JunkBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Pricing Apartment Trash-Outs by the Truck Load Without Arguing Over Every Unit

A property manager sends you a unit, you clear it, you bill it, and she calls to ask why it cost more than the last one. Multiply that by every unit every month and pricing turns into a part-time job. The fix is a pricing method the manager understands before the first truck shows up.

Prices Show Up on the Statement

Every trash-out ends up as a line on the monthly statement, as covered in One Monthly Statement for Every Address: Billing Property Managers for Junk Removal. The manager reads those lines side by side. If two similar units cost very different amounts and the lines do not explain why, you get a phone call.

The prices themselves are yours to set. What follows are the habits that make them easy to defend. The dollar amounts used here are examples only.

Price by the Truck Load

Most junk companies already price homeowner jobs by how much of the truck they fill. Trash-outs work the same way, and managers who have hired haulers before usually expect it. In JunkBossPro every job records the truck load, from Min Load through 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8 and Full Load up to 1.5, 2 or 3 loads, and your service list can carry a price for each.

A simple example ladder:

• Single item, like a mattress left behind: $129
• Quarter truck load: $219
• Half truck load: $329
• Three-quarter truck load: $449
• Full truck load: $549

Give the manager the ladder at the start of the relationship. Once she knows a half load is $329, a statement line reading “Apartment trash-out, 1/2 truck load” answers itself.

Add a Named Trash-Out Service

Some haulers set up a service called “Apartment trash-out” on their service list instead of using the generic load names. That makes statements read better and lets you build a little extra into it for what makes trash-outs different from a garage pickup: walking every room, opening every closet, cleaning out the fridge, taking photos and dealing with keys. Whether you charge the same as a homeowner load or a bit more is your call. What matters is that the manager knows which one she is getting.

Weight Over the Included Amount

Trash-outs can be heavier than they look: a unit full of books, a waterbed, wet carpet. Rather than pad every price to cover the heavy ones, many haulers include a set amount of weight in each load and charge the rest by the ton. JunkBossPro does that math for you from the dump ticket and adds an overage line to the invoice. The details are in Dump Fee Overage on Heavy Trash-Outs: Charging Property Managers Fairly by the Ton.

Surprises in the Unit

The manager said “a couch and some bags.” The crew opens the door and the second bedroom is full to the ceiling. This happens all the time, and how you handle it decides whether the manager trusts your bills.

• Stop and photograph. The before photos show the real size of the job.
• Tell the office. The crew notes the change on the job: “Full load, not 1/4. Back bedroom full.”
• Text the manager. Two-way texting from the office makes this a ten-second message: “Unit 214 is a full load, not a quarter. $549 instead of $219. OK to go ahead?”
• Then do the work. With a yes in the text thread, there is nothing to argue about later.

Some managers will tell you up front to just clear it and bill what it was. Write that on the client in a custom field so every office person knows.

Quote the Big Ones First

For a unit the manager knows is bad, like a hoarding situation or a long-abandoned storage cage, send an estimate first. Build it from your service list, send it, and when she approves online, the estimate becomes the scheduled job. If you need to see it before you price it, an on-site estimate visit is just another job on the schedule. Estimates for commercial jobs are covered in Commercial Junk Removal Estimates: Quoting Offices, Stores and Multi-Unit Jobs for Online Approval.

Stay Consistent

The single biggest source of price arguments is inconsistency. If one office person bills a half load at $329 and another bills it at $299 because the manager was nice on the phone, the manager will notice. Keep the prices on the service list, use the service list every time, and change the list when you change your prices.

When you raise prices, tell your commercial clients ahead of time. A short email a month before the change goes a long way.

For everything else JunkBossPro does for property managers, visit the commercial junk removal software page.