Frequently asked questions

When you select the day that you want your dumpster delivered, we do our best to make sure it happens. If we're running a little late in the day (traffic delays usually) we will contact you as soon as possible. We operate on weekdays, Monday through Friday, with Saturday service subject to driver availability and additional over time charges. Our truck operators work incredibly hard during the week, and often have already put in significant overtime by the time Friday afternoon arrives. For everyone’s safety and well-being, we want them to have the weekends off with their families, and to rest. We are not able to schedule a time of day for delivery. Our trucks average around 5 miles per gallon. If we are on one end of the market and additional calls for service come in while we are there, we have to tend to those service requests. Leaving Ruckersville for example, to get to Charlottesville at a specific time, only to go back to Ruckersville for additional service requests, just has to be avoided. The extra fuel and driver time it would take to go back and forth can have us doing so essentially for free, and we just can’t do that. If you have an urgent need, please give us a call and we will do our best to meet that need. Whenever possible, we try to schedule new deliveries for the later part of the day. The disposal sites usually close around 3:30 and we have to get those full dumpsters into the transfer stations on time. Regulations prohibit us from bringing debris back to our shop for emptying the following day. If you need a dumpster early Friday morning, schedule it for Thursday. This way, timing is not an issue and you have the dumpster when you need it. When scheduling your delivery online, please select a day that is at least 24 hours from the time you are placing your order online. Service is all we have to offer, and we do our best to make sure we provide the best service possible, at all times. We will do everything we can to make sure things go smoothly. We provide these details on our site for you to help you know how to get the most for your money. Offering and fulfilling on a good value is critical to our success. If there is anything we can do for you, to make your experience better, please let us know. We’re not perfect, and we shoot for that star every day, with every customer.

When deciding where to have us place the dumpster on delivery, consider a few factors. 1) Convenience: You’ll want the dumpster in a location that minimizes the distance you’ll have to carry the debris. AND 2) Assured accessibility for our truck and personnel: Our trucks are not suited for off road use, and must keep all the wheels on a solid surface. Keep in mind that we not only deliver the dumpster, but we’ll be returning to pick it up soon. Make sure the location you select will be accessible at all times for our truck operator, regardless of the weather. If you request our driver to put the dumpster into the yard, or to take the truck off of a paved or gravel path, it may be fine when we deliver it, but not when we come to pick it up. If it rains, our trucks cannot go off the paved or gravel path at all, and service will have to wait for at least 3 completely dry days after a rain event. 3) Keep in mind the truck can weigh as much as 27 tons with a full dumpster on it. As you will read in our Standard Dumpster Service Agreement, we are not responsible in any way for potential damage to the surfaces we drive on or where the dumpster is placed. Asphalt driveways in particular require additional consideration. We can place a dumpster in the street on a 100-degree day, and it won’t damage the street, but it may to a residential driveway. Why is that? The roads are built much stronger. The stone dust and gravel base for a road can be as much as a foot or more thick, and is compacted with a giant vibratory roller, with 5 inches or more of asphalt on top. Every residential driveway I’ve watched being built, (hundreds) usually has 2 or 3 inches of base material rolled with a much smaller roller and maybe 2 inches of asphalt. The asphalt used on roadways is a different mix than is used for a driveway. It costs quite a bit more than driveway mix, which is one reason you won’t often find it on a driveway. WE CAN HELP . Our trucks always have 4X6 blocks of wood with them. When we deliver a dumpster to an asphalt driveway, we’ll set the dumpster bottom rails on the blocks to keep the steel rollers from sitting on the asphalt. This will help distribute the weight of the dumpster and may mitigate or even eliminate the risk of indentations in the driveway. Don’t let this scare you. We’ve done thousands of dumpsters on asphalt driveways without damage. If the driveway is less than 6 months old, it may be a good idea to find an alternate location.

