The right price for a junk removal job is the cost of the load, divided by one minus the margin you want to keep, then tied to how much of the truck the load fills. Cost is your crew's time loading and driving, the dump fee, the truck and fuel, and your share of overhead. For a reference point, Jobber lists $400 to $800 for a full truckload, $175 to $375 for a half load and $70 to $125 for a minimum load (Jobber), and Housecall Pro's 2026 guide lists a minimum pickup at $70 to $150 (Housecall Pro). Those are what customers pay, not what your loads cost you, so this guide builds the price from your own costs and treats the market as a check. Our free markup calculator turns a cost into a price once you have one.
What the market charges, and why it is only a check
Published junk removal prices come from software companies and marketplaces, and they overlap without agreeing.
- By truck volume. Jobber lists $70 to $125 for a minimum load of 45 to 60 cubic feet, $100 to $175 for a quarter load of 90 to 120, $175 to $375 for a half load of 180 to 240 and $400 to $800 for a full load of 360 to 480 (Jobber). Housecall Pro lists $100 to $250 for a minimum or eighth-of-a-truck load, $250 to $450 for a quarter to a half load, and $450 to $800 or more for three quarters to a full load (Housecall Pro).
- By the item. Housecall Pro lists $70 to $180 for a single-item pickup, $75 to $150 for a mattress and $60 to $180 for an appliance (Housecall Pro).
- By pickup-truck loads. Thumbtack lists $97 to $201 for half a pickup, $132 to $273 for one and $377 to $779 for four or more (Thumbtack). It puts the national average for a job at $138 to $308.
- Surcharges. Housecall Pro lists $50 to $150 or more for stairs or extra labor and $100 to $300 or more for heavy debris (Housecall Pro).
Across the sources above, a full truckload runs from 400 to 800 dollars, and a minimum pickup from 70 to 150. No number on a web page is yours. Your price comes from how fast your crew loads, how far you drive, and what the dump charges.
Three ways to quote
- By truck volume. You price the space the load takes in the truck: a minimum, a quarter, a half, a full. Housecall Pro says most junk removal companies use volume as the main model (Housecall Pro). It is easy to explain and to quote from photos. It misses weight.
- By the item. One price for a mattress, a couch or an appliance. It suits single pickups, and the disposal rules for that item set the price.
- By the hour or by weight. Jobber lists time and weight as the other two methods, and says you can combine them (Jobber). Hourly protects you when you cannot size the job. Weight is the most exact for dump fees, and the customer cannot know the price until the load is weighed.
A workable setup is volume tiers for most jobs, item prices for single pickups, and hourly for cleanouts you cannot size from photos.
Step 1: size the load
Quote in fractions of your own truck, and know what it holds. Jobber lists a full truckload at 360 to 480 cubic feet (Jobber). A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so that is about 13 to 18 cubic yards. Ask for photos, or walk the job. Note stairs, the carry distance, parking, and anything dense, such as concrete, wet wood or tile.
Step 2: time the work
Time a few real jobs for each fraction of the truck, from the walk-through to the last sweep. Then count the time that does not shrink with the load: the drive to the job, the drive to the dump, the wait at the scale and the unloading. A quarter load takes the same trip as a full one.
Step 3: labor cost
Multiply the number of workers by their hours, including the drive and the dump stop, then by each person's hourly pay, with employer payroll taxes and workers' compensation added to the wage. Jobber suggests a 20% markup on hourly labor cost (Jobber). Our labor rate calculator works out your own loaded rate. For a reference point only, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for hand laborers and material movers at $18.38 an hour in 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). That is what employees are paid, not what you charge.
Step 4: dump fees, truck and fuel
Dump fees are charged by weight. A junk removal owner on Thumbtack says transfer stations and landfills charge by weight, and that a truck of cardboard costs far less to dump than a truck of concrete (Thumbtack). The posted rate differs a lot from one place to the next. Henderson County, North Carolina, charges $70 a ton for municipal solid waste and for construction and demolition debris, with a $10 minimum scale fee per load, for July 2026 through June 2027 (Henderson County). Snohomish County, Washington, charges $160 a ton for self-haul waste and a $30 minimum for loads up to 360 pounds, from January 2026 (Snohomish County). Call the facilities you use, write down the posted rate, and keep every scale ticket so you learn what a load of each kind weighs.
Some items carry their own fee. Housecall Pro puts mattress disposal at $20 to $50 a unit at transfer stations and says whole tires are banned from landfills in most states and need separate recycling (Housecall Pro). For the truck, add up a year of fuel, repairs, payments and insurance, then divide by the hours it runs.
Step 5: overhead and margin
Overhead is what runs whether you haul or not: insurance, phone, software, your website, and the hours you spend quoting and invoicing. Add up a year of it, divide by the hours you expect to be on the job, and add that amount to every hour. Our guide to what a service hour really costs covers each cost line.
Then divide the total cost by one minus your target margin. Jobber does the same: price is cost divided by one minus the profit margin (Jobber). A 30% margin means dividing by 0.7. Margin is profit as a share of the price and markup is profit as a share of the cost, so a 30% margin needs about a 43% markup.
Example: one truck, four loads, with invented numbers
This is an illustration with invented figures, not an average for any crew or city. Swap in your own.
