Panda Bin Collection - Bargain?

ROVER

I currently have my bins collected by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council. In my opinion the most expensive in Dublin.
Today I got a leaflet in the door from a company called Panda www.panda.ie who claim to be an officially recognised waste Collector in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area.

They provide their own green and black bin. They state that you can throw plastics into the green bin and they provide 2 green collections a month.

Their prices are 20% cheaper than DLRCOCO collection charges of

Yearly fee of €80.00
lift fee of €4.00
weight fee of €0.25 per KG.

Has anyone moved across to Panda? is there a catch? Can I still claim Tax Back?

delly

Panda are a big enough company and up here in Meath the council don't collect the bins so there are a few companies along with Panda who do it. No catch at all really, your bins will be emptied as normal and you can still claim tax relief.

gandalf

One thing to bear in mind. Their is no charge for the Green bin currently with D/L Rathdown and its not too much hassle to pay a visit to one of the plastic bottle banks around the place. I am assuming that you will be charged for the pick up of the Green bin as well by them.

taung

Green bin collection is included in price; they do a green bin collection every two weeks.

I just had my Panda bins delivered today after ordering them on Tuesday.....first bin collection is scheduled for 4th December.

reg_anam

don't think the Council charge for weight at the moment !

taung

DLRCOCO do charge by weight;

http://www.dlrcoco.ie/env/PaybyWeight/PaybyWeight.htm

ROVER

I phoned DLRCOCO today they confirmed that Panda are legit. They said I would have to send in a letter to cancel my service and collect my current bins otherwise they would continue to charge the €80.00 fee.

I asked them could I go back to them if I was not happy with the Panda service, they said I could but would have to pay additional €40 for each replacement bin.

I also called Panda who informed me that their prices are fixed to end of 2007 and I would have free collection until end of year. (this could be handy for clearing out rubbish in the shed.)

gandalf

No what I mean is DLRCOCO do not charge any weight charges on the green bin but from reading the panda page I am taking they do ?

ROVER

gandalf wrote:

No what I mean is DLRCOCO do not charge any weight charges on the green bin but from reading the panda page I am taking they do ?

No I checked they dont charge for green bins.

Gaspode

ROVER wrote:

I phoned DLRCOCO today they confirmed that Panda are legit. They said I would have to send in a letter to cancel my service and collect my current bins otherwise they would continue to charge the €80.00 fee.

€80 per collection? Now thats dear!!
Or is it per month, or per year??

Fingal charge €7.50 per wheelie bin which isnt too bed. With recycling and doing the 'wheelibin shuffle' to crush the stuff in, I only put the bins out once, maybe twice a month.

cormie

Does anyone know if you can get the smaller bins off these guys? Are the smaller bins cheaper per year than the €80? Wonder if the lift charge (because you'd need more lifts) versus the yearly fee would work out better for those who recycle/compost 90% of their waste.

taung

Panda don't have a small bin option at the moment.

DLRCOCO charge the same per lift of small/large bin (€4 for 140 litre bin and €4 for 240 bin)........

cormie

Thanks for that, any idea of the yearly fee for the small one?

ROVER

AFAIK the yearly charge is the same for a big or small bin.
Does anyone know if I pay my €80.00 yearly charge in January 2007 to DLRCOCO and move to Panda in say February will I get my money back prorata?

rubadub

Well it was definitely cheaper to have the smaller bins with the CC at one stage. I remember thinking they were sneaky kunts because they didnt say this at the time. I found out later. Later on it would have costed to change. It was either cheaper per lift or per year. one or the other, possibly both. Our bin is rarely full when put out, we try and fill it but it is usually stinking by that stage so we just but it out half full. Would have been cheaper to go with the small one.

jpd

I wonder are we going to see more of these offers - so that we will have a load of trucks going around picking up bins from every 3rd or 4th house - not very efficient - 3/4 trucks all travelling the same route.

In some countries the waste service is run by the local council who put the service out to tender every 4/5 years. This way the waste operator is assured that he can operate at a high efficiency level and the users get the benefit of competition. No doubt someone in DLR County Council looked into this and dismissed it as un-workable here - laissez-faire is the rule in this country.

taung

....and not a bad approach to take.....the best service providers will win out in the end......

cormie

There's obviously something to regulate where these guys put their collections and make sure they are disposed of properly? What's to stop me getting a few bin trucks, set up an even cheaper collection service and going down to the harbour at 2 am to tip it all out into the sea?

cormie

To answer my own question, I was talking to somebody in DLRCC yesterday who said it's all regulated and they have to meet criteria etc so I think I'll be signing up to them today or Monday:)

ROVER

I moved to Panda so far so good. They delivered my bins two weeks later than they said they would, topped up my account with €10.00 for inconvenience. Customer service seems good. You arrange a date for them to collect your old DLRCOCO black bin leave it out and they will collect it.
Oxigen green bin different story they will notify Oxigen and Oxigen will come out and collect it. To date still got my old green bin Oxigen have not made contact with me.

parsi

jpd wrote:

I wonder are we going to see more of these offers - so that we will have a load of trucks going around picking up bins from every 3rd or 4th house - not very efficient - 3/4 trucks all travelling the same route.

In some countries the waste service is run by the local council who put the service out to tender every 4/5 years. This way the waste operator is assured that he can operate at a high efficiency level and the users get the benefit of competition. No doubt someone in DLR County Council looked into this and dismissed it as un-workable here - laissez-faire is the rule in this country.

I'm sure the councils would prefer this but it doesn't seem to be the way it worked out. Back in Limerick Mr Binman took over the city bin collection. But after a year or so he hiked up the prices and cue moaning from all sides.

In some respects a five-year monopoly is still a monopoly...