Dumpster or dump trailer?

Two different things get called a dump trailer, and they are not the same decision.

One is a trailer a company drops in your driveway and leaves, the way we leave a bin. The other is one you hitch to your own truck and haul yourself. Here is how our bins compare to each.

If a company is dropping a trailer in your driveway

This is the comparison most Atlanta homeowners are actually making, because several local outfits run trailers instead of bins. Four differences that matter once it is sitting on your concrete:

• It sits a foot to two feet off the ground on its tires. Ours sits flat on the ground. Every inch of that height is something you have to lift your load over.
• A trailer is prone to rolling. On a sloped driveway it is held by a tongue jack and whatever chocks the driver carries. Every one of our deliveries includes 100% Driveway Protection: four 2×6 boards go under the rollers with stops, so the bin cannot roll, plus boards under the front rails. Nothing steel sits on your concrete, so no gouges from the rollers or rails and no rust stains left behind. Not plywood, which flexes and cracks.
• The tires and the jack bear on bare concrete. All of that weight lands on a few small contact points with nothing underneath. On an older driveway that is exactly where cracking starts.
• Double Doors for easy walk-in loading. French style doors swing open and pin to the side, so a water heater or a workbench walks in at ground level instead of going over the side. You can organize as you load and close out one door as you go.

There is a capacity difference too. A 7×14 trailer is roughly 10 to 12 yards heaped. Our 20 yard bin is 20 yards.

If you are towing it yourself

Renting a trailer and hauling it yourself moves four jobs onto you that are inside our price:

• Towing it. Loaded, a 7×14 dump trailer runs well past 7,000 pounds. That is not a half ton with a bumper hitch. Check the sticker in your door jamb before you commit to one.
• Disposal. The rate covers the trailer. Tipping fees at the transfer station are separate, and they are charged by weight.
• Time at the scale. Cobb County transfer stations run 30 to 90 minutes at the window.
• The round trip, every time. Load at the house, drive there, wait, empty it, drive back. Then do it again.

And if the job takes two trailer loads, you do all four of those twice.

What our price covers

Delivery, the rental period, hauling and disposal are all inside the number we quote. Post-Job Cleanup is included, so when the bin leaves we clean its footprint and the perimeter around it, sweep up, and run a magnet if there were nails. Same Day Delivery and Pickup means that if you call early enough the bin goes out the same day, and comes back the same day when you are done.

How to compare them

If someone is dropping a trailer off, compare three things: the yardage you are getting, how high you have to lift every item, and what is between the load and your driveway.

If you are towing it, count the loads your job will really take, then add the tipping fees, the fuel, the time at the scale house and the hours spent unloading. Put a real number on your own Saturday.

Call and tell us what is going out. We will size it, price it and put it on the schedule in the same conversation.

Related: Will a dumpster fit in my driveway? and bin sizes and rates.