How Much to Charge for Junk Removal (and Still Make Money)

Most new owners copy the prices of the biggest company in town. The trouble is that company has a different truck, different dump fees and a call center to pay for. Here is how to set junk removal prices from your own numbers, so every load makes money.

Step 1: know what a job costs you

Every job has three kinds of cost:

• Time. Drive there, load, drive to the dump, unload. A typical half load takes a two-person crew 1.5 to 2.5 hours door to dump
• Disposal. What the dump charges for that load, plus item fees for mattresses, tires or appliances
• Overhead. Truck payment, insurance, phone, software, marketing. Spread across your jobs

Add up a normal month of overhead and divide by the jobs you do. If overhead is $3,000 and you do 60 jobs, every job carries $50 before you lift anything.

Then price your crew hour. Two people at $20 an hour plus fuel and wear on the truck is roughly $60 to $80 per crew hour. With overhead and profit, many owners aim for $120 to $160 per crew hour of work.

Step 2: build load prices

Customers do not want an hourly rate. They want a number. Volume pricing gives them one: you price by how much of the truck the job fills. A full truck is usually 12 to 18 cubic yards. A common ladder:

Load	Typical US range
Minimum or single item	$75 to $150
Quarter load	$150 to $250
Half load	$300 to $450
Three quarter load	$400 to $600
Full load	$450 to $800

Notice the price per quarter goes down as the load grows. The first quarter carries the drive, the setup and the minimum dump fee. Each extra quarter is mostly loading time and tonnage. A simple way to set it up: a price for the first quarter, then a fixed amount for each quarter after. For example, $175 for the first quarter and $125 for each one after makes a full load $550. That is how the JunkPilot estimate calculator works, and our junk removal pricing per load guide shows how to estimate loads on the phone.

Step 3: price the add-ons

Add-ons are where small companies leave the most money. Decide now what each one costs, and put it on your site so nobody is surprised:

• Same-day pickup: $50 to $100. You are moving your day around for them
• Stairs: $25 to $50 per flight for heavy items
• Heavy items: pianos, safes, hot tubs, treadmills. $75 to $400 depending on the item
• Mattresses and box springs: $25 to $50 each if your dump charges for them
• Refrigerators and freezers: $25 to $60 for refrigerant recovery
• Tires: $10 to $25 each
• Disassembly: $40 to $80 for a bed frame, a playset or a shed

Step 4: decide how to handle heavy debris

A truck full of old couches weighs maybe a ton. The same truck full of roof shingles, tile or concrete can weigh four or five tons, and the dump charges by weight. Two common ways to handle it:

1. A weight allowance. Each load size includes a weight (for example, a full load includes 2,000 pounds) and you charge per ton above it
2. A separate price for heavy material. Concrete, dirt and shingles get their own job type, priced by the cubic yard or the half load, and you never fill the truck more than halfway with them

Our junk removal dump fees guide covers both.

Step 5: check the math on a real job

A customer has a sectional, a mattress and ten boxes. That is about a half load. Your price: $300 plus $40 for the mattress, $340. Your costs: two hours of crew time ($140), dump fees for about 700 pounds ($30 plus a $15 mattress fee), fuel ($20) and $50 of overhead. Total cost about $255. You keep $85, and that is before you donate the dresser and skip its dump cost.

If that number is too thin, raise the first quarter, not every quarter. Small jobs are where most owners undercharge.

Show your prices

Every company is afraid to post prices. Every customer wants them. Showing load prices on your site, with a note that the final price is confirmed on site by how much of the truck it fills, does three things: it filters out the people who wanted it for $40, it pre-sells the ones who stay, and it makes the phone call short. A junk removal website with a calculator does this at 10 p.m. while you sleep.

Confirm on site, before loading

Show the customer the empty bed, point to where the load will reach, and agree on the price before the first item goes on. If the pile is bigger than they said, say so now, not at the dump. Customers rarely argue with a price they agreed to with their own eyes.