How Brokers Remain Profitable: Core Price vs Consumer Price Index

Core price increases are part of the waste business. Adjusting for these changes seems like numerical work, but it could imply significant economic losses for those dealing with vendors and haulers.

We’ve tracked down how the Big Four waste companies have increased their prices and compared it to the annual CPI adjustment. This data demonstrates how waste brokers should increase their charges to remain profitable.

How was the data collected?

Waste Connections, Republic Services, GFL, and Waste Management are all public companies. This means their annual reports include their core pricing increases. We used those to compare changes from 2020 to 2023.

In a four year period, each of the Big Four waste companies increased pricing by 24-29%. Here is the individual breakdown:

• Waste Connections: 29.03%
• Republic Services: 26.10%
• GFL: 26.27%
• Waste Management: 24.38%

What does this mean for brokers?

This means that if you adjust your prices according to the national CPI variation, your business might be losing profitability.

Core Price vs National CPI

Month-to-month, the national CPI varies.

The Big Four price increase changed on average 26.44%.

The CPI increased 18.90% over the same period of time.

That's nearly 10% more.

This means that if you adjust your prices according to the national CPI variation, your business might be losing profitability.

Track Pricing Changes with Discovery

Staying up to date with price changes could be overwhelming and time consuming. However it’s easy to track with Discovery's waste management software.

Discovery clients are notified every time an invoice doesn’t match the vendor contract set price. The invoice automation system also offers Vendor Management to ensure clients negotiate the best rates with the right vendors at the right time.

Have you scheduled a demo? Book a 15-minute call with our Client Success team to learn how Discovery improves the vendor contracting process.

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_References:

• _{Federal Reserve Bank https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL#0}
• _{Waste Connections https://investors.wasteconnections.com/annual-report-2023/}
• _{GFL Environmental https://investors.gflenv.com/English/financials/annual-reports/default.aspx}
• _{Republic Services https://investor.republicservices.com}
• _{Waste Management https://investors.wm.com/financial-information/annual-reports}

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