“As you might expect, due to the labor market, fuel prices … and difficulty getting CDL drivers, we did see price increases with this contract over the last one,” Griffin said during Tuesday night’s Miamisburg City Council meeting.
Miamisburg allowed Rumpke to submit a standard bid for residential solid waste and recycling collection and disposal, which involved an all-at-once, flat-fee price increase, but also an alternate bid that involved cost adjustments each year.
City council voted unanimously Tuesday to enter into a contract with Rumpke for the second, incremental option.
That means the amount the city pays Rumpke per residential unit will go from $13.27 a month to $16.64 a month starting in January, then increase to $17.70 in 2024, $18.83 in 2025, $20.04 in 2026 and $21.33 in 2027.
Miamisburg has been contracting with Rumpke since 2013. The contract that is nearing its end is the city’s second one with the company, Griffin said.
Services covered under that contract include trash collection, hauling and disposal, recycling, collection and processing, pickup and disposal of bulk items and yard waste, and servicing the city dumpsters and recycling containers, she said.
Invitations to bid were put out over the summer, then received and analyzed over the past couple of months, she said.
“Unfortunately, we only got one bidder again this time, even though we changed some of the bid language to attract some more competition among the other trash providers,” Rumpke said. “Waste Management and Republic (Services) did not end up submitting a bid so Rumpke was the only responsive bidder again this time.”
Griffin said she spoke with all area trash providers to get an idea of the trends affecting price increases.
“The highest cost is labor, which can be expected,” she said. “There’s just a shortage of labor. There’s a shortage of people who want to do this type of work. It’s hard work, they deal with the elements every day.”
In addition, solid waste and recycling collection drivers are all certified with commercial drivers licenses and must maintain that license, Griffin said.
“Rumpke has had to incentivize their drivers in order to attract good drivers and retain those drivers,” she said. “They’ve increased their wages across the board, which we see with all the providers.”
About the Author