Your crew is two workers who earn 20 dollars an hour each, and payroll costs add 20%, which makes 24 dollars. The truck costs 18 dollars an hour with fuel, and overhead is 7.50 dollars an hour. Every job has one hour of fixed time per worker for the drive to the job, the drive to the dump and the scale. Loading adds a quarter hour per worker for one item, half an hour for a quarter load, one hour for a half load and two hours for a full one. The dump charges 90 dollars a ton with a 10 dollar minimum per load, and the loads weigh about 0.05, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 ton. Weigh your own.
A full load takes 3 hours per worker, so 6 paid hours.
| Cost line (one full load) | Dollars |
|---|---|
| Labor: 6 paid hours at 24 | 144.00 |
| Truck and fuel: 3 hours at 18 | 54.00 |
| Dump fee: 1 ton at 90 | 90.00 |
| Overhead: 3 hours at 7.50 | 22.50 |
| Cost of the load | 310.50 |
- At a 30% margin: 310.50 divided by 0.7 is 443.57 dollars. Profit is 133.07, and 133.07 divided by 443.57 is 30%.
- The markup trap: 310.50 times 1.3 is 403.65. Profit is 93.15, which is about a 23% margin.
- Against the market: 443.57 sits inside the $400 to $800 Jobber lists for a full truckload (Jobber). A truck that holds 432 cubic feet holds 16 cubic yards, so this is about 27.72 dollars a cubic yard.
- If the load is heavy: at 1.5 tons the dump fee is 135 and the cost becomes 355.50. At a flat 443.57 you keep 88.07, a margin of about 20%. Weigh a few loads and add a surcharge for dense material. Housecall Pro lists heavy debris surcharges of $100 to $300 or more (Housecall Pro).
Now the price by fraction, using the same inputs.
| Load | Loading hours per worker | Cost | Price at 30% margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum (one item) | 0.25 | 101.88 | 145.54 |
| Quarter | 0.5 | 132.75 | 189.64 |
| Half | 1 | 192.00 | 274.29 |
| Full | 2 | 310.50 | 443.57 |
A quarter load prices at 43% of a full load, not 25%, and a half load at 62%, because the drive and the dump stop are the same. A single rate per cubic yard would lose money on the small jobs. Here the quarter load prices above the $100 to $175 Jobber lists for one (Jobber). A crew with a short drive and a dump next door has a lower fixed hour, and that is a real edge. Do not match a price you cannot cover.
The smallest job you take sets your minimum charge. Here it is 145.54 dollars, so 150 covers it. Housecall Pro lists minimum charges of $70 to $150 (Housecall Pro).
Add-ons, items you will not take, and the busy season
List the extras as separate lines: stairs, long carries, heavy debris, mattresses, appliances and tires. Housecall Pro says many companies avoid hazardous materials such as chemicals, paint, asbestos, fuel and medical waste because they need special disposal rules (Housecall Pro). Decide what you will not take and say so on the quote. Housecall Pro also calls spring the busiest season and suggests raising the minimum by $25 to $50 in peak months (Housecall Pro).
Mistakes to avoid
- Pricing by volume alone. Dense loads cost more at the dump.
- One rate per cubic yard. The drive and the dump stop make small loads cost more per yard.
- Leaving out the dump trip. The drive, the wait at the scale and the unloading are paid hours.
- No minimum charge. A single item still costs the drive and the dump.
- Taking what you cannot dispose of. Paint, chemicals and tires have their own rules.
- Mixing up margin and markup. The example above shows the gap.
When to raise the price
- The dump raised its rate. Posted schedules reset each year, and some run July to June.
- Your loads weigh more than you assumed. Weigh a month of loads and rerun the numbers.
- Your costs went up. Fuel, insurance, truck repairs and pay all move. Rerun the numbers once a year.
Where your website fits
Once your price is set, the next job is making it easy to ask for. A website that says how you price, by the truckload, and what you will not take, with a way to request a quote, saves phone calls. Our guide on how to stop missing calls on the job covers the phone side.
Fasite is $199 a month, or $1,990 a year, for a done-for-you website, a 24/7 AI receptionist on its own new number that books free visits, online booking, recurring jobs, estimates, invoices and scheduling. The receptionist does not quote prices, so your price stays yours. The first subscription starts with a 30-day free trial, and no card is needed to start.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for junk removal?
Enough to cover the load's cost and keep the margin you want: cost divided by one minus your margin, never less than your minimum charge. The cost depends on the load's size and weight, your crew's time, the drive, the dump fee and your overhead, so it differs from one business to the next.
How do I price junk removal by the truckload?
Time the loading for each fraction of your truck, add the fixed trip to the job and the dump, add the dump fee for the weight (posted rate per ton times the weight of the load), and divide by one minus your margin. A quarter load costs more than a quarter of a full one, so price each fraction on its own.
Should I charge by the truckload, the item or the hour?
Volume tiers suit most jobs, item prices suit single pickups, and an hourly rate protects you on cleanouts you cannot size from photos. Build each from your own costs.
What minimum charge should a junk removal business set?
Run the cost lines for the smallest job you take: the drive, the dump stop, the loading and the scale minimum, then divide by one minus your margin. Set your minimum at or above that price.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Margin is profit as a share of the price. Markup is profit as a share of the cost. A price with a 30% margin has about a 43% markup.