Anyone here in waste (skips)?
Discussion
Hi everyone,
Near me there is a skip company that has come up for sale. I don't have a background in waste but we use grab lorries and sweepers at work and I've been wanting to get into that game for a while.
Anyway, this company has come up, it comes with a leased yard (short lease that I would look to renew when doing the transfer) skips, lorry and van and presumably some contracts as they collect business waste in the nearby town.
In the future I would look to expand the business into grabs and possibly sweepers but it definitely looks like a scaleable business.
Any advice from anyone?
How easy/difficult is it to get your waste handling licence and your operators licence for the lorry?
Is it an industry worth getting into?
Many thanks
Edit: title is fairly obviously meant to say 'Anyone here in waste (skips)?
Near me there is a skip company that has come up for sale. I don't have a background in waste but we use grab lorries and sweepers at work and I've been wanting to get into that game for a while.
Anyway, this company has come up, it comes with a leased yard (short lease that I would look to renew when doing the transfer) skips, lorry and van and presumably some contracts as they collect business waste in the nearby town.
In the future I would look to expand the business into grabs and possibly sweepers but it definitely looks like a scaleable business.
Any advice from anyone?
How easy/difficult is it to get your waste handling licence and your operators licence for the lorry?
Is it an industry worth getting into?
Many thanks
Edit: title is fairly obviously meant to say 'Anyone here in waste (skips)?
Edited by BigGingerBob on Friday 16th January 11:21
BigGingerBob said:
Hi everyone,
Near me there is a skip company that has come up for sale. I don't have a background in waste but we use grab lorries and sweepers at work and I've been wanting to get into that game for a while.
Anyway, this company has come up, it comes with a leased yard (short lease that I would look to renew when doing the transfer) skips, lorry and van and presumably some contracts as they collect business waste in the nearby town.
In the future I would look to expand the business into grabs and possibly sweepers but it definitely looks like a scaleable business.
Any advice from anyone?
How easy/difficult is it to get your waste handling licence and your operators licence for the lorry?
Is it an industry worth getting into?
Many thanks
I can't offer any answers to your questions but as someone who has done house renovation on and off over the last 14 years I've had plenty of skips (Milton Keynes / Northampton area) and would offer a few observations from the customer perspective:Near me there is a skip company that has come up for sale. I don't have a background in waste but we use grab lorries and sweepers at work and I've been wanting to get into that game for a while.
Anyway, this company has come up, it comes with a leased yard (short lease that I would look to renew when doing the transfer) skips, lorry and van and presumably some contracts as they collect business waste in the nearby town.
In the future I would look to expand the business into grabs and possibly sweepers but it definitely looks like a scaleable business.
Any advice from anyone?
How easy/difficult is it to get your waste handling licence and your operators licence for the lorry?
Is it an industry worth getting into?
Many thanks
1. The price for a typical 8 yard skip has (unsurprisingly) got increasingly more expensive over the years. Initially I could get a skip for under £200. Now I'm being quoted as much as £450. I've got one on the drive at the moment which was £320 after some shopping around.
2. My gut feel is that there are still quite a few non legit / "will give you a price for cash" operations where you don't question where the waste goes once they take it away. This might make it harder to compete.
3. The list of items you can't put in the skip gets longer every time I have one. Mattresses was the newest one that was added to the usual "no plasterboard, roofing felt, carpet, cushions, furniture yadda yadda". Seems to me like it's getting harder and harder for the skip companies to get rid of the waste they have collected (and no doubt related to points 1 and 2 above).
4. The skip company I've always used has been sold off and when I talked to the chap on the phone he sounded relieved to not be dealing with skips as part of the business any more.
BigGingerBob said:
Hi everyone,
Near me there is a skip company that has come up for sale. I don't have a background in waste but we use grab lorries and sweepers at work and I've been wanting to get into that game for a while.
Anyway, this company has come up, it comes with a leased yard (short lease that I would look to renew when doing the transfer) skips, lorry and van and presumably some contracts as they collect business waste in the nearby town.
In the future I would look to expand the business into grabs and possibly sweepers but it definitely looks like a scaleable business.
Any advice from anyone?
How easy/difficult is it to get your waste handling licence and your operators licence for the lorry?
Is it an industry worth getting into?
Many thanks
Edit: title is fairly obviously meant to say 'Anyone here in waste (skips)?
Waste handling licence is easy enough just admin. The operators licence is a big commitment financially. You will need a TM as well. Not really something you can just try your hand at to test the waters.Near me there is a skip company that has come up for sale. I don't have a background in waste but we use grab lorries and sweepers at work and I've been wanting to get into that game for a while.
Anyway, this company has come up, it comes with a leased yard (short lease that I would look to renew when doing the transfer) skips, lorry and van and presumably some contracts as they collect business waste in the nearby town.