Our focus is customer service. Our tips will help you get the most for your money. Taking a few extra minutes while loading can save you money! Our decade+ of experience reveals that most dumpsters have more capacity than the customer was able to use because the debris was just tossed into the dumpster, creating “void space”. It is pretty common to find a “full” dumpster that has as much as 30% void space because the debris was just thrown in randomly. If you take a minute to arrange the debris, you can get more use of the capacity of the dumpster. If you have a pile of lumber waste, or fence posts for example, put them all in the same direction. You don’t have to stack them neatly like it was a new pile of lumber, but keeping them all in the same direction will reduce those wasteful voids. If you’re disposing of an old coffee table, take it apart and put the pieces in the dumpster instead of the fully assembled table. Particularly if you’re thinking you will need more than one dumpster to complete the job, limiting void space can save you the cost of an entire dumpster. Maybe the 3 dumpster job can be done with only 2! The disposal weight will be the same, but you’ll save big on the transportation costs. If you know you’ll only need one dumpster, you can probably just toss away. But wait, doesn’t this tip potentially REDUCE the amount you spend with B&L Dumpsters? Yes, it does, but remember, all we have to offer is customer service. If we do what’s best for you, our Customer, you’ll come back and refer us to people you know that need a dumpster! DO NOT overload the dumpster. Debris must not extend past the height of the sides of the dumpster—no “mounds” in the middle that are higher than the sides. It is unlawful for us to haul a dumpster with debris higher than the sides. This is to eliminate the potential of debris sliding off the top of the load on turns, or while driving on the highways at higher speeds. Even though we cover the load with an automatic tarping system, it is not designed or intended to hold back the weight of debris to keep it from falling off the load. It is intended only to reduce the wind speeds going over the debris to prevent the wind from lifting debris out of the dumpster. If you have an 8 foot or larger piece of lumber, you can place it across the dumpster on the top rail, and slide it from front to back. It should be able to do so without hitting the debris. Don’t overload the dumpster by weight. We can lawfully haul a dumpster with 10 to 11 tons of debris in it. (10 tons in the 30 yard, and 11 tons in the 13 yard) Any more than that, and we risk being overweight for the roads in accordance with the regulations of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). Our truck operators experience will know If it’s over 10 tons. If it is, we can’t go on the road with it. You’ll have to unload some of it, pay the trip charge for our first attempt, and reschedule for service once the load is reduced. If you’re loading dirt, bricks and blocks, rock, or busted concrete, let us know in advance. We’ll help guide you to avoid being overweight.

How to Avoid Extra Charges: We have laws and rules to follow, imposed on us, and you, by local, state and federal authorities, and by common sense to help protect our environment. Some things just cannot go into the dumpster, and some things can, but will cost money to dispose of. It is not possible to list every item that is acceptable or not, but our Standard Dumpster Service Agreement lists many of the more common things to avoid. Here are a few items of the most common items on the list: #1 PAINT: It is unlawful for us to haul a dumpster that contains paint of any kind in liquid form. If you have a few gallons of old paint you want to get rid of, you can take them to the Ivy Transfer station yourself and they’ll take them for the paint recycling program for free. If you put them in our dumpster they’ll cost you $25 PER CAN for one gallon cans, and $40 per 5 gallon bucket, regardless of how much wet paint is in the can IF the transfer station will take them from us. They'll sometimes take a few. If there are more than they'll take, instead of the per can charge, you will be charged $300 for the paint cans to be returned to you. Our driver will have to put them into the cab of the truck and transport them back to your site immediately. Another and better option is to put a sheet of plastic on the ground, cover it with kitty litter, and empty the paint onto the litter and let it dry. Once it is completely dry, we can take it and the dry empty can with the lid off. You can follow these easy tips from Lowe's.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DVoTkYCGGE) #2 Tires Tires are another common “offender”. If you place tires into our dumpster, it’ll cost you $25 per standard tire if it is off the rim, and $45 if it is on the rim. When a tire rolls out of the dumpster as we unload, our driver has to pick through the load and place the tires on the side. It can be both time consuming and labor intensive. Large truck or tractor tires can cost as much as $100 each if they’re in our dumpster. If you have a few tires to dispose of, you can take them to the transfer station yourself for a lot less. You can also call a few local tire shops. Some of them will take them from you for just a few dollars each. Please do not put tires into the dumpster. #3 Appliances Appliances can go into the dumpster, for an extra charge. Appliances that DO NOT utilize freon or some other refrigerant, like an electric range, or a gas clothes dryer, are $25 each. Appliances that use freon or some other refrigerant to operate normally, like refrigerators, air conditioners, ice makers and dehumidifiers, are $45 each when they’re placed in our dumpster. They have to be pulled out of the load by hand, connected to specialized refrigerant recovery equipment, and certified to be free of refrigerant before they can be recycled. There are no additional charges for small appliances like a toaster or a coffee maker. #4 Mattresses and Box Springs You can put mattresses and box springs in our dumpsters for $10 each. You won’t save any money taking them to the transfer stations yourself, so toss ‘em in! It’s a good idea to put them in first, standing up against the inside of the dumpster wall near the door so they’re easy to deal with when we unload. #5 Cylinders & Tanks It is unlawful to place any type of cylinder into a dumpster. Cylinders like an old propane BBQ tank, or a home heating oil tank. Even the small hand-held torch tanks are prohibited. Please don't put them in the dumpster. They will be returned to you with a $300 charge. #6 Motor Oil & Antifreeze Please do not put ANY motor oil or antifreeze into the dumpster. They are consider hazardous material. It is unlawful for you to put them into the dumpster and for us to haul a dumpster containing hazardous material. #7 Batteries Please do not dispose of batteries of any kind in the dumpster. Even though they may seem "dead", they still contain hazardous materials and can cause a fire. The transfer stations have hazardous material disposal days where they will accept them from you, and vehicle batteries can be brought to many auto parts stores for recycling. Some places will even pay you a few dollars for them.