Our story
A Apple Valley family business that got tired of watching people get overcharged
Apple Valley Dumpster Rental Guys started in 2012 with one roll-off truck, two containers, and a stubborn belief that a dumpster quote should be a single number that does not change. 13 years later we are still locally owned, still answering our own phone, and still quoting the same way.
How it started
Kurt Lindstrom grew up off Michigan Avenue in Apple Valley and spent most of his twenties driving roll-off for a large regional hauler covering the Twin Cities metro. It was good work. What wore on him was the phone calls he could not do anything about — the homeowner in Burnsville who had been quoted three hundred dollars by a call centre and billed five hundred and ten, the roofer in Eagan whose can never arrived because a dispatcher two states away had double-booked the truck.
In 2012 he bought a used truck, leased two containers, put his own mobile number on a magnetic sign, and started taking calls. The first month he did eleven jobs. The rule from day one was the one thing he had wanted as a driver: tell the customer the real number, including what happens if the load is heavy, and then honour it.
Where we are now
The yard is on County Road 42, which is deliberate: it puts us inside twenty minutes of most of Dakota County, a straight run north on Cedar Avenue and Interstate 35W, a clean shot west on Interstate 35W toward Savage and Shakopee, and north across the river toward Bloomington.
We run a fleet of roll-off trucks and a container inventory covering 10, 15, 20 and 30 yard sizes. Marie Solberg manages operations and scheduling. Tony Vang runs dispatch and is the person most customers end up speaking to. Our drivers are employees, not contractors, which is why they know that a Richfield driveway will only take a 15, that April subgrade will not hold a loaded truck however solid the surface looks, and that Mendota Heights gets doubled plywood.
What we actually care about
The price does not move
You get a flat rate that covers delivery, the rental period, pickup and disposal up to a stated weight allowance. We tell you the per-ton overage rate before you book. If your load comes in under, we do not invent a fee. The only things that ever change a Apple Valley Dumpster Rental Guys invoice are going over your weight allowance or keeping the container longer than you booked — and you will know both rates in advance.
We protect your property
Between freeze-thaw working on a slab all winter, a spring thaw that softens the subgrade under a driveway that looks perfectly fine, and asphalt that goes soft in July, ground conditions matter more here than almost anywhere. Plywood goes under the rails on every delivery, and we will tell you honestly when the timing is wrong for where you wanted it. More on how we do that here.
We are honest about what we cannot do
We will not quote you a same-day container for Northfield at four in the afternoon. We will not tell you a 10 yard is enough for a full roof tear-off when it is not. And in the week after a hail storm, when every hauler in Dakota County is at capacity, we will tell you that straight rather than take a booking we cannot honour.
Part of Dakota County
We sponsor a youth baseball team at a park most of our drivers played on as kids, we run discounted containers for church and school clearouts, and after the last big hail storm we spent three weeks pulling storm debris out of neighbourhoods around Burnsville and Eagan at cost. That is not a marketing line. It is just what you do when the county you live in is under water.
By the numbers
13 years on Dakota County roads
- 2012Year we placed our first container
- 4Container sizes in the yard
- 18Communities on our regular routes
- 6:30amFirst truck leaves the yard, Monday to Friday
Numbers only tell you so much. The thing we are proudest of is how much of our work now comes from customers who used us once and told a neighbour.
The equipment
Our own trucks, our own containers, our own drivers
Every container in our inventory is inspected between jobs. Rails get checked, doors get greased so they actually swing when you need to walk material in rather than throw it over the side, and anything with a sharp edge or a failed weld comes out of service.
It sounds like a small thing. It is not. A rear door that will not open turns a comfortable weekend cleanout into a shoulder injury, and a container with a torn rail gasket leaves rust marks on your driveway.
- Swing-open rear doors on all sizes so you can walk heavy items in
- Plywood carried on every truck as standard equipment
- Drivers call ahead before arriving, every time
- Placement photographed on request for remote owners
Answers