Fairer Contracts

Feedback from our SME customers is clear – reliable service, and a fair deal, drive satisfaction. Together, these represent peace of mind for your business, letting you get on with serving your customers, not managing suppliers! 

Veolia has reconfigured its waste management service agreements that underpin our SME customer relationships. The core changes aim to deliver improved transparency, security and predictability.

The benefits include:

  • No surprises with one rate review per year
  • A collaborative approach on term and price generally
  • Greater transparency on how we agree upfront on pricing over the term of the agreement
  • Less effort with a streamlined process for the optional renewal of agreements to keep them working for you on an ongoing basis.  

The changes also comply with the introduction of the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Act 2015, ensuring that unfair terms and conditions are removed in order to protect the interests of small businesses (refer to ACCC website for more information).
 
Refer to the ‘What you need to know’ tab below which maps out the major elements of the change under our new Fairer Contract.

You deserve a fairer deal for your waste management needs.


Setting Up
Instead of charging you an upfront fee for the cost of installing your service, we recover these costs over the term of your agreement, which minimises any initial financial impacts on your business. However, to ensure we recoup all reasonable costs associated with establishing your service, we request fixed agreement periods. We may also charge an early exit fee to cover any potential loss of earnings from discontinuing your services.

Waste Collection & Transport 
Every one of us that owns a car is used to costs of buying, registering, insuring, fuelling and maintaining the vehicle. The same is true for our fleet of advanced waste collection trucks. In addition, we provide the professional driver of the vehicle, trained in its operation and equipped with the skills  needed to successfully complete your waste collection service. 

Waste Disposal 
Disposal costs vary dramatically across Australia depending on state government policy, local government activities, and the availability of landfill and other facilities in the region. For your frontlift or rearlift service we discuss with you the weight of your waste and take into account the local costs of disposal in estimating this cost. 

Recycling 
The value of the recovered materials often does not cover the costs of sorting, cleaning and processing the material before re-use. Therefore, there is usually a fee charged to dispose of these materials. Often this is less than the cost of landfill disposal.

Finishing Up  
Not only do we have to physically retrieve the bins, they will need cleaning, stickers may need removal, and minor maintenance is required. We typically request a fee to cover these costs at the end of the services.

Customer Churn  and Operating Costs  
Constant change in our customer base and collection routes increase our operating costs. Therefore in order to maximise efficiencies, enabling your waste costs to remain as low as possible, we request fixed agreement periods and may charge an early exit fee to ensure some degree of certainty for our collection routes.  We aim to provide a high quality service that meets your waste management requirements in a safe and cost effective manner.

 

What is changing with the rate review process?
Price increases can occur at any time throughout the year for waste management services, and in this industry, it has sometimes resulted in rates being reviewed more than once in any 12 month period. So, when we say, “no surprises with one rate review per year”, we are indicating that for changes in our operating costs, we will hold these and deal with them in a single review each year. Please note - new or changed taxes may result in an additional review, but this is not a frequent occurrence.

What options exist to agree in advance on pricing over the term of the agreement?
A member of our sales team will collaborate with you to develop the right agreement solution. Options may include agreements up front on unit costs for each year of the agreement, percentage changes annually, or changes with reference to externally verifiable cost bases. In each case you can rest assured we will provide on-time and clear communication on any change.

The right contract term?
Gauging a thorough understanding of your needs, site reviews to ensure the safety of all the people involved and documenting the processes required to achieve a consistent service, are critical in establishing an optimal service. Longer contract duration alleviates the pressure of recovering implementation costs. We can provide more competitive rates for longer agreements, particularly when coupled with a level of pricing certainty as discussed above. Please discuss these flexible options with our sales team to find the right balance for you.

What happens at the end of the term?
Common practice in this industry has been to automatically renew agreements for successive terms, the same length as the initial term. Whilst customers generally accept the benefits of an initial term agreement, automatically renewed terms have often not appealed to customers. So, our new process does away with automatic renewals. When the end date of your initial term rolls around, you can expect us to be in contact with you, electronically, by phone or in person. Whilst minimising your time & effort, we will let you know what we can offer to secure your services for a further committed period. Unless a new commitment is made, you will have a short notice period for cancellation after any committed term is completed.
 
Top-notch service, two years running.
We’ve made it our business to give the sort of customer service you’ll remember for all the right reasons. That’s why in 2015 and again in 2016, we took home the Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers Award - Small Business Waste Management.
 
The voice of small business consumers have spoken and placed Veolia at the pinnacle of suppliers who best provide overall satisfaction in relation to their waste management needs.

Small business owners and decision makers named Veolia as best in class across:
  • Overall satisfaction
  • Client service
  • Value for money
  • Environmental waste solutions
  • Bin or container hire
  • Speed of waste disposal
 An estimated 40% of all Veolia’s waste and recycling custom is represented by small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s). These businesses are often under immense operational pressure to ensure their businesses are profitable and efficient, whilst also achieving, where possible, optimal sustainability outcomes.
This award further echoes Veolia’s own research into small businesses who indicate the two most important factors in choosing a waste and recycling supplier are cost and reliability. Ultimately small business owners and proprietors want their waste collected, disposed of and/or recycled as it was promised, and they want to pay a fair price for this service.
 
Getting wise about waste
Some of the most effective ways of reducing your environmental footprint are by increasing recycling and reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.
 
With this in mind, it is important to become familiar with how to sort your waste and dispose of it correctly. Be vigilant, be aware and reduce contamination by adhering to the proper disposal methods we have outlined.   

Benefits of recycling
Did you know?
  • By recycling one tonne of paper you save 13 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, 41,00kWh of electricity, 4 cubic metres of landfill and 31,870 litres of water.
  • 95% less energy is needed to make aluminium from used cans rather than from the raw material bauxite.
  • Recycling a tonne of steel cans saves 800kg of greenhouse gases.
  • Recycling 1 tonne of glass saves 1.1 tonnes of raw materials (sand, limestone, soda ash), and energy use is cut by 30%. Crushed glass (or cullet) melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials which saves energy.