Fuel, environmental and admin fees: what they are a percentage of

The haulers say so themselves. Republic Services' terms describe its administrative fee, fuel recovery fee, environmental recovery fee and recycling processing charge as fees that are not tied to an explicit cost of serving your account, but are designed to recover costs across its business and achieve an acceptable operating margin.^[1] Its disclosure page states that the environmental recovery fee is not a government tax.^[2]

So treat them as part of the price. Compare offers on the total per month, not the rate line.

Fuel. Both large haulers key their fuel fee to the US Energy Information Administration's weekly on-highway diesel price.^[3] WM's published method charges a percentage of pre-tax invoice charges, taken from a table, to recover fuel cost above a baseline of $0.95 a gallon.^[4] Republic sets its fuel recovery fee monthly from a table keyed to the peak weekly diesel price in the 30 days ending on the 15th.^[2]

Environmental. WM's page gives its environmental charge as 20% of all invoice charges, including the fuel surcharge, and its regulatory cost recovery charge as 3.6% of all invoice charges including the environmental charge.^[4] Republic's disclosure gives a standard hauling environmental recovery fee of 18%, which may vary by location.^[2]

Administrative. Republic lists a flat administrative fee of $5.95 per invoice.^[2]

WM's page also says that for most customers, invoices from April 2023 fold the environmental and regulatory charges into the base rate, and replace the fuel surcharge with an energy surcharge tied to diesel and compressed natural gas prices.^[4] Your invoice tells you which set you have.

Because each one is a percentage of a total that already includes the others. Using WM's own published example: on $25.00 of service with a $3.00 fuel surcharge, the environmental charge is 20% of $28.00, which is $5.60.^[4] Add the 3.6% regulatory charge on all of that and the fees come to more than a third of the base. The fee stack calculator applies them in order and shows the effective markup and the annual dollars.

Usually, yes. Republic's terms let it change these fees from time to time by showing the new amount on your invoice.^[1] Its disclosure page says most fees can be changed by the local subsidiary, typically with notice that may appear as an invoice message.^[2] WM's terms count changes in its surcharges among the permitted price increases.^[5]

In a new agreement, ask for fees fixed as dollar amounts, or for an all-inclusive rate with no separate fees, or at the least a cap on each percentage for the term and a fuel table attached to the contract.