Wheelie Bin Cleaning

[vocal]

I know this might have been done to death but thought I'd ask. Does anyone on here have a wheelie bin cleaning business? I'm considering setting one up and just looking for advice/opinions.

There are a few competitors but none of them are what I would describe as "local", I've never seen them operating in the area and it seems from their website that you have to ring them and up and see if they'll come out to you.

The area, in my opinion, seems ideal. It's mainly wealthy middle-class families and wealthy elderly people. I'd offer the service once a month, on the day of their refuse collection and then place the bin back where it belongs.

I thought I'd offer it for £3 a single bin or £5 for two.

People could pay in advance, e.g. 4 washes for £10 or 4 washes of two bins at £15.

I could also offer the service to businesses around the area such as hotels and restaurants.

Thanks

 

[AndyL]

I know this might have been done to death but thought I'd ask. Does anyone on here have a wheelie bin cleaning business? I'm considering setting one up and just looking for advice/opinions.

There are a few competitors but none of them are what I would describe as "local", I've never seen them operating in the area and it seems from their website that you have to ring them and up and see if they'll come out to you.

The area, in my opinion, seems ideal. It's mainly wealthy middle-class families and wealthy elderly people. I'd offer the service once a month, on the day of their refuse collection and then place the bin back where it belongs.

I thought I'd offer it for £3 a single bin or £5 for two.

People could pay in advance, e.g. 4 washes for £10 or 4 washes of two bins at £15.

I could also offer the service to businesses around the area such as hotels and restaurants.

Thanks

I think most people who want their wheelie bin cleaned already have someone doing it, I pay £2.50 for one.

The other thing is if you try to go onto someone elses patch you could get into trouble, I don't mean legally I mean getting a punch in the mouth.

 

[gibby]

I think there is a need for this.
We have 3 firms doing this for us locally & all 3 seem to be doing OK

We did stop ours as we now have 3 bins & the price went upto £4 each & the guy was expecting to come round every month.
Another guy appeared who arrives once every 2 months & seems alot more professional. He is not as scruffy as the others, has a nice van & actually smiles, says hello etc rather than grunts like the first.

I would suggest doing some research in different areas, asking customers what they are happy with & dont like if they already have this service.

I am surprised that window cleaners have not added this to their window rounds as an extra service.

Its also surprising the price you can pay to take on a franchise for this.

G

 

[AndyL]

Our is done at every collection which is fortnightly

 

[davezzr]

The wheeliebin guy follows the binwagon and does ours every week for 2quid. Bit like window cleaning and done to death so you may only pick up a few here and there to get a round up and going. I think you should try for the weekly or fortnightly clean if you want a wage

 

[AndyL]

The wheeliebin guy follows the binwagon and does ours every week for 2quid. Bit like window cleaning and done to death so you may only pick up a few here and there to get a round up and going. I think you should try for the weekly or fortnightly clean if you want a wage

Not forgetting the cost of a modified van and all the cleaning equipment

 

[davezzr]

very true. may aswell start at the begining:
One road worthy van and tax,insurance
public liability insurance of 10,000,000 most councils insist on this amount for street works.
A large tank or tanks to hold your water,cleaning solution
A pressure washer
A generator to run the pressure washer.petrol

You will still need some kind of business plan and do costs per job blablabla
To offer 4 cleans for the price of three without knowing the profit margins in the first instance isnt advisable yet. What will your startup costs be and how many jobs will you need to do to break even?
Even if we said you got a cheap ebay van for £400, van insurance of £400, PLI of £10,000,000 £500.compressor £200,pressure washer £100,tank/tanks £50
cleaning solution to get started £30 .How you going to get word out? leaflets? 10,000 @ £200. and how will you get the leaflets out? your own legpower will take you about 3weeks to deliver 10,000 so thats all time your not getting money in You may get 1 in a hundred leaflets call back so 100 bins for your 10,000.total so far £1880.
Ok so you want to charge £3 a bin thats 630 bin cleans to get back your start up costs,not including the actual cleaning of 630 bins or the legwork getting them in the first place.If you have 53 bins on your book it will take 12months to get your initial cash outlay back . Im thinking you should aim at 100+ cleans a week 400+ month on your books to make a reasonable living thats another 30.000 leaflets.
Am i getting close to your thinking

 

[TheGuru2010]

very true. may aswell start at the begining:
One road worthy van and tax,insurance
public liability insurance of 10,000,000 most councils insist on this amount for street works.
A large tank or tanks to hold your water,cleaning solution
A pressure washer
A generator to run the pressure washer.petrol

You will still need some kind of business plan and do costs per job blablabla
To offer 4 cleans for the price of three without knowing the profit margins in the first instance isnt advisable yet. What will your startup costs be and how many jobs will you need to do to break even?
Even if we said you got a cheap ebay van for £400, van insurance of £400, PLI of £10,000,000 £500.compressor £200,pressure washer £100,tank/tanks £50
cleaning solution to get started £30 .How you going to get word out? leaflets? 10,000 @ £200. and how will you get the leaflets out? your own legpower will take you about 3weeks to deliver 10,000 so thats all time your not getting money in You may get 1 in a hundred leaflets call back so 100 bins for your 10,000.total so far £1880.
Ok so you want to charge £3 a bin thats 630 bin cleans to get back your start up costs,not including the actual cleaning of 630 bins or the legwork getting them in the first place.If you have 53 bins on your book it will take 12months to get your initial cash outlay back . Im thinking you should aim at 100+ cleans a week 400+ month on your books to make a reasonable living thats another 30.000 leaflets.
Am i getting close to your thinking

I was all for this, but looking at the rough figures its a awfull lot of work for not a great return (in my eyes) i wish you all the luck either way

 

[davezzr]

I could also offer the service to businesses around the area such as hotels and restaurants.

