More often than not with waste expense management and disposal agreements, the best work of the best procurement folks is quickly eroded—and frequently it doesn’t even fully see the light of day. Simply put, there tends to be a wide gap between what gets negotiated at the contractual level and what actually gets executed—in the field and on your invoices.

From keying errors, miscommunication about equipment actually on-site, and miscommunication regarding service levels, the most common occurrence is that even the first month’s invoicing under a new agreement doesn’t match up to what just got negotiated.

In cases of transitions to new haulers, this is only magnified.

A customer’s bill with the outgoing hauler almost always reflects at least some discrepancies in equipment versus what was really on site.

And so, when the new hauler goes to the site, they'll do a survey and look to move in their containers to match what the old hauler was using—even if what they’re installing is not what was negotiated.

Communication of these discrepancies rarely happens. The incoming hauler will usually simply make the change and unilaterally decide on a price for the areas of discrepancy, and the customer will not know it until they get their first bill from the new hauler—if they notice at all.

So, data will get keyed incorrectly, and service levels won’t match, and equipment won’t match, and all of these areas tend to grow invoices, not shrink them and therefore upsetting your carefully planned waste expense management strategy.

But perhaps the most pervasive issue is new charges being added to your invoice—charges that weren’t contemplated in your agreement.

These are frequently titled in ways to make them look as though they’re mandatory fees—as if they’re being imposed by a governing body.

But they’re usually just hauler-added fees that probably don’t need to be on your invoice.

If you’re a Fine Tune client, our line-by-line monthly auditing catches these discrepancies, and we know the difference between legitimate and illegitimate charges, and your waste management consultant is responsible for advocating for your bottom line by getting the illegitimate stuff removed and credited back to you.

So, maybe you did just negotiate a good waste disposal contract. That certainly doesn’t mean you’ll get a good deal. Beware of the negotiation-execution gap!