We Are Opening WasteLinks to 50 Founding Carriers in London

Most software sold to waste carriers solves paperwork. Very little of it solves the harder problem, which is where the next job comes from. WasteLinks is being built to do both, and before we open to the public we are inviting fifty carriers in London to use it first.

This post explains what that means, what you get, what we are asking in return, and the part most pre-launch invitations leave out, which is what we do not have yet.

What WasteLinks is

WasteLinks is a marketplace for licensed waste services. A business or household enters a postcode, sees verified carriers and real prices across 47 service types, then books and pays by card. You receive the job with the customer details, the address and the payment already taken. You assign a driver, and the driver runs it from a phone, capturing photos, weights and a signature on site. A Section 34 Waste Transfer Note is generated automatically at the end of every job and stored for the legal two year minimum.

Two things happen in one place. You get the work, and the paperwork writes itself.

The honest part

We are pre-launch. There are no customers on the platform yet, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If you have been burned by a lead generation site that promised enquiries and delivered silence, you have every reason to be sceptical of another one.

So here is the offer in two halves.

The half that is certain is the software. From the day you join, your Environment Agency registration is verified and then monitored daily with alerts before it lapses, your company is checked against Companies House, and your profile, services, pricing and service areas are live and ready to receive work. Every job you run through the platform generates a Section 34 Waste Transfer Note automatically and files it in a two year archive you can export in bulk for an audit, and your drivers get an app with GPS tracking, photo proof of delivery and on screen signatures. All of it is free for the whole beta.

The half you are joining early for is the demand. We are building the customer side in parallel, and when we switch it on in London the carriers who joined first are the ones customers will see first. That is the real reason to join now rather than in six months.

Put your existing work through it

There is one more thing, and it is the part that makes the compliance side real rather than theoretical while you wait for demand.

You can record work you won yourself, away from the marketplace. Enter who the waste came from, where you collected it, what it was and its EWC code, then assign a driver and run it exactly like any other job. Your driver gets it in the app, captures the photos and the signature on site, and at the end you get the same Section 34 Waste Transfer Note, filed in the same two year archive, ready to export for an audit.

So from your first week you can put your existing round through WasteLinks and have the paperwork handled, long before a single customer books you here. There is no commission on those jobs. We did not bring them to you, so we do not take a cut of them. It also means that when digital waste tracking reaches carriers in October 2027 and every movement has to be recorded, the habit and the data are already in place.

Why London, and why only fifty

Marketplaces are local. A carrier in Cornwall and a customer in Newcastle never do business with each other, so spreading thinly across the country helps nobody. We are concentrating on London until there are enough carriers that a customer searching any London postcode finds genuine choice.

Fifty is not a marketing number. It is roughly how many carriers we can onboard properly, learn from and support well while the platform is still being shaped. When the fifty places are taken, the founding group closes.

What founding carriers get

Free access for the whole beta and for three months after we launch publicly, with no card required to take part. Free here means the monthly subscription. The 10% platform commission still applies to jobs you complete through WasteLinks, because it only ever comes out of money a customer has already paid you. You are never charged for holding an account, only for work the platform actually brings you.

Priority placement in search results in your area when the customer side opens, so the carriers who helped build the platform are the ones customers see first.

Founder pricing locked. Whatever the published price is when you eventually start paying, your founding rate stays yours for as long as you keep the account open.

The compliance tooling is yours regardless. If you decide at the end of it that WasteLinks is not for you, you will still have spent the beta with your transfer notes automated and your licence monitored, and it will have cost you nothing.

What we are asking in return

Use it properly and tell us where it falls short. Add your services and your real prices, set your service areas, and invite a driver. Because we are pre-launch there is no public demand to book you yet, so we will place a test booking against your profile ourselves and walk the whole flow with you, from the booking landing in your dashboard through to your driver completing it on site and the transfer note appearing in your archive. Better still, record a few of your own real collections, because that shows you the compliance side working on work you actually did rather than on something we made up. Then tell us what was slow, what was confusing, and what you would never use. We would far rather hear that a screen makes no sense now than after a thousand carriers have seen it.

