The portable sanitation industry can get competitive. The desire to win a contract can lead people to do things that aren’t always best for business, or the industry, like lowballing a bid to get the gig.
It feels like a quick win, a way to keep the trucks moving and the yard empty. However, the reality is that “cheap” is an expensive way to run a business. When an operator slashes prices to undercut a competitor, they aren’t just cutting into their profit; they are effectively mortgaging the future of their equipment, their staff and their reputation.
Cutting quality
The primary casualty of a low-price strategy is almost always service quality. Portable restroom operation is a labor and logistics game where every minute counts. To remain even marginally profitable at a cut-rate price point, operators may begin to favor speed over thoroughness. And in this industry, a “cheap” unit is often quickly identified by the smell or grimy appearance, and once a customer associates your brand with a lack of hygiene, no amount of discounting will win back their trust.
Beyond the immediate loss of quality servicing, preventive maintenance is usually the first line item to be trimmed when margins are thin. And a truck that breaks down on a weekday morning doesn’t just cost money in repairs; it creates a logistical nightmare leading to missed stops and dissatisfied clients. Reactive maintenance will always be more costly than the proactive care that healthy margins allow.
Personnel effects
The portable sanitation industry is physically demanding and requires a specific level of grit. If you are charging the bare minimum, premium wages that are required to keep reliable, safety-conscious drivers are hard to pony up. This leads to a revolving door of staff, which in turn increases training costs and the frequency of insurance claims. High-quality drivers want to work for companies that respect the value of the service provided, and they rarely stay at organizations where the primary business goal is to be the least expensive option in the area.
Painting a bad picture
Perhaps the most harmful part of undercutting competition is that it trains your customers to value only the price tag, not the service. When you compete on price, you are a commodity that can be replaced by anyone willing to go a dollar lower. When you compete on reliability and excellence, you become a partner.
It’s important to the industry as a whole that companies value themselves and their service and reflect it in their bids. When companies undercut prices to unsustainable levels, it forces a marketwide pivot from quality to mere survival, ultimately affecting public health and the image of portable sanitation that has come so far over the years to get the professional respect and recognition it deserves.
If another company in your area is undercutting and taking the approach that cheap is better, stand firm and continue to request the price of what you are worth. Even if they pull a few clients from you right away, I promise you those customers will be back asking for the service and care you provide.
Successful operators realize that the true bottom line isn’t measured by how many units are on the ground, but by the sustainability of the profit those units generate.