Thanks[/quote]

Have you ever looked in a restaurant bin they may pay you a £5 note for a clean and how you gonna tip it up to empty your water? some mite be plastic but there are still a lot of metal ones!!

 

[thetime22]

£3 seems a little cheap, you sure you can make a profit doing this if you have to pay for time and travel.. Fair enough if you get a whole street on board but that would take lots of time.

 

[vocal]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Firstly the reason I thought of doing it was that I've never seen a wheelie bin cleaning van operating in the area, never had any leaflets or anyone knocking on the door and haven't seen any services offered in the local paper.

davezzr- I have seen the state of some restaurant bins and it's not pretty. The system I'd use has a hydraulic arm which picks up the bin/bins and tilts it so all the waste water drains from the bin into the system where the water is recycled.

The only costs would be the purchasing of the cleaning equipment, insurance and advertising. I have a suitable vehicle (which is fairly new and in good condition) to tow the cleaning equipment. I've found a couple of places which offer the equipment for hire and am thinking that this may be a more suitable option to begin with.

Initially I'd concentrate on more concentrated areas such as the estates by where I could pull up cleaning 5 or 6 bins and then move further up the road.

 

[RoyJ]

One of the ideas I saw suggested a while back was a carpet-cleaning service, using hired equipment. It was a short-term way to raise cash but if you can cover the costs of hiring (and fluids, fuel, etc) you can at least test the market before you invest your savings or borrow serious money.

Otherwise, it does seem like a lot of money to spend before you know if it's viable.

 

[Consistency]

We used to pay a bloke I think it was £3 or £4 to clean our bin on a monthly basis. There are a few different types of cleaners and where we used to live the bloke there used to have a much bigger van and do a superb job and you could open the bin and it smelt nice.

When we moved we looked for a similar service and found one that covered our area but the job was lousy. He was a nice enough bloke but although the bin looked clean it did not really get rid of any smell so I cancelled after about 6 months and never bothered again. Some probably do a better job than others.

 

[davezzr]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Firstly the reason I thought of doing it was that I've never seen a wheelie bin cleaning van operating in the area, never had any leaflets or anyone knocking on the door and haven't seen any services offered in the local paper.

davezzr- I have seen the state of some restaurant bins and it's not pretty. The system I'd use has a hydraulic arm which picks up the bin/bins and tilts it so all the waste water drains from the bin into the system where the water is recycled.

There maybe a good reason why you havent seen any sign of a bin cleaning service!! maybe you should do some door to door knocking and gauge interest before investing in hydraulic lifting gear
could be like trying to sell gas fires on an all electric housing estate.
But hey, what the hell do i know

 

[RoyJ]

Yes - test first if you possibly can. Then sign people up for a recurring service by offering a discount - 12 months for the price of 10 or something.

 

[longleaf1]

not in Shropshire are you? come and do mine its a bit smelly :redface:

 

[RoyJ]

One of the ideas I saw suggested a while back was a carpet-cleaning service, using hired equipment. It was a short-term way to raise cash but if you can cover the costs of hiring (and fluids, fuel, etc) you can at least test the market before you invest your savings or borrow serious money.

I meant that as an example of something similar, of course. It was in a book by Ron G Holland, if anyone is interested, that was full of ideas for quick-start businesses.

Yes, I know him and no, I'm not on commission!

 

[londonbincleaning]

london bin cleaning harrowwheeliewashers.co.uk

 

[td2011]

Some valid points made in the thread but remember that setting up a business is always a struggle without capital. You shouldn't let this put you off if you have the finance to start

 

[Gaskell]

I looked into this when I was paying rent for premises that was sitting empty for a while. I have all the equipment for cleaning wheelie bins, everything but the tail-lift van. I bought a load of reasonable condition used wheelie bins and cleaned them all.

My idea was to get a wheelie bin cleaning round established in my local area as well as selling used wheelie bins as a lot of houses here still put rubbish bags out for collection, just black bin liners full of rubbish in the street.

So the plan was, flog the bins and make slight profit on each unit then offer to clean. Instead of cleaning outside the customers houses, I was going to turn up to the round with a van load of clean bins, swap them for their pre-emptied bins. Take them all away and clean at my premises then just keep swapping each collection day. Obviously all the bins had to be in the same general condition each swap.

But, messing round with house numbers etc on the front of the bins plus the fact I was getting busier with my normal business, the idea passed

 

[Gaskell]

I looked into this when I was paying rent for premises that was sitting empty for a while. I have all the equipment for cleaning wheelie bins, everything but the tail-lift van. I bought a load of reasonable condition used wheelie bins and cleaned them all.

My idea was to get a wheelie bin cleaning round established in my local area as well as selling used wheelie bins as a lot of houses here still put rubbish bags out for collection, just black bin liners full of rubbish in the street.

So the plan was, flog the bins and make slight profit on each unit then offer to clean. Instead of cleaning outside the customers houses, I was going to turn up to the round with a van load of clean bins, swap them for their pre-emptied bins. Take them all away and clean at my premises then just keep swapping each collection day. Obviously all the bins had to be in the same general condition each swap.

But, messing round with house numbers etc on the front of the bins plus the fact I was getting busier with my normal business, the idea passed

I sold the bins I had accumulated eventually, bought most for between £7 and £12 and sold every one for £15