Connecting the dots

The tech-enabled, full-service waste management platform helps business-to-business (B2B) customers connect with providers that can offer waste removal and dumpster rental services on demand.

When Shen launched Dimension, the platform initially focused on serving business-to-consumer customers in the San Francisco Bay area. However, Shen says she realized that a B2B focus would work better for the platform.

Dimension pairs customers with providers that match their needs based on their preferences and locations. Provider details and rankings also are posted on the platform, which additionally considers factors such as availability, sustainability requirements and pricing when pairing customers with providers.

A combination of flexibility and reliability is why one service provider decided to use Dimension.

Ryan Smith, CEO of Salt Lake City-based Recyclops, says his company uses Dimension at least once per week. Recyclops provides recycling services to apartment complexes and commercial businesses. The company relies mostly on smaller vehicles, such as pickup trucks, to collect recyclables from customers and uses Dimension to hire haulers with larger trucks as needed.

Smith says the Dimension platform offers “phenomenal client service, reliable drivers [and] flexibility in what they’re willing to ship. They get the job done regardless of what we ask of them.”

Haulers also have benefited from using the platform. Shen says one small family business in the San Francisco area almost tripled its income by being active on the Dimension platform.

Dimension isn’t the only tech-enabled waste management platform. Several other companies, including Budget Dumpster, Dumpsters.com and DumpsterMarket.com, offer similar services to connect haulers with clients they might not be able to reach otherwise.

Sean Mahon, CEO of ASAP Site Services, which acquired DumpsterMarket.com in July 2021, describes the company as an online marketplace for dumpster rental that is like Kayak.com. He says a customer can enter his or her ZIP code to view pricing from anonymous haulers that service the area.

“We basically take pricing that can be confusing for a roll-off dumpster [customer],” he says, “[and] we formalize it into set parameters—the haul rate, days included, per diem, tons included [and] ton charge. We put everyone into the same general structure, so you can quickly do a comparison and see which company is going to be best for you.”

Rick Dempsey, director of marketing and strategy at ASAP Site Services, says that all haulers on the platform are vetted, which provides reassurance to customers.

“This is one stop to identify everything. You know you’re making an informed decision in terms of comparative pricing,” he says.

Maintaining standards

Tech-enabled waste management platforms such as Dimension and Dumspter-Market.com vet the haulers and service providers that want to use their platforms. Mahon says Dumpster-Market.com and ASAP Site Services feature about 5,000 service providers, and Shen says Dimension features thousands of service providers.

Mahon says ASAP Site Services has a national account representative who connects with larger haulers to get details about their capabilities in different locations.

“We hear about each of their branches and which branches are operating at full operational capabilities and which branches are running through issues,” he says. “If there’s a branch where they lost two drivers [and] now they’re behind on deliveries, they’ll notify us to turn off that branch, and we don’t send orders to that branch.”

Partnering with these platforms isn’t a good fit for every hauler, though, as companies often are rated on performance.

Dempsey says ASAP Site Services regularly vets its haulers in terms of their service levels to see how reliable they are. The company rates its providers as “preferred” if they are reliable. “If they are not reliable, they are no longer a preferred hauler,” he says.

Shen says the haulers and small businesses featured on Dimension need to be trainable and willing to meet the standards that are required by Dimension and its customers.

“Some customers care a lot about finding environmental solutions and, for executing on those preferences, we need a provider network that is trainable to those directions,” she says.

The benefits

For hauling companies that are able to meet various needs and standards, tech-enabled waste management platforms provide opportunities to reach new customers and jobs.

“[Haulers] get access to a customer they wouldn’t necessarily get,” Mahon says. “We’re consolidating customers.”

This can help small haulers, in particular, that still are building their customer bases.

“Partnering with Dimension gave us consistent work,” says Steve Fernandez, founder of Oh Junk It Junk Removal in Lancaster, California, who partnered with Dimension as a provider in 2020. “That gave us the confidence to purchase several large, 16-foot hydraulic dump trailers.

“Working with Dimension is a game changer,” he continues. “They’re like the Uber of trash service, where it simplifies it for the customer. And for the providers, [it] frees up time from doing estimates and talking to clients, and you’re able to perform the service at a quicker pace.”

Fernandez adds, “Also, one of their best benefits is they partner with large warehouses and commercial businesses, not just residential, where it streamlines their trash or junk removal services.”

Mahon says haulers that partner with DumpsterMarket.com benefit from reducing their credit risk.

“We have systems in place to make sure the customers are not a credit risk,” he says. “It happens that people won’t pay—it happens a decent amount. We [at ASAP Site Services] handle all of that. We handle the chargebacks as well.”

Mahon says communication can be challenging for haulers when they first use DumpsterMarket.com.

He says haulers have the name and contact information for every job, but sometimes the customer reaches out to DumpsterMarket.com about an issue for the hauler to address.

At that point, he says, DumpsterMarket.com needs to communicate that information to the hauler.

Sometimes the customer will contact the hauler directly to remove a dumpster, he says. In that case, the hauler must tell DumpsterMarket.com if it has removed that dumpster.

“There’s another layer of communication that has to happen, and that makes it a little more difficult for the hauler,” Mahon says. “But, in my opinion, it more than offsets [that] with the ease of reduction in credit risk consolidation to one customer.”

He adds that DumpsterMarket.com serves as a digital solution to haulers in an industry that has historically been “very analog.”

The author is associate editor with the Recycling Today Media Group and can be reached at msmalley@gie.net.