Trash haulers are being faced with both good news and bad. The good news is the recycling program will produce huge profits for haulers – at least in the near term. Tens of thousands of county residents have been recycling through churches and other organizations for many years. Many of these will continue support of these organizations, however, they will soon be billed by trash haulers for recycling services they are not using.
Whether they will pay for services not used remains to be seen.
The county is now seeking bids from haulers for the eight designated trash districts in the county. Information has been sent to approximately 22 trash haulers. The bad news is that not all 22 will be allowed to do business in the designated trash districts. Many may be forced out of business.
As an extreme example, one hauler could conceivably be selected to serve all eight districts leaving 21 others hanging their heads. County officials say this will not happen, but there is no guarantee. If the county selected a different hauler for the eight districts, there still remains 14 others left out to dry.
Some of those not selected will serve subdivisions that opted out of the county’s program. How long they can survive in a limited market is questionable.
Some subdivisions that have opted out are guaranteed their costs will be equal to or lower than those offered by the County. Some trash haulers have offered to meet the county’s costs. Garry Earls, Chief Operating Officer for the County, has been touting that the County’s costs will be lower. This statement does not apply to all, but only those residents not in a subdivision.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
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There may need to be correction here.
ReplyDeleteThe trash hauler will make enough to cover his costs but the recyclers will probably see most of the profits.
I for one have not heard of ANY trash hauler in favor of this!
If a hauler is billing for recycling and a resident is NOT recycling, I would think the hauler would be thrilled to death to bill them. I would think any business would like this arrangement - billing for services NOT rendered.
ReplyDeleteThis will be the case for a while. The Haulers will bill, and the residents are in for Sticker Shock on their next billing cycle. Many residents don't even know this is going on, they have ignored or not paid attention. The new bills they will receive will wake up lots of people, but too late.
ReplyDeleteOnce the bidding takes the entire county, there will be just a few Winners, for most of it. Mostly loosers, will downsize and get out of residential hauling. Leaving only a few qualified over the years. The less competition will most certainly raise all rates overall. There will be no bargains when this is finished, quality service will decrease, and customer service calls will be directed to India or Pakistan.
The biggest loosers will be the consumer, with higher prices, less service, and no one to complain too. Your collection days will change, your service times will change, your service provider will change.
Sad, but true, the only thing left, is for the consumer to take out their frustration on the people who did this, and vote them out.............
But it won't change, what has already happened, but it may make you feel a little better.
To the 3rd anonymous said -
ReplyDeleteyou will always have someone to complain to on this issue!
Scroll down, on this website, to the article dated Feb. 8, there you will find all the Council Members email addresses and phone numbers.
Complain to them. Not that they will listen or give a $*@! because they haven't so far but hey too bad for them.
Everyone should call and pester the hell out of them. Their the ones that created this mess, let them be the ones to hear the complaints.
I'm sure somewhere along the line there will be a law suit over this.