How did the North American portable restroom industry perform in 2024? What were the trends driving it, and what does 2025 hold for the industry?

Software developer ServiceCore specializes in the portable restroom industry. With specialized knowledge of the industry and desire to provide information, ServiceCore compiled and released the 2024 Portable Sanitation Industry Benchmark Report to answer these types of questions. This is the company’s third annual survey of representatives from the U.S. and Canada (94% in the U.S., 6% in Canada.)

“The survey was specifically done for the portable sanitation industry, those that rent toilets and do septic,” says Matt Aiello, ServiceCore’s vice president of marketing. “Three years ago, we were looking at the PRO industry and realized that people had lots of questions about it — everything from industry demographics to, ‘How do people find their customers, and where?’ What were their experiences like in the year before and what was their economic outlook moving forward? And so that’s how it began.”

Background on the study

2024 report’s data was gathered from ServiceCore’s customers as well as noncustomers (including operators that may or may not use any software). No suppliers/manufacturers were surveyed, but suppliers did promote the survey to their own customers. The 500-plus who participated in the survey did so by choice.

Noteworthy trends

The 2024 Portable Sanitation Industry Benchmark Report is chock-full of data.

Here are some of the points that stand out. “In 2024, PROs [those who took part in this survey as a whole] reported significantly higher profit margins than in 2023,” says the 2024 report. “Businesses reporting profit margins above 10% increased 51% year over year.” 

To put this into perspective based on the 500-plus 2024 respondents who took part, 39% reported profit margins between 21-30%, compared to 27% in 2023. 22% had profit margins above 30% in 2024 (versus 15% in 2023) and 25% between 11-20% (15% in 2023). Also, 9% reported profit margins of 6-10% in 2024 (no data for 2023) while 5% reported profit margins between 0-5% (no data for 2023).

What do all those percentages tell us? That survey respondents overall did better business in 2024 than 2023 in terms of income.

Money movement

When it came to top operational costs, 24% ranked wages as their No. 1 expense. 11% chose fuel, 10% specified overtime and 9% cited fleet repair/maintenance. The 2024 report noted that only 6% rated fuel as their top cost in 2022 while 13% did so in 2023.

As for where their money came from? On this topic, the 2024 report provided a three-year breakdown of revenue sources. The Commercial Work category represented the largest source of money in 2024 at 30% (34% in 2023, 28% in 2022). Home Builders were the second largest source in 2024 at 28% (the same percentage in 2023, and down from 48% in 2022), followed by Residential at 17% (16% in 2023, 18% in 2022). Events were in fourth place at 15% (16% in 2023, 3% in 2022), followed by Municipal Work at 7% (4% in 2023, 1% in 2022).

Here’s where it gets really interesting. “97% of ServiceCore’s customers that are invoicing daily have less than 30 days outstanding AR (Accounts Receivable),” the 2024 report says. “PRO billing practices continue to trend towards billing customers upfront and on a 28-day cycle. The most notable year-over-year increase came from PROs making it easier for their customers to pay their invoices by accepting online payments.”

Standardizing in that way makes a big difference. “If you’re billing on a 28-day cycle, you’re actually getting 13 billing periods in a year versus 12,” says Aiello. “As well, it’s easier to tell the customer that, ‘Hey, no matter where this month falls, how many days it has, you’re going to get four cleanings per time period no matter what.’”

Breaking down marketing

The report also aimed to answer the question, how do PRO companies market their companies to attract new business? Amazingly in this internet age, customer referrals remains the respondents’ No. 1 marketing method, followed by branding on trucks and local sponsorships (e.g., events). Digital promotion ranked fourth with social media, followed by search engine optimization, Google Ads and online directories (e.g., Yelp). The stragglers were event planners (No. 8), email marketing (No. 9) and billboards (No. 10).

Employee retention

Here are some other noteworthy trends/takeaways from the 2024 report that provide insightful takes on what businesses are doing to keep employees happy and working hard for their companies.

• Paid time off is the respondents’ most popular employee benefit (41%), followed by holiday bonuses (39%) and health insurance (37%)
• Competitive pay, respect and communication, flexibility/work-life balance and a positive work environment/perks were the most common methods used to keep employees happy and minimize turnover.
• 51% of PROs said they provide cellphones to their drivers

Service expansion

So how was 2024 overall for growth? Not so great. “In 2024 service area growth was flat year over year compared to the 19% growth in service areas that we saw from 2022 to 2023,” the 2024 report says. “What we have seen in 2024 is more competition. PROs have reported a 17% increase in their competitors since 2022.”

And as for the respondents’ hopes for 2025 based on their late 2024 perspectives, 53% expected 2025 to be better than 2024, 31% thought it would be the same and 16% thought 2025 would be worse.

“In 2024, people were a little more conservative in this industry,” says Aiello. “On average, they reported five new hires that year, even at larger sized companies. But they were more optimistic about growth in 2025 and looking to expand into new areas. That’s interesting because expanding your service area means that you’re going to run into your competition. In some instances, businesses want to buy their competition while others just want to grow and compete with their competition. Still, there’s some confidence there.” 

ServiceCore plans to continue these annual data reports providing useful documentation of trends specific to the portable restroom industry. The more years put together, and the more PROs willing to contribute, the more valuable these studies become. As an owner, manager or employee in the business, following the market across the country helps make some of the tough decisions that go into business expansion a little bit easier.