Pricing Right in a Race to the Bottom: Why Undercutting Hurts All of Us

“They’re doing it for $X less — can you match it?”

If you’ve been in this business longer than a week, you’ve heard it.
And if you’re doing things right — paying your drivers fair, maintaining your trucks, servicing on schedule — you can’t and shouldn’t try to beat every price.

Because here's the truth: when companies undercut just to win jobs, everyone loses.

🧻 🚛 The Real Cost of Undercutting

Undercutting isn’t a strategy — it’s a shortcut.
And it usually comes from one of three places:

1. New operators who don’t understand their costs

2. Fly-by-nighters with no insurance or compliance

3. Desperate haulers chasing volume over value

Here’s what they sacrifice to hit those too-good-to-be-true rates:

• Missed or rushed service

• Unsafe or untrained drivers

• Old or unmaintained equipment

• No real customer support

Sure, they’ll win a few jobs — but they hurt the industry’s standards, drive prices down, and leave customers soured on all of us when it falls apart.

📊 Know Your Costs First

Before you even think about pricing competitively, you need to know your actual cost per unit or container:

For Portable Toilets:

• Unit depreciation

• Weekly service labor + supplies

• Fuel + truck maintenance

• Admin time / dispatch

• Delivery & pickup cost

• Insurance and overhead

For Roll-Offs:

• Container cost + paint/refurb

• Hauling time (round trip)

• Dump fees (and landfill rules)

• Fuel + wear and tear

• Driver pay and benefits

• Office/admin + compliance

If you're not calculating these regularly, you're not pricing — you're guessing.

📈 Price to Build, Not Just Compete

You don’t need to be the cheapest. You need to be:

• Reliable

• Professional

• Consistent

• Responsive

Charge for the value you bring: on-time service, real humans answering the phone, a clean and compliant product.
You’re not just dropping a unit or a bin — you’re solving a jobsite problem.

🧠 How to Respond When You Get Undercut

“Can you match their price?”

Here's how to push back without burning the lead:

• “We may not be the cheapest — but we’re the ones who show up.”

• “Here’s what our rate includes: delivery, weekly service, and real support.”

• “Ask them if they’re insured and if their drivers are background-checked.”

And if it’s just about price? Let it go. Not all jobs are worth chasing.

🧱 Undercutting Hurts the Industry

When prices get too low:

• Good companies fold

• Employees get shorted

• Safety takes a back seat

• Quality tanks

• Customers lose trust

This isn’t just about your business — it’s about keeping the bar high for everyone who makes a living in this space.

💡 Bottom Line

Know your worth. Know your numbers. Know that racing to the bottom just gets you there faster.

Price for profit. Price for quality. And don’t let the cut-rate crowd drag you (or the industry) down with them.

📣 Call to Action:

Ever lost a job to a lowball quote that backfired on the customer?
Send the story to stories@builtonwaste.com — we may feature it in an upcoming blog.