What digital waste tracking costs a small business
For a small yard, the cost of digital waste tracking splits in two: whatever the government's own service charges to take your reports, and the software you pay for to produce them. This page deals with both, and states Skiplog's own number in full, £129 a month, or £99 a month billed once a year as £1,188.
The two numbers to keep separate
Most cost questions about the October 2026 mandate get muddled because two different charges are being added together. One is set by government: whatever is charged to run the waste tracking service itself, published in the Environment Agency's own guidance and not a figure a software seller can quote on their behalf. The other is set by the vendor: the monthly or annual price of whatever you use to record each load and send it in.
Skiplog sits on the second side of that line. We can be exact about our own number, and we publish it rather than quoting on request, because a yard with a handful of staff needs a figure for next year's budget now, not a sales call to get one.
What the subscription does not include
Skiplog takes no cut of a government fee, sells no hardware, and charges nothing per transfer note.
Skiplog's published price
Annual, £1,188 a year
The same product for £99 a month, billed once a year. One site, unlimited waste transfer notes, unlimited registrations tracked, with a 60-day free trial.
Monthly, £129 a month
The same product paid month by month, cancel whenever you like. Same unlimited notes and registrations, same 60-day free trial. Payments run through Stripe.
Questions
What does the government waste tracking service itself cost?
Any charge for the service is set by government, not by us, and the current position is published in the guidance on reporting receipt of waste on GOV.UK. Read it there rather than taking a vendor's figure second hand, because that page is the only one that can be right by definition. Skiplog collects no government fee and adds none to your bill. The subscription covers the software that records your loads and builds your return, and nothing else.
How much does digital waste tracking software cost a small operator?
GOV.UK publishes a list of software providers compatible with the service, which is where a shortlist sensibly starts. Skiplog's own price is fixed and public: £129 a month, or £99 a month billed once a year at £1,188, each with a 60-day free trial. Both plans cover one site with unlimited transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked, so a busy quarter does not move the price. Billing runs through Stripe, and card details never sit with us.
Is there a free route, and what does it actually cost me?
There is a spreadsheet route you can fill in and upload yourself, with no software subscription behind it. The cost shows up elsewhere: every load typed once off the weighbridge ticket and again into the sheet, and the time lost working out which row was refused while the reporting clock keeps running. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how many loads you take in a week. We have a separate page on the spreadsheet route and the alternative to it.
Is paid software overkill for a two or three truck firm?
The rule does not scale with your fleet. The Environment Agency's own checker on whether you need to report the waste you receive turns on what your site does, not on how many lorries are parked on it. So the same recording work lands on a two-truck yard as on a large operator, and it eats a far bigger share of a small firm's week. That is why Skiplog is priced where it is and built to be run by the people already on site, rather than by a compliance clerk you would have to take on.
Will the price rise as we log more loads?
Not on either plan. One site, unlimited waste transfer notes and unlimited registrations tracked are the published limits, so a heavy quarter does not change the bill. A note is built to be completed on a phone or tablet in under two minutes, carrying the fields the EA mandates: waste type, EWC code, quantity, carrier details and destination. If you need a second site, that is outside what a single plan covers.
Do I need to budget for new hardware?
Not from us. Skiplog is a web app you sign into with an email address and a password, made for the phone or tablet already in the cab or on the weighbridge desk. Notes save on the device first, show a queued, syncing or synced status, and go up when the signal comes back, so a black spot in the yard is not a reason to buy equipment. We do not sell hardware, so the subscription is the whole of what you pay Skiplog.
What happens to my records, and my costs, if the trial ends or we stop paying?
A lapsed trial does not lock the records away: they stay readable and exportable. A note you remove comes off your register and your return but stays on file for the two years the regulations require. Monthly can be cancelled whenever you like, and Delete account in Billing removes the account, the site and every record on it at once, cancelling a live subscription first. Download anything the EA may still want from you before you do that.
Can I save money by dropping the quarterly waste return?
Whether your permit still requires the quarterly return is a question for your area office and the Environment Agency's returns guidance, not for a software seller. What we can say is that Skiplog is built to generate that return as a one-click CSV in a configurable, EA-specified column layout, from the notes you already recorded, so producing it costs you nothing extra. Skiplog is made to help you meet the requirements; it does not promise a compliance outcome that rests on your own data and on format changes outside our control.