If you're thinking of starting a skip hire and waste disposal business, you'll need to decide on how many skip carrier vehicles and skips you'll have to buy or lease. Check out our practical guide for help with starting and running your skip hire business.
- Research your target market
- Decide which services to offer
- Price your skip hire services
- Promote your skip hire business
- Buy an existing skip hire business
Research your target market
When you plan your skip hire business it's very important to think carefully about who your potential customers are, how much demand there is likely to be, and how well that demand is already served by other businesses.
Customers
Think about how many people and businesses are likely to use your services.
Private customers and one-off commercial jobs
Your key private customers will include homeowners. Think about the types of people that will be more likely to require a skip. For example, first-time home buyers who want to renovate their new home. Think about the different areas of housing in your area. Pay particular attention to areas where housing is owner-occupied, ideally by younger couples and families. Look out for houses with large gardens, and perhaps houses that look like they will need building work and maintenance in the future.
Think about business clients that might use your services from time to time. Shops, for example, may need skips for disposing of old stock, unwanted fixtures or accumulated rubbish.
Try to match the range of services that you offer to the needs and wants of local customers. For example, 'mini' and 'midi' skips are often popular with private clients. Think about how far you are prepared to travel to deposit and collect skips.
Regular users
Think about the types of businesses that will need skips on a regular basis. Construction businesses are good examples - many types of building work generate large amounts of waste and spoil to be disposed of. Landscape gardeners might also need skips regularly. Also consider shopfitters, driveway specialists and carpet fitters.
Target regular users with your advertisements. You could try approaching the proprietors of some of these businesses to tell them about your services and see if they will agree to put business your way.
Contract work
Some types of business will require long-term or permanent skips. Manufacturing and industrial businesses, for example, often produce large amounts of waste and need one or more skips on site at all times. Some businesses will need very large capacity skips or special 'roll-on-off' containers.
It may be worth finding out who is responsible for waste management in large factories and industrial units. Try to find out about their requirements and what you would have to do if you wanted to tender for their waste disposal contract.
Establishing the level of competition
Once you have decided who your customers might be, you need to find out how well they are already served.
How many other businesses in the area offer skip hire services? A quick look online using keywords such as 'Skip hire', 'Waste disposal services' and 'Recycling') will help to establish this. Look out for large national companies that offer skip hire in your area - for example Topskips, AMA Skip Hire, HSS Skips (part of HSS Hire) and Brandon Hire Station. The national builders' merchant chain Jewson also offers skip hire (including grab loader hire and roll-on, roll-off skips), as does Travis Perkins.
Look at what your competitors offer:
- what sizes of skip do they offer
- do they advertise any special features, for example a seven-day service
- what sort of impression does their advertisement give you (for example, does the firm come across as small and friendly, large and efficient, good value)
Look out too for competition from Hippo Bag. This nationwide scheme uses large 'dumpy bags' instead of rigid skips and is marketed primarily to private householders but also to traders through national chains of DIY retailers and builders merchants.
Remember that competition may come from other sources, particularly tipper van waste disposal services that offer to load and remove general waste. Bear in mind that you may also face competition from unlicensed 'man with a van' services.
Research current trends, plus legal and tax issues
- Sector trends for skip hire businesses
- Legal issues for skip hire businesses
- VAT rules for skip hire businesses
Insurance for a skip hire business
When you start up in business you will need insurance cover. Contact an insurer and explain to him or her exactly how the business will operate - the insurer will then recommend what cover you should have. This might include:
- employer's liability
- public liability
- professional indemnity
- pollution cover and environmental liability
- asset cover (skips and other hire items)
- motor insurance for your vehicle fleet
- business interruption
- premisesand premises contents
- personal cover (accident and injury, loss of earnings and so on)
When taking out personal and employer's liability cover it is particularly important to give precise details of the type of business that you will be running. Be prepared to answer questions about the type of wastes you and your staff will be handling, the equipment you will be using, your health and safety and duty of care policies, your licensing status and so on.
Note that your skip truck cover will probably include certain conditions - for example you may not be covered if you carry overloaded skips.
There are a number of specialist insurers for the waste industry and for skip hirers.
Decide which services to offer
There are various different skip and waste disposal container hire services that you could offer.
Basic skip hire services
Basic skip hire and waste removal services include:
- 'mini' and 'midi' skips
- full size and 'maxi' skips (sometimes referred to as 'builders' skips', usually 6-8 cubic yards or bigger - up to 10 or 12 yards for a maxi skip)
- extra large industrial skips (up to about 55 cubic yards) and other industrial waste containers, such as 'roll-on-offs'
- grab loaders, for moving large amounts of excavated spoil or rubble quickly
- tipper trucks
Many of your hires will be on a short-term basis - normally only a few days - but you might also offer long-term and 'permanent' (regularly replaced) skip hire to businesses like manufacturers which constantly need to dispose of large volumes of waste.
Special features and services
You might decide to offer a range of additional waste management services and special features. Some examples include:
- dismantling and demolition services
- a loading service
- clearance services, for example builders' site clearance and property/house clearance
- tree removal and wood chipping
- a mobile crushing service
- recycling services
- asbestos and special/hazardous waste removal
- disposal of refrigeration equipment
- long reach vehicles and skip rotators for improved access
- covered skips ('sheeting')
- drop-side skips
- security fencing around skips
Other services
Depending on your facilities, equipment and in some cases licensing, you might decide to offer additional services, such as:
- gully emptying and septic tank clearing
- other tanker services for slurries and liquid wastes
- drain unblocking and high pressure jetting
- wheelie-bin emptying and cleaning
- other specialist hire - for example portable toilets and containers
- general waste disposal - if you have the appropriate facilities and licences then you might decide to accept waste for disposal that people bring to your premises
- general plant and machinery hire
- general haulage services
You may find that there is demand from major waste producers, such as factories, for specialist waste minimisation and management consultancy. You might be able to provide this as part of a compete integrated package if you have the knowledge and expertise.