In the future I would look to expand the business into grabs and possibly sweepers but it definitely looks like a scaleable business.
Any advice from anyone?
How easy/difficult is it to get your waste handling licence and your operators licence for the lorry?
Is it an industry worth getting into?
Many thanks
Edit: title is fairly obviously meant to say 'Anyone here in waste (skips)?
Edited by BigGingerBob on Friday 16th January 11:21
Do you know how you will process the waste? Collecting skips full of mixed waste can mean a lot of sorting and processing. Do you have the knowledge to offload it further down the food chain? I would say this will be your biggest challenge. If you don't get this right you will be stuck with a yard full of waste no-one else wants to touch.
A lot of people are switching to grabs rather than skips. Not exactly sure why, maybe cost? Another point to consider is councils hate these type of businesses. Make sure the lease is long and all above board for this type of business.
Its definately a scalable business but tougher and tougher for the smaller business. The margains will get eaten away by more and more costs imposed on you if running legal. You should try and get the current owner to stay on in some capacity for as long as possible for support.
Maybe don't run before you can walk but with grabs you can support other companies with transport work, Aggreates, asphalt etc. You have more earning options but thats comes at a bigger intital expense.
Keep us updated, its a business always in need and AI isn't going to destroy it within the next 10 years.
Edited by EastMidsEng on Friday 16th January 13:26
Edited by EastMidsEng on Friday 16th January 13:31
Grab wagons are much cheaper than skips these days in my experience, and no faffing around waiting for the skip to be collected one day.
OP - if you go for it and want some contract work I have a friend who owns a large waste brokerage and they sub out all of their contracts so I'd happily put you in touch with them if that helps in the future.
OP - if you go for it and want some contract work I have a friend who owns a large waste brokerage and they sub out all of their contracts so I'd happily put you in touch with them if that helps in the future.
Thank you everyone, I will always be amazed at how helpful people are on this site.
The daughter of the owner and founder works in the office and practically runs it so she will help with all the admin. I'm planning on chatting to the owner and it helps that my Dad has dealt with the company for 40 years for the cardboard from his shop.
I'll do some more digging into the business and I still need to fully convince my wife that it's a business we should get into.
I'm definitely up for grab lorries but I will need the lorry, yard, license and all sorts which would likely be sorted with this business. Not very well worded but I hope it makes sense.
The daughter of the owner and founder works in the office and practically runs it so she will help with all the admin. I'm planning on chatting to the owner and it helps that my Dad has dealt with the company for 40 years for the cardboard from his shop.
I'll do some more digging into the business and I still need to fully convince my wife that it's a business we should get into.
I'm definitely up for grab lorries but I will need the lorry, yard, license and all sorts which would likely be sorted with this business. Not very well worded but I hope it makes sense.
I'm in the skip hire industry.
If I was you I'd run a mile and I would never encourage anyone to start a skip hire business.
In your case it seems a little better since you aren't building it from the ground up.
Dealing with the Environment Agency alone almost makes it not worth the hassle.
You'll need a transport manager with CPC qualification (unless you can run on a restricted licence which some skip hire firms do, though I believe Traffic Commissioners are clamping down on this now), 6 weekly checks on the HGV's, Loler testing, skips need replacing and repairing, WAMITAB certification to run your waste transfer station.
You'll be running plant machinery to sort the waste, perhaps a trommel with picking line.
Landfill tax is going to £130.75 per ton in April and the inert (lower rate) is doubling to £8.65 per ton. Even if you don't take your non recyclable waste to a landfill the cost of sending to EFW or to a site that will eventually send it to EFW is almost as high as the landfill rate (in some places it's more).
We've never bothered with a grab wagon but I do know that we don't get as many hardcore loads coming in as we used to.
And long gone are the days when you could get away with burning all the wood that comes in. You'll have to pay to get rid of that too.
We're charging £330 inc VAT for an 8 yard skip in our locality but in my opinion they should be at least £20 to £30 more than that.
One of our rivals who set up in 2009 and initially undercut us by a good margin went out of business in 2019. He ended up charging more than us, running on red diesel and trying every trick in the book just to get by. He told me in 2019 that an 8 yard skip of mixed waste should be £250 + VAT in order for a skip hire firm to make a reasonable profit.
That was 7 years ago and we're only on £275 + VAT now.
Best of luck to you.
If I was you I'd run a mile and I would never encourage anyone to start a skip hire business.
In your case it seems a little better since you aren't building it from the ground up.
Dealing with the Environment Agency alone almost makes it not worth the hassle.
You'll need a transport manager with CPC qualification (unless you can run on a restricted licence which some skip hire firms do, though I believe Traffic Commissioners are clamping down on this now), 6 weekly checks on the HGV's, Loler testing, skips need replacing and repairing, WAMITAB certification to run your waste transfer station.
