer lawn tractor with a little trailer that he takes to the complex. Then he rides that around and collects the trash. They do not leave the trash on the curb, there are special black trash cans by each apartment door the tenant uses. He walks by each door, takes bag, replaces with new bag.

I looked in to doing this but in the end it just didn't get me excited. I do think it would be easy to find workers though. I was going to put just 1 guy per complex and pay a set rate since I already knew how many cans he would check/empty each time.

I think 800 GOT JUNK missed the ball on this one. They should have got in on this and I think they would have done well. I know of a guy that has a big hauling business, I think I will ask him why he doesn't add this service. I bet he has never thought about it.

Definitely, would be nice to know what he thinks. Also in my area recycle comes once a month which is a pain in the but. Might be another service to help people around here alleviate the hassle of filling up their recycle bins.

 

[minivanman]

Definitely, would be nice to know what he thinks. Also in my area recycle comes once a month which is a pain in the but. Might be another service to help people around here alleviate the hassle of filling up their recycle bins.

But, these are 2 different businesses. Lots of money in a hauling business but the thing that takes time is sorting things. In a hauling business you have to know where to take things to get rid of them for free or as cheap as possible. You can't just take things to the dump and expect to make much money. Dumping fees are sky high I hear. But, a trash valet business = hire someone to collect the trash, put it in the bin of the apartments.... done.

A trash valet business isn't really something you can make a website for and wait for people to call on you. Plus, unless you empty every apartment's trash at a complex, it wouldn't be worth traveling to the complex, empty 1 trash can and head home. You will need to go in person to the offices of apartments. Not section 8 housing...... but then again you don't have to go to high end apartments. Just regular apartments where regular people live. High end will be ok, but don't limit yourself.

 

[wade1mil]

Here's a previous thread on this topic:
Trash Pick Up Service For Apartments

 

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[NewManRising]

And underserved area (or perhaps not worth it) are rural areas. I've seen so many homes out in rural areas that got junked/useless cars, farming equipment, trash and all kinds of other junk just sitting there. The reason this is so is because it is difficult or not even worth it to them to get rid of it. So they just leave it there.

 

[LittleWolfie]

No need to have a big trailer or store or transport anything. The guys around here get the contract with the apartment complex, collect the trash, take trash to the complexes roll away trash bin, end of story. They never take it off the property..

Still transporting, still need a license. The site manger will have one, however you need to show you can safely move and transport it. . This is why you can't even give away Sofas to shelter any more. The charity can't afford the costs to meet all the liability concerns

And underserved area (or perhaps not worth it) are rural areas. I've seen so many homes out in rural areas that got junked/useless cars, farming equipment, trash and all kinds of other junk just sitting there. The reason this is so is because it is difficult or not even worth it to them to get rid of it. So they just leave it there.

Looked into this the cost of fuel alone is more than the people are willing to pay. It doesn't cost them anything to leave it there and it costs to take it off the property, o they don't.

I had one figured out, that could work but needs a driver or me to be much better at lead gen.

 

[minivanman]

Still transporting, still need a license. The site manger will have one, however you need to show you can safely move and transport it. . This is why you can't even give away Sofas to shelter any more. The charity can't afford the costs to meet all the liability concerns



Looked into this the cost of fuel alone is more than the people are willing to pay. It doesn't cost them anything to leave it there and it costs to take it off the property, o they don't.

I had one figured out, that could work but needs a driver or me to be much better at lead gen.

So hire 2 guys... have 1 guy bring all the trash bags to the curb while 1 guys carries the trash bags to the property trash can. By the way, I doubt in any country if you take the bags from the curb to the can it is called transporting.... could be but I doubt it. You are not leaving the property. And if it is.... move to America because that is just stupid.

 

[wade1mil]

Here is what they did at the apartments I use to live in. Bring a large tarp and place all trash bags on the tarp. Once it's full, bring it to the back of a small pickup and drive it to the dumpster on the property.

 

[LittleWolfie]

So hire 2 guys... have 1 guy bring all the trash bags to the curb while 1 guys carries the trash bags to the property trash can. By the way, I doubt in any country if you take the bags from the curb to the can it is called transporting.... could be but I doubt it. You are not leaving the property. And if it is.... move to America because that is just stupid.

So now your doubling your prices. I don't know what a can is (other than something you drink Pepsi or Coca-Cola form.) However here all developers of apartments have to have this all arranged before even building. So you wouldn't be selling to homeowners, but to developers. That's pretty cut-throat and why it wouldn't occur to me.

The collecting from houses does make sense,especially as it has a higher barrier to entry and people are not happy with the council collections. However the usual reason they are not paying someone is becuase they are too cheap , although that might just be my area.

 

[minivanman]

This is an American business that can make lots of profit if done correctly.

 

[LittleWolfie]

This is an American business that can make lots of profit if done correctly.

To be fair I was answering the original poster's question of hadcanyohe thought about it.

I had, however it is not easy here, nor is there as much demand.