Unexpected, Part MCLVIII

When Saint Paul opted for Tony-Soprano-style trash collection, they used a “formula” more or less like the Five Families used to divvy up racketeering in New York and New Jersey; each of the trash haulers got a slice of the city more or less equal to their market share.

This meant there was no “need” to compete for customers – and also no benefit in competing for customers.

Some small trash haulers just pulled out of Saint Paul without any further ado.

Others?

Call Ken Berquist and Son trash hauling. The call transfers over to Waste Management. Another St. Paul hauler bought out by a national chain?: https://t.co/ZcaRMhwoII
— FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) April 2, 2019

Eventually, Saint Paul is going to have three trash haulers – BFI, Waste Management and maybe Aspen. They will have monopolies in their territories, costs will rise, customer service will eventually worsen…

…oh, wait. Who said “eventually?”

Posted

April 3, 2019

St. Paul

Mitch Berg

Tags:

Unexpected

Comments

3 responses to “Unexpected, Part MCLVIII”

bosshoss429

April 3, 2019

Yup! My old hauler, Burt’s Sanitation, was based in Bloomington, but when Bloomington put in their new rules, Burt had to sell out to WM. Way to go, Bloomington! Eliminate another small business, paying taxes in the city, to enact your socialist agenda!
Loren

April 3, 2019

And someone in St. Paul government will benefit when one of the haulers gets a little more territory.
Night Writer

April 3, 2019

The St. Paul City Council did their darndest to ram this through, suppressing the voices of the opposition. Funny, there are lots of ways to “vote” – and the St. Paul paper reported the other day that unpaid trash fees from residents had grown to more than $900,000 at one point (before being strong-armed down to the $600k range). It’s also funny that trash-haulers had been able to make a profit at lower rates, but once they had a guarantee and access to a larger group of customers, the price went up.