JunkBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Dump Fee Overage on Heavy Trash-Outs: Charging Property Managers Fairly by the Ton

Two units, both a half truck load. One was a couch, a few chairs and bagged clothes. The other was a bookshelf's worth of books, a broken treadmill and a roll of wet carpet from a leak. They take the same space on the truck. They do not weigh the same at the scale, and the dump charges you by weight.

Why Load Price Alone Falls Short

Truck-load pricing is the base, as covered in Pricing Apartment Trash-Outs by the Truck Load Without Arguing Over Every Unit. It works well for most units. The trouble is the heavy ones. If you price every half load high enough to cover the wet-carpet unit, you overcharge on the couch-and-clothes unit, and the manager notices.

The usual answer is to include a set weight in each load price and charge anything over it by the ton. Light units cost the load price. Heavy units cost the load price plus a clear, explainable extra.

How the Overage Works in JunkBossPro

Every job has a dump fee overage section. After the dump run, enter three things:

• The tons on the dump ticket. From the scale ticket the crew brings back.
• The tons included in the price. Whatever your load price covers.
• Your per-ton rate. What you charge for weight over the included amount.

JunkBossPro works out the difference and adds the overage to the invoice automatically, as its own line: “Dump fee overage (0.28 tons @ $70.00) = $19.60.” If the ticket comes in under the included weight, no overage line is added.

For a Monthly client, that line sits under the unit it belongs to on the monthly statement, so the manager can see exactly which unit ran heavy.

Tell the Manager Up Front

The overage is only fair if the manager knows about it before the first heavy unit. When you set up the account, explain it in a sentence: “Each load includes a set weight. Anything over that is charged by the ton from the dump ticket, and it shows as its own line on the statement.” Put the included tons and the rate in writing, in the same email as your load prices.

Managers who have run buildings for a while have seen this from other haulers. They rarely object to it. What they object to is finding it on a bill for the first time.

Keep the Ticket

The dump ticket is the proof behind the overage line. Train crews to bring every ticket back and hand it to the office, or snap a photo of it on the job in the crew app. If the manager ever asks why Unit 214 had an overage, the office can point to the ticket and the before photos of the wet carpet.

When one dump run covers two jobs, which happens when a truck clears two small units at the same complex, split the tons between them sensibly and note it on each job. Better still, when you know a unit is going to be heavy, run it to the dump on its own so the ticket matches the job.

Where the Truck Goes

Each job records where it is hauled to: the dump, a transfer station, a donation center or a metal recycler. The crew gets a Go button on the card that navigates there. For trash-outs, that might mean a stop at the metal recycler for the broken treadmill before the transfer station for the rest. What each place will accept is up to that place, so check the local transfer station's rules instead of guessing, and keep anything they will not take off the truck until you know where it can go.

Heavy Work Beyond Apartments

Overage matters even more for contractors. Remodel debris like tile, plaster and old lumber is heavy for its size, and a contractor job can run well over the included weight. The same overage section handles it the same way. Contractor work is covered starting in Contractor and Remodel Debris: Running Junk Removal for Builders and Remodelers.

Setting Your Numbers

How much weight to include and what to charge per ton depends on what your local dump charges you, how far you haul, and what your competitors do. Look at your own dump tickets from the last few months. If most of your half loads come in under a certain weight, that is a sensible number to include. Set the per-ton rate to cover what the dump charges you for the extra plus your time.

Review the numbers when the dump raises its rates. When you change them, tell your commercial clients before the next statement goes out.

For the rest of the tools JunkBossPro gives you for property manager work, visit the commercial junk removal software page.