The short answer
Include a set number of tons in the rental price, and charge a clear price for every ton over, written in the rental agreement. The landfill's scale ticket is the proof: the driver gets it at the scale, the weight goes on the job, and the tons over go on the bill. Bill it the same week, while the customer still remembers the job.
By American Dumpster Software, the software built by American Roll-Offs, a roll-off company in Jacksonville, Florida. Updated .
Set the included tons and the price per ton over
Weight is an easy place to lose money quietly: the landfill bills you for every ton, and if the overage never reaches the customer's bill, you paid for it. Pick the included tons per size, from what a normal load of that size weighs in your own landfill tickets. Then set the price per ton over. It should at least cover what the landfill charges you per ton, plus your handling, because every ton over is a ton you pay for.
Put both in the rental agreement and on the quote, in plain words: how many tons are included and what each ton over costs. A customer who was told up front rarely argues with a scale ticket.
Get the ticket, every time
The scale ticket is the proof. The driver should record the weight, and a photo of the ticket, at the landfill, before the paper ends up on the truck's floor. If tickets come to the office in a stack at the end of the week, overages get billed late or not at all.
Work out the tons over
Tons over is the ticket's net weight minus the included tons, if that is more than zero. Decide ahead of time how you round: to the tenth of a ton, the half or the whole ton, and use the same rule on every bill.
When the landfill's own price changes, your price per ton over may need to change too. Keep each landfill's prices dated, so an old ticket is checked against the price that was in force that day.
Mattresses, tires and the things that cost more
Some items cost more at the landfill no matter the weight: mattresses, tires, appliances, some kinds of debris. Price them as their own lines, write them in the agreement, and have the driver note and photograph them at pickup.
Catch the landfill's mistakes too
Landfills make mistakes on their bills as well. Compare their monthly bill with the tickets your drivers recorded, ticket by ticket. A wrong weight or a wrong price is your money.
How the software does it
In American Dumpster Software, the driver enters the ticket and its photo on the phone at the stop, even with no signal. When the job is finished the bill drafts itself, with the tons over at your price and the landfill's dated price behind it. A bill check for each landfill compares their bill with your tickets. See it on a finished job in the demo, and what's included on Pricing.