You will have a direct line to us. At fifty carriers there is no support queue.

The website first, the app second

Start with the web portal, which needs nothing more than a browser. It is where you set up services, pricing, service areas and drivers, and where you manage bookings and compliance records.

The driver app is available for iOS through Apple's TestFlight, which means installing a testing app and accepting an invitation, so it is a slightly bigger ask. An Android version is in development but is not ready yet. If you run iPhones in your cabs, say so when you register and we will send a TestFlight invitation. If you are an Android fleet you can still take part fully through the web portal while we finish the Android build.

Where digital waste tracking fits

DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking service becomes mandatory for waste receiving sites in October 2026, and for carriers, brokers and dealers in October 2027. If you carry waste and tip at somebody else's site, the 2026 date belongs to that site rather than to you, and your own duty begins in 2027. In practice you will feel the change at the weighbridge before it formally applies to you.

WasteLinks is an accepted software provider in DEFRA's public beta and the submission integration is already built into the platform. We have completed DEFRA's acceptance test scenarios and submitted the evidence for assessment. We will say more when they come back to us, and we are not going to claim an approval we do not yet hold. If you run your own permitted receiving site, that is worth a conversation when you register.

How to register your interest

Go to our interest form, choose the carrier option, and tell us your company, your postcode and how to reach you. It takes a minute. We will come back to you about the remaining places in the London group, confirm your Environment Agency registration, and get you set up.

If you are a waste producer rather than a carrier, you are welcome to register too. We will contact you once enough carriers are live in your part of London for a search to be worth your time. We would rather make you wait than show you an empty results page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it cost to join the founding group?

There is no subscription to pay. Founding carriers use WasteLinks free for the whole beta and for three months after public launch, with no card required to take part. After that you choose a plan, and your founding rate is locked for as long as you keep the account open. The one charge that does apply during the free period is the standard 10% platform commission on jobs you complete through WasteLinks. It is deducted from the customer's payment before your payout, so it only ever applies to work you have actually won and been paid for, and there is no commission on a job that is cancelled.

Is this worth anything if there are no customers yet?

Yes, and this is worth being precise about. From day one your Environment Agency registration is verified and then monitored daily, your company is checked against Companies House, and your profile is live and ready. Every job you run through the platform produces a Section 34 Waste Transfer Note automatically, filed in a two year archive you can export for an audit. You can also record collections you won yourself, so the transfer notes and the archive start working on your real round from week one. Because there is no public demand yet, we will run a test booking through with you too, so you see the marketplace flow end to end. The customer demand is what you are joining early to be first in line for.

Can I use WasteLinks for work I won myself?

Yes, and during the beta we would encourage it. Recording your own jobs is the fastest way to see the compliance side working, because you end up with a real transfer note for a real collection rather than a test one. Enter the customer, the address, the waste and its EWC code, assign a driver, and it runs exactly as a marketplace booking would. There is no commission on work you brought in yourself. The 10% only ever applies to bookings we send you.

What is priority placement?

When a customer searches for a service in their postcode, results are ordered by placement and then by distance. Founding carriers sit above standard listings in their area when the customer side opens in London.

Do I have to be in London?

For this group, yes. We are concentrating on London so that customers searching there find genuine choice rather than a thin list. If you operate elsewhere, register anyway and tell us your area, and we will come to you as we open new regions.

What do I need to have ready?

Your Environment Agency waste carrier registration, public liability insurance of at least one million pounds, and a UK business registration or sole trader status. We verify your company against Companies House and your licence against the Environment Agency public register before your profile goes live.

Is the driver app available on Android?

Not yet. During the beta the driver app is available on iOS through TestFlight, and the Android version is in development. Everything else works through the web portal on any device in the meantime.

When does WasteLinks launch publicly?

We open to customers in London once there are enough carriers for a search to return real choice, which is exactly what this founding group is for. Founding carriers will know the date well before anyone else.