The three costs that move a skip price
| What | Why it changes the price | What it does to ours (incl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Where the job is | Haulage and disposal costs differ by area. | The same 4-yard skip: £300 at a Manchester postcode, £366 at a London one |
| What goes in | Some waste costs more to process, and heavy waste limits the size you can use. | Soil / subsoil and hardcore / rubble go in skips of 8 yards or less |
| Where the skip stands | On a public road it needs a council permit, and each council sets its own fee. | Nothing on your own drive. On a public road, between about £66 and £132 for 14 days in half of the 171 councils we price from their published fee |
Those three are real costs, and they are why the same size of skip has more than one price. The fourth reason two quotes differ is not a cost at all: what the figure includes. The same job can be quoted with or without VAT, with or without the permit, and for a longer or shorter hire.
What the figure includes
Before comparing two figures, find out what each one covers. With us one price, shown before you pay, covers:
- delivery to your address on the day you choose
- the hire, with no fixed period
- collection
- disposal of the load at a permitted facility, and a waste transfer note recording the transfer
- VAT
Two things are added only when they apply, each as its own line before you pay: a council permit, if the skip stands on a public road, and any item that has to be declared when you book (car tyre, commercial fridge, domestic fridge, double mattress, mattress, POPs upholstered furniture).
VAT is the easiest difference to miss. It is a fifth on top of a figure quoted without it, so a quote that leaves it out looks a sixth cheaper than the same job quoted with it.
Where the job is
Our price for the same skip is not the same everywhere. Today a 4-yard skip is £300 at a central Manchester postcode and £366 at a central London one, including VAT, for the same waste and the same driveway delivery. The price follows what it costs to haul and to dispose of a load where the job is, so a quote is only a quote for the postcode it was given for. The price for each city we checked is in the cost guide; the price for your postcode is one step away.
What is going in
A skip is priced for the waste it is booked for. Mixed household and renovation waste is one price; a load of one clean material can be another; and a few items can only go in if they are declared and paid for when you book. Weight matters as well: soil / subsoil and hardcore / rubble go in skips of 8 yards or less. Two quotes for "an 8-yard skip" are not for the same job if one is for garden waste and the other for rubble. What can go in a skip.
Where the skip stands
On your own drive or land there is no permit and nothing to add. On a public road the council charges for a permit, and councils do not charge alike. For 14 days on the road, a permit adds between about £66 and £132 to a booking with us in half of the 171 councils we price from their published fee, including VAT. A quote that does not say whether the permit is in it cannot be compared with one that does. The fee for every council.
How to compare two quotes
Hold these the same in both, and the figures can be compared:
- The size, in cubic yards.
- The waste you told each company about.
- The placement: on your drive, or on the road with the permit included.
- VAT: in both figures, or out of both.
- The hire length. Ours has none fixed: keep it as long as you need, and the extra time is not charged as hire.
- Collection and disposal: included, or charged afterwards.
- Who carries it. Any business that takes waste away must be a registered waste carrier, and the regulator's public register — the Environment Agency's, in England — shows whether a company is. A price is not comparable with one from a company that is not on it.
What can be added later
A figure is also only as good as what can be added to it afterwards. The terms and the waste policy name everything that can be charged on top of ours, each for something that happens after you book:
| Charge | When it applies | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Wasted journey | The lorry attends and cannot deliver or collect: no safe access, a blocked space, an overfilled skip | £60 plus the return visit at cost |
| Late cancellation | You cancel within 24 hours of the delivery date | £30 |
| Cancellation after dispatch | You cancel once the vehicle has been dispatched | £60 |
| A permit already granted | You cancel after the council has granted the permit | The permit fee, if the council will not refund it |
| A longer permit | The skip stays on the road beyond its permit | The council's fee and any charge for arranging it |
| Waste not as booked | The load is not the waste type booked, or holds an item that should have been declared | Re-weighed and charged at the correct rate; a declared item at the disposal facility's charge |
| Weight over what a roll-on/roll-off includes | The container weighs more than its price covers | The rate per tonne for that waste |
Cancelling more than 24 hours before delivery costs nothing unless a council permit has already been granted, and if you booked as a consumer you also have the statutory 14-day right to cancel, counted from the day the booking is confirmed. You are told what happened and what it will cost before anything is charged. The full terms.
Ask any company you are comparing for the same list.
Where these figures come from
Every price here is our own, read from our pricing and updated about hourly: the prices by city are for general mixed waste delivered to a driveway at a central postcode in each city, and the permit figures are worked from the fees councils publish. We hold no figures for what other companies charge and give none.