Audit · Transportation · Calgary, Alberta
Tri-Pol Enterprises
Thirteen locations across six provinces.
One Waste Management invoice, read line by line.
Waste bill audit
Same invoice.
Nineteen lines queried.
- Invoiced
- $4,922.05
- Restated
- $4,078.08
$750.48 of $4,508.80 in charges
Until the lines are removed. $2,355.84 a year at an unchanged rate.
Charges to credit, not a rate to change
Requested, not agreed. Every figure is what the hauler is asked to explain or credit. Nothing is a saving until the answer is in writing and the next invoice reflects it. See what Tri-Pol keeps.
01 / The starting point
Nine pages.
Nothing looked wrong.
Tri-Pol runs thirteen service locations, from Burnaby to Sherbrooke, on one Waste Management of Canada account. August’s invoice ran to nine pages and seventy-four detail lines, with $4,922.05 due. At a glance it looked like every other month.
That is normal. The lines that cost money on a hauler invoice are rarely the big ones. They are the small ones that repeat, and the ones with nothing behind them. We read every line against every other line on the document, and against what the hauler printed elsewhere on the same invoice. Every figure below is traceable to a printed line. Nothing is estimated.
- Customer
- Tri-Pol Enterprises, Calgary
- Provider
- Waste Management of Canada Corporation
- Invoice
- 1004512883 · 1–31 August 2026
- Locations
- 13, across AB, BC, SK, MB, ON and QC
- Detail lines
- 74 on 9 pages
- Amount due
- $4,922.05 CAD
- Fuel surcharge
- $0.00 printed on every page
02 / The file
Open the paperwork.
The invoice as the hauler issued it, the one-page audit, and the same invoice restated with the queried lines struck. Every file is a PDF.
Starting document 1 file
- PDFInvoice 1004512883 (opens in a new tab)
Issued 31 August 2026 · 9 pages · 93 KB
$4,922.05 due · 13 service locations · 74 detail lines
Our work 2 files
- PDFOne-page audit (opens in a new tab)
Issued 10 September 2026 · 310 KB
Eight findings, what repeats and what does not, and the fee if the recurring reduction is achieved - PDFRestated invoice (opens in a new tab)
Working paper · 9 pages · 112 KB
The same document with nineteen lines struck, one re-rated and every subtotal recomputed. Not a document from the hauler.
03 / What we found
Eight findings.
Nineteen lines with a question to answer.
Each finding is a question the invoice cannot answer on its own. The hauler answers it in writing, or credits the line.
| Ref | Finding | Repeats | Before tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Duplicated service linesTwelve lines are billed twice: same date, same material, same description, same container size, same equipment, same frequency, same amount, on the same site. Either the site has a second container, in which case its serial number is on the delivery ticket, or the line is billed twice. Ask for the container serial numbers before paying either one. | Every month | $174.60 |
| F2 | A charge scheduled zero timesCalgary carries a line with no material, no description and no container size, at frequency Weekly x0. Zero collections were scheduled. The charge is still applied every month. | Every month | $5.26 |
| F3 | A temporary service still billedTwo Burnaby cardboard pickups carry the position note “covid 19 service” and are still being billed in August 2026. Ask when the temporary service was reviewed. | Every month | $16.46 |
| F4 | Container Usage Charge at quantity 0.00Two sites carry a $150.00 Container Usage Charge at quantity 0.00, on top of the monthly rental for the same container. Ask what the charge covers that the rental does not. | This period | $300.00 |
| F5 | Delivery with no collection in the periodA 20-yard open top was delivered to Whitby on 3 July for $120.00. There is no haul and no disposal against it in the period, only the usage charge in F4. The box was delivered, sat, and produced $270.00. | This period | $120.00 |
| F6 | Rental frequency billed as Monthly x1.00077Four rental lines are billed at a frequency of Monthly x1.00077 rather than Monthly x1. The overcharge is a fraction of a cent per line, so nothing is claimed for it. It is here because it shows the frequency field is a free number, not a schedule, and the same field carries F2. | n/a | no claim |
| F7 | “State Fee” charged on a Quebec addressDorval is charged an $18.67 State Fee, with a client authorisation number. There are no states in Canada. Ask which regulation it is collected under. | This period | $18.67 |
| F8 | Two disposal rates, one province, one invoiceWoodstock is charged $274.31 to dispose of 2.62 tonnes: $104.70 a tonne. Mississauga, on the same invoice and in the same month, is charged $65.47 for 1.08 tonnes: $60.62 a tonne. Both Ontario, both 40-yard open top, same hauler. At the Mississauga rate the Woodstock haul is $158.82. | This period | $115.49 |
| Total to pursue | $750.48 | ||
One more thing the invoice prints.
Total Fuel Surcharge: $0.00, on every page. The same hauler bills other accounts a surcharge that adds a third or more to every service line. A surcharge is a price, and a price is negotiated. This account negotiated it to nothing. Most accounts we read did not.
04 / What happens next
Three findings repeat.
Four are one-off.
Tri-Pol keeps the relationship with the hauler. We did the reading and prepared the query.
Recurring: $196.32 a month.
F1, F2 and F3 are on every invoice until they are removed. At an unchanged rate that is $2,355.84 a year.
One-off: $554.16.
F4, F5, F7 and F8 are charges on this invoice. They may or may not come back. The credit request covers only what is on the document.
Read the invoice. Restate it.
Nineteen lines struck, one re-rated, every subtotal recomputed. The restated invoice is what the bill reads once the queried lines are answered.
Restated invoice (PDF, opens in a new tab)- Next
Tri-Pol sends the query.
A letter in Tri-Pol’s name asks for the container serial numbers behind F1, the basis of each charge in F2, F4, F5 and F7, the review date of the service in F3, and the disposal rate applied in F8. Bin Audit does not contact the hauler on the customer’s behalf.
- Then
The hauler answers in writing.
Credits arrive as adjustments on the next invoice. Removed lines simply stop appearing. Either way the account learns something it did not know about itself.
- Then
Check the next invoice.
A saving is recorded only when the next invoice is lower for the same service. Our fee starts then, and not before.
05 / The fee
What Tri-Pol
actually keeps.
The $196.32 is the recurring change to the hauler’s bill. For twelve months that saving is shared under our fee. The one-off credit is shared once.
$196.32 lower bill − $88.34 Bin Audit fee
- Bin Audit’s monthly fee
- $88.34 for 12 months
- Fee cap
- $1,177.92, six times the first month’s saving
- Tri-Pol’s share of the one-off credit
- $304.79
- Bin Audit’s share of the credit
- $249.37
- After the 12-month fee period
- Tri-Pol keeps the full reduction
At an unchanged rate for 12 months, Tri-Pol keeps $1,295.76 of the recurring reduction and $304.79 of the credit: $1,600.55. If nothing drops, nobody pays. Figures exclude tax. Full fee details.
Why the restated total is $4,078.08.
Charges before tax fall from $4,508.80 to $3,758.32. Tax is recomputed line by line under each province’s rate and falls from $413.25 to $319.76. The amount due falls from $4,922.05 to $4,078.08: $843.97 with tax, $750.48 without.
Keep the whole file
The complete audit file.
Three PDFs: the invoice, the audit, and the invoice restated.