The company started in
Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada in 1989 by Brian Scudamore. He had the idea while he was in a
McDonald's drive thru and saw a beat up old truck offering junk removal services in front of him, and he thought to himself, "I can do better than that". It was incorporated as The Rubbish Boys Disposal Service, then in 1998 with its current name. The first permanent
franchise opened in 1997 in
Victoria, British Columbia, and a second in
Toronto in 1998. In 2000, the first franchise opened outside Canada, in
Portland, Oregon. The
chief operating officer is Erik Church. ==Operations==