You'll be running plant machinery to sort the waste, perhaps a trommel with picking line.
Landfill tax is going to £130.75 per ton in April and the inert (lower rate) is doubling to £8.65 per ton. Even if you don't take your non recyclable waste to a landfill the cost of sending to EFW or to a site that will eventually send it to EFW is almost as high as the landfill rate (in some places it's more).
We've never bothered with a grab wagon but I do know that we don't get as many hardcore loads coming in as we used to.
And long gone are the days when you could get away with burning all the wood that comes in. You'll have to pay to get rid of that too.
We're charging £330 inc VAT for an 8 yard skip in our locality but in my opinion they should be at least £20 to £30 more than that.
One of our rivals who set up in 2009 and initially undercut us by a good margin went out of business in 2019. He ended up charging more than us, running on red diesel and trying every trick in the book just to get by. He told me in 2019 that an 8 yard skip of mixed waste should be £250 + VAT in order for a skip hire firm to make a reasonable profit.
That was 7 years ago and we're only on £275 + VAT now.
Best of luck to you.
My dad has worked for two latlrge, long established skip hire companies in the past.
Both businesses have been sold in the last couple of years. It seems a bit of a coincidence to me, maybe they both decided to retire at the same time, but it makes me think they both knew the writing was on the wall.
Both businesses have been sold in the last couple of years. It seems a bit of a coincidence to me, maybe they both decided to retire at the same time, but it makes me think they both knew the writing was on the wall.
Thin White Duke said:
I'm in the skip hire industry.
Waste is a pond I paddle in and did think of responding to the OP but I'm not at the technical/operational end of things (I work with Councils promoting household recycling, behaviour change, etc). But, I have observed something that I thought would be interesting to throw into the mix which may or may not be of relevance. So you being at the sharp end of things may determine if this is the case.So, we have this Simpler Recycling policy which will require all businesses in the UK to separate materials into different streams and adopt recycling practices similar to that we see in households. Something I've been picking up over the past year or 18 months or so is that many local authorities are expressing concern at the lack of operational capacity amongst waste companies to accommodate this. Many are receiving regular calls from businesses requesting services which the councils cannot provide (most don't offer trade waste services). Even the big boys in some areas are struggling, so I'm told.
It strikes me that they may be an emerging market for smaller waste operators to scale up and offer something that the big boys can't.
I'm sure there's a million reasons why that's not possible but you only need one reason why it is.
Feel free to suggest that's a load of b
ks but would be interesting to get your take on it.StevieBee said:
Thin White Duke said:
I'm in the skip hire industry.
Waste is a pond I paddle in and did think of responding to the OP but I'm not at the technical/operational end of things (I work with Councils promoting household recycling, behaviour change, etc). But, I have observed something that I thought would be interesting to throw into the mix which may or may not be of relevance. So you being at the sharp end of things may determine if this is the case.So, we have this Simpler Recycling policy which will require all businesses in the UK to separate materials into different streams and adopt recycling practices similar to that we see in households. Something I've been picking up over the past year or 18 months or so is that many local authorities are expressing concern at the lack of operational capacity amongst waste companies to accommodate this. Many are receiving regular calls from businesses requesting services which the councils cannot provide (most don't offer trade waste services). Even the big boys in some areas are struggling, so I'm told.
It strikes me that they may be an emerging market for smaller waste operators to scale up and offer something that the big boys can't.
I'm sure there's a million reasons why that's not possible but you only need one reason why it is.
Feel free to suggest that's a load of b
ks but would be interesting to get your take on it.I think the biggest hurdle from any businesses perspective will be getting their staff on side to follow through on it. Obviously businesses like ours that are already within the waste industry can easily sort it out, and smaller companies that produce less waste should cope.
But places like factories and warehouses with many employees may find it difficult. We have skips at premises that are for certain waste streams but other stuff always ends up in these skips. This will be down to staff not giving a toss what goes in what skip and people chucking stuff in from say their homes.
A few years ago someone had thrown two dozen dead ducks into a skip at the tail end of the shooting season. No idea why and what a waste of ducks. The guy that hired the skip (which was in his yard on a permanent basis) had no idea, and I did believe him.
As for whether or not it could become a new angle of attack for skip hire firms I can't really say. Interesting times ahead as they say.
Tim Cognito said:
Similar to the above, a skip hire guy I used last year just sent a WhatsApp message to all his customers thanking them for the support and a reminder of his services.
Might be nothing but could be an indication business is light at the moment.
Historically we've always been quieter in the winter months, particularly after Christmas. It's a knock on effect of people having spent up at the festive period and the weather being poor leading to a lack of building work. Might be nothing but could be an indication business is light at the moment.
One of our customers who does building work said that he's only getting calls from people who need essential work doing.
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