Price septic pump-outs from your true costs. Free, no signup.
Pick the tank size: 750, 1,000, 1,500, or 2,000 gallons, or enter a custom gallon count. Enter your rate per gallon, $0.30 by default, with the note that industry guides report $0.15 to $0.70 depending on market. Set your minimum truck-roll charge, $295 by default; the pump charge is whichever is higher, gallons times your rate or the minimum. In access difficulty, enter digging feet of lid depth at your dig fee, $75 per foot by default, plus extra hose feet past the free 100 at $25 per 50 feet. The disposal and travel card takes disposal loads at your fee per load ($50 default, with treatment facilities commonly $25 to $75), round-trip miles at your cost per mile ($0.85 default), and an optional inspection upsell ($150 default, commonly $100 to $200 for a visual tank and drain field inspection). Set your target profit margin percent, 30 by default. The calculator shows your break-even, the labor charge plus hard costs, then a recommended price that holds your margin after disposal and travel take their share. Enter what you would actually quote to get the gut-check verdict: LOSING MONEY below break-even, BELOW TARGET between break-even and recommended, or PRICED RIGHT at or above recommended.
Example only, not typical pricing. Say a 1,000-gallon tank at $0.30 a gallon: $300, which beats the $295 minimum, so the pump charge is $300. One disposal load at $50 and 30 round-trip miles at $0.85, or $25.50, for hard costs of $75.50. Break-even is $300 plus $75.50, or $375.50. At a 30 percent target margin, the recommended price is $375.50 divided by 0.70, or $536.43. Now make it a buried lid: 4 feet of digging at $75 a foot adds $300. Break-even becomes $675.50 and the recommended price is $675.50 divided by 0.70, or $965.00. That lid just moved the price $428.57, which is the margin killer the access card exists for.
**Why does the recommended price hold my margin even with disposal and travel?**
It divides break-even by one minus your margin fraction, so the margin is a percent of the final price, not of the pump charge. That keeps the margin whole instead of letting disposal and travel dilute it.
**Why is the pump charge the higher of per-gallon and the minimum?**
A 750-gallon tank at $0.30 a gallon is $225, which does not cover a truck roll. The minimum floors small jobs so you never quote a loss on a tank that still costs you the same drive and disposal.
**What goes in the dig fee?**
Digging feet of lid depth times your fee per foot. Undocumented or buried lids are the classic silent cost, and published dig fees run about $75 a foot, which is the editable default.
**What do the gut-check verdicts compare?**
Your entered quote against your own break-even and recommended price. Below break-even is LOSING MONEY, between the two is BELOW TARGET, and at or above the recommended price is PRICED RIGHT.
**Is this pricing advice for my market?**
No. The tool gives estimates for planning based on your own inputs. It is informational only, not financial advice. Every rate is an editable starting point; use your own numbers.