The BIC customer register: what NYC trade waste haulers file each quarter, when it's due, and the mistakes that create exposure

What the customer register is

The rule is 17 RCNY § 5-03(g), in the Rules of the City of New York. It says the register must list all customers currently served. For each one it must include the customer’s name and an authorized representative, any trade name, the service address or addresses, the billing address, the telephone number, the date service began, the total charge per month, and anything else BIC’s directives ask for.

The directives ask for much more. BIC’s CSV template has one row per customer and 96 columns.

Who must file

BIC’s customer register page says licensees, including micro-haulers, must submit a quarterly register of all customers located in New York City. BIC also issues a Commission directive for each quarter, addressed “To All BIC Trade Waste Licensees.”

• New licensees file their first register within 90 days after the license is granted, unless BIC directs otherwise. This also applies to companies operating with BIC’s temporary permission while their application is pending.
• Exemptions are not automatic. You may qualify if your company does not collect refuse, organic waste, recyclables, medical waste, recycled tires, paper for shredding, or grease; has no customers in New York City; only collects construction and demolition debris; or only performs on-call work. You must notify BIC through the portal. An approved exemption covers that one period only.
• Commercial Waste Zones. A 2024 amendment added § 5-03(g)(4). Once a zone reaches its final implementation date, licensees who are designated carters are not subject to the register rule in that zone. Before that date, the rule still applies. DSNY’s template zone agreement has carters report customer lists to DSNY’s portal instead. Check DSNY’s rollout schedule for where each of your locations stands.

Trade waste brokers file a separate broker register twice a year, not covered here.

When it’s due

The rule and BIC’s customer register page set the same four dates:

The register for October through December 2026 is due January 31, 2027. The rule adds “or as often as ordered by the Commission,” so read each directive.

BIC’s directives say that failing to file either a register or an exemption claim violates 17 RCNY §§ 1-09 and 5-03(g), and may bring civil penalties of up to $10,000.

What goes on each line

BIC’s template, with its data dictionary and picklists, asks for:

• The customer: name, business type (from a list: restaurant, retail food, office building by size, and so on), your account number, service and billing addresses, phone, fax, email, and the customer’s authorized representative.
• The relationship: date service began, service end date, contract type (written or oral), salesperson, broker, other financial arrangements, and comments.
• Waste stream survey conducted: Yes or No.
• Each waste stream, in its own set of columns: refuse, food waste, paper, cardboard, metal/glass/plastic, yellow grease, brown grease, tires, and medical waste. For each one: how it is set out (bags, container, compactor and so on), unit of measure (cubic yards or pounds, and gallons for grease), monthly amount collected, pickups per week, rate charged, monthly charge before taxes, and billing method (flat rate or actual). Most streams after food waste also carry a rebate or credit.

The template’s instructions say a field with no information can be left blank.

Notice what each stream asks for: a monthly amount, a rate and a monthly charge. Those three numbers should agree with each other and with your bills.

How it’s filed

• The file must be a CSV. The template’s instructions say no other file type is accepted.
• You upload it in the Register Submission Module of the BIC Online Portal. Paper and email submissions are no longer accepted.
• BIC says you must “submit and certify” the file electronically in the module. You get a confirmation screen and an email.
• BIC’s module guide says you can amend a register only while the submission period is open. After the due date, you cannot amend it there.

So check before you file, not after.

Five things to check before you file

These are where a register quietly drifts from the bills and the trucks.

1. A monthly amount divided by months you did not count

The template asks for a monthly amount. If you get there by adding up the quarter’s bills and dividing by three, all three months have to be in the total.

It goes wrong when a service changes mid-quarter. Say a location moves from billing by the pound to billing by the yard. The register line is built in pounds, so only the month billed in pounds is counted, but the total is still divided by three. The filed amount comes out at a third of a real month.

Check that the divisor matches the months you counted, and that the unit, amount, rate and charge on the line all describe the same service.

2. “Waste stream survey conducted: Yes” with nothing behind it

BIC tells customers that a carter who charges a flat or average fee owes them a waste stream survey, at no charge. BIC’s sample survey form records each collection over the survey period and averages it to a month. The surveyor signs, and the customer initials agree or don’t agree.

Check that for every line marked Yes, you can produce that survey or the weigh-ins behind it. A Yes with nothing in the file is worth a second look before it goes in.

3. A filed volume far from what the weigh-ins show

On flat or average billing, the bill rests on an average. If your weigh-ins for the quarter show a location putting out much more or much less than its filed monthly amount, the average may be stale.

Check each line’s monthly amount against that location’s weigh-ins for the quarter. A large gap means the register or the billing needs a look.

4. A rate over the maximum

Under 17 RCNY § 5-02, BIC sets maximum rates. Effective August 31, 2024, they are $26.87 per cubic yard of loose refuse, or $17.64 per 100 pounds. BIC sets no maximum for medical waste, yellow grease, e-waste, construction and demolition debris, or paper collected for shredding.

For a customer on a Commercial Waste Zone contract, the cap is the zone’s maximum in the carter’s agreement with DSNY. Those take effect as a zone rolls out and customers sign new written contracts. BIC’s maximum stops applying to designated carters in a zone at its final implementation date.

Check each rate charged against the maximum that applied to that service. Then check the arithmetic: monthly amount times rate should land close to the monthly charge.

5. A location you billed that isn’t on the register

The rule asks for all customers currently served, with every service address. A location can drop off when it was added mid-quarter or billed under another account.

Check that every service address you billed in the quarter appears on the register. If service ended, the template has a service end date column.

A made-up example

Here is check 1, with invented numbers.

A restaurant was billed by weight in July: 3,600 pounds at $15.00 per 100 pounds, or $540. On August 1 it moved to billing by the yard. Its register line for July through September was built in pounds. Only July was billed in pounds, so only July was counted, and the total was divided by three.

1,200 pounds at $15.00 per 100 pounds is $180, not $540. The line does not add up.

The fix is to decide which unit describes the service, then build the whole line from the bills in that unit, divided by the months those bills cover.

Where RouteNow fits

RouteNow’s BicNow audits the registers you have already filed, line by line, and shows which locations fail each check and what changed since the last report. It also drafts the next register from your bills, with its due date. CheckNow sets each service’s charge against what its weigh-ins allow under the zone maximum. Neither files for you. You review the draft and submit it in BIC’s portal yourself.