Press release
Price Monitoring Group - Little change in May prices
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
May 2019 data – There was little change recorded in the prices residential waste collection firms charge for their services in May. This is based on the latest analysis conducted by the Price Monitoring Group which actively monitors 26 service providers from across the country. This comprises 19 individual companies with some firms operating in more than one area.
Similar to previous analysis, many of the waste collection firms monitored offer multiple waste collection packages to their customers. This means there are far more waste collection packages than actual firms actively monitored.
In the month of May, the total number of recorded waste collection packages was 49, this represents a decrease of 2 from the previous month (a full breakdown of all service offers is included as part of this report).
During the May mystery calling campaign, there was no change in the total number of price packages compared to the previous month which stands at 8. Examples of price packages include: Service charge plus per kg weight charge; E-tag and other options (the full list of all pricing models is incorporated with this report under the data analysis).
Some price variations occurred across the 49 price plans; a majority of those were decreases.
The May price variations are as follows:
Generally, access to price information was satisfactory; it is important both staff training and website updates are maintained to ensure customers can make fully informed decisions on the most appropriate pricing packages for their needs. On this point, one firm could simplify their pricing arrangement. Operated under a Service Charge plus Weight Band Charge model, its service charge appears to be determined by weight on a rolling monthly basis. While it is the only firm that promotes services under this pricing model, the Price Monitoring Group is concerned that the pricing structure lacks sufficient up-front clarity for the benefit of residential users.
The purpose of the Price Monitoring Group is to establish and track whether the prices householders pay for the collection of household waste fluctuates and if so, by how much. It does this by using a mystery-shopping approach to a proportion of licensed waste collection firms. However, since price monitoring is not carried out on a whole-of-market basis, it is not in a position to publish names of those firms that are actively monitored.
The group comprises representatives from:
A statistician from the Central Statistics Office
To date, the Price Monitoring Group has met on twenty-two separate occasions: 13th September, 11th October, 14th November, 12th December, 9th January 2018, 13th February, 13th of March, 10th April, 14th, May, 20th June, 17th July, August 14th, September 11th , October 16th, November 14th, December 11th 2018, January 15th 2019, February 12th, March 14th, April 9th , May 14th and June 11th 2019.
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Submissions to: pricemonitoringgroup@dccae.gov.ie
Please note this email has been put in place to facilitate the submission of relevant price information to the Group. The Group will consider all submission that can help inform it in respect to prices residential users pay for the collection of residential waste. Unfortunately, the Group is not in a position to respond to individual submissions at this time.