JunkBossPro Blog — Estimates & Quotes

Choosing the Included Tons and Per-Ton Rate Behind Your Junk Pricing

An overage rule is only as good as the two numbers behind it: how much weight is included in the price, and what you charge per ton past that. Set the included weight too low and customers get overage on ordinary furniture loads. Set it too high and heavy jobs lose money. The per-ton rate has the same problem in miniature.

Two Numbers That Do the Work

Explaining overage to customers is covered in Explaining Dump Fee Overage on a Junk Removal Quote Before the Truck Is Loaded. This article is about choosing the numbers themselves.

In JunkBossPro, a job carries the tons from the dump ticket, the tons included in the price and your per-ton rate. The difference between the ticket and the included tons, times the rate, becomes the overage line on the invoice automatically. So the numbers you choose decide how often overage shows up and how big it is.

Start With Your Own Dump Tickets

The best source for the included weight is your own history. Pull a stack of recent tickets and sort them by load size. You are looking for the weight a typical load comes in at, not the heaviest one you ever hauled.

• Typical household loads. Furniture, boxes, bags and clutter. These should come in under the included weight almost every time.
• Mixed cleanouts. Garages and basements with some tools, paint cans and shelving. These may sit near the line.
• Heavy loads. Shingles, tile, concrete, dirt, plaster, wet carpet. These are the ones overage is for.

If you are new and do not have many tickets yet, call your local dump or transfer station and ask how they charge. Start with a conservative guess and adjust after a month of real jobs.

Included Tons by Load Size

You can set one included weight for every load, or scale it with the load size. Scaling is fairer: a quarter load including the same weight as a full load gives the small job too much room and the big job too little. A simple scale might give a quarter load a quarter of the full-load weight, a half load half, and so on. Write the included weight into the description of each load size on your service list so it prints on every estimate.

For multiple loads, decide whether the included weight is per load or for the whole job, and say so.

Setting the Per-Ton Rate

The per-ton rate should cover more than just the dump's price per ton. Heavy material takes longer to load, wears on the truck and may mean an extra trip. A rate that only passes through the dump fee leaves you doing harder work for the same money.

Work from:

• Your dump or transfer station's per-ton charge
• The extra labor heavy material takes
• Extra truck wear and fuel on heavy loads
• A margin, like any other line on your list

An example rate like $70 a ton shows the shape. Your local dump and your costs set the real number.

Rounding and Small Overages

Decide what happens with small overages. A load that comes in 0.05 tons over the line produces a tiny charge that may annoy the customer more than it helps you. Some owners round to the nearest tenth of a ton. Others set a small grace amount and only charge past it. Whatever you choose, apply it the same way every time and mention it on the estimate if it affects the customer.

JunkBossPro shows the overage exactly as calculated, like “Dump fee overage (0.28 tons @ $70.00) = $19.60,” so the customer can see the ticket weight drove the number.

When the Dump Changes Its Rate

Dumps raise prices. When yours does, update your per-ton rate and check whether your included weight still makes sense. Because estimates are built from your service list, updating the description and rate there means new quotes show the new terms. Estimates the customer already approved should keep the terms they agreed to.

It also helps to write down why you picked the numbers you did. When the dump changes its rate or you add a second truck, you can look back and adjust from the same reasoning instead of starting over. And when a customer asks why the line is there, the answer is simple: the dump charges by weight, and so do you past a certain point.

Check It Every Season

Every few months, look at how often overage is showing up. If it is on most of your household jobs, your included weight is too low and customers will feel nickel-and-dimed. If it never shows up, even on roofing jobs, your rate or weight may be too generous. The right setup charges overage on the heavy jobs and stays out of the way on everything else.

For long hauls and dumpster drops, which add their own costs, see Pricing Long Hauls and Dumpster Drops on a Junk Removal Estimate. And for how weight pricing fits with the rest of your quoting, go back to the junk removal estimate software page.