Added value services
The skip hire business is very competitive and you may decide to offer your customers a range of attractive 'added value' services. These might include, for example:
- online booking and payment
- an 'all areas covered' service
- guaranteed prompt service (for example same or next day delivery and collection)
- wait and load service (for customers who have all their waste ready to go)
- six or even seven days a week delivery and collection
Price your skip hire services
Most private and one-off customers will ask you for a price for a specific size of skip. Many will want to know how long they can have the skip for and some may ask about your charges for extended periods. Some customers will have special requirements, for example drop-side access or covered skips.
The price you quote may depend on several things, for example:
- skip size
- the type of waste that will go in the skip
- how far the drop-off site is from your depot and/or from licensed waste disposal sites
- site accessibility
- how long the skip is needed for (although many skip hire companies don't charge for hire on a time basis so long as the skip can be collected within a reasonable length of time)
- whether the skip will be sited on a public highway (including pavements) or on private land
- whether any special arrangements will have to be made, for example the suspension of a restricted parking bay
- any extras that are charged for, such as waste chutes skip lights and access ramps (decide whether or not you'll include these in your basic prices)
If a highway permit or controlled parking permission is required the local authority will make a charge. Charges vary - your local authority will be able to give you details of charges that apply in your area. Decide whether you will pass on these charges at cost when you arrange a permit on a customer's behalf.
The price you quote may depend on whether the customer is a private householder or a business. You might decide to offer special rates to business users and discounts to clients who use your services on a regular basis. Your lowest hire charges might be for businesses like factories that need a permanent skip on their premises.
Many potential customers will phone around several local skip hire specialists or look online to find the lowest price. This means your rates will have to be competitive. Find out what other businesses in your area charge for similar services. Decide whether you need to (and are able to) undercut them to win business, or whether you hope to attract customers in other ways. Remember that some clients will be prepared to pay a premium for a convenient or flexible service.
If you offer other services, such as portable toilet hire and general plant hire, you'll need to think about how you'll price these too.
Make sure that, assuming you get enough work, your charges are high enough to cover all of your operating costs, including fuel, landfill charges and your own drawings.
Promote your skip hire business
Many of your one-off customers won't have the name and contact details of a skip hire business to hand. So it's important to advertise your business effectively, to let your potential customers know who you are, where you are and what you can do for them.
Make sure that your advertising and marketing efforts are focussed on the areas that you cover. If the landfill site that you use for disposal is a considerable distance from your premises, it could well be worth targeting the areas that you'll regularly be passing through when travelling to and from the site. Similarly, if your premises are near to a regional landfill site, it may be worth advertising in towns and cities that are quite a distance away if yours is the nearest landfill site to them.
Online advertising
Research by GoGlobe reveals that 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information and 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps. With this in mind, you should set up a Google Business Profile. This free local search tool will put your business information on Google Search and Google Maps so customers can find you when searching online.
A good website can also be a very good way of advertising your business and reaching a wider range of customers. Think about getting listed in online directories and take advantage of any free online advertising offered by your trade association.
Think about using social media like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to network and market your services, communicate with customers and generally raise the profile of your business. Sign up to Next Door so that potential customers looking for local recommendations can find and recommend your services to others. Once three people have recommended you on Next door, your business will start to appear in searches.
Other ways of advertising
An advertisement in your local newspaper and an entry in online trade directories can be an effective way of advertising your business. However, many of your competitors will have done the same so try to make your business stand out.
Some firms spend a lot of money on large, eye-catching display advertisements. You will have to decide whether to compete head on with these firms, or look for a different way of attracting customers. You could, for example:
- focus on your own unique selling point (USP) in your advertising material. This might be, for example, "Family run firm" or even simply "Friendly, honest service"
- distribute flyers in your local area with your contact details
- contact local residential landlords associations to enquire about being included in their suppliers guide
The important thing is to tell as many as possible about your business, particularly the things that distinguish your business from your competitors.
Paint your business name and contact details prominently onto your skips and skip wagons so you'll be advertising your business wherever you go.
Some businesses keep an eye on local planning applications and contact applicants in case any who are project managing the work themselves might want to engage them.
Targeting contract clients
If you decide to try and win long-term contracts from businesses such as manufacturers then you should consider how you will reach them with your advertising. You might, for example, consider contacting all the businesses operating from your local trading and industrial estates by phone or email or placing advertisements in specialist trade journals that are read by your target market. It may be worth networking with key members of the local business community. Chambers of Commerce are a good means of meeting other businesses in your area.
Your aim is to tell as many people as possible about your business, particularly the things that distinguish your business from its competitors.
Buy an existing business
You might decide to buy an existing skip hire business rather than start your own venture from scratch. Buying a going concern can mean that the skip carrier vehicles, skips, customers, staff, premises and other equipment are already in place.
Buying a business can be a hazardous, expensive process unless you have the right skills and experience on your team, including legal and financial know-how. Establish the genuine trading and financial position, so that the price you pay for the business is not too high.