Last Updated on October 5, 2026
Status: specified, not yet collected. This page sets out a study Whito has designed and will run. It contains no findings. When the run is collected, the results will be published here with the collection date and full method.
The firm that takes a skip booking is often a broker, and the firm that carries the waste is the one that needs the registration. The Environment Agency’s register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers is public and searchable by name, and it records which role a firm is registered for. When an engine recommends “skip hire near me”, nothing in the answer says whether the name owns a lorry or a landing page. This study classes every name.
The question we will ask
“Recommend a skip hire company in [town]”, with the town name substituted for each of the twelve.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, asked the same question on the same day, each in a fresh session.
Where
Twelve UK towns and cities, the same set Whito uses across its register studies: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Brighton.
The register, and how every name gets classed
Every recommended business goes against the Environment Agency public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers on the day of collection, plus Companies House for company status. Each name lands in exactly one class:
- Carrier. Registered to transport waste. The lorry is theirs.
- Broker. Registered to arrange waste movement by others. Legal, common, and worth counting, because the customer rarely knows.
- Both. Registered as carrier and broker or dealer.
- Not on the register. No matching registration under the trading name or a traceable legal name. The class the customer most needs to know about, since duty of care can land on them.
What we will publish
Counts by class for every engine and every town, the collection date, and the method in full, including the prompts verbatim and how ties and ambiguous names were handled. Tier, upper or lower, will be recorded for every registered name.
Why this check, in this trade
Fly-tipped waste gets traced back to the householder or builder who paid for the skip, and the defence is having used a registered carrier. The register makes the check one search. The study measures how many of the engines’ confident recommendations would pass it, and how many bookings are actually brokered twice before a lorry exists.
ed, and gave a registration number twice. https://whito.co.uk/gas-engineers/research/ai-gas-engineer-recommendations-gas-safe/. Free to quote with a link.Corrections and right of reply
If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.
Questions
Can I trust an AI answer that says a gas engineer is Gas Safe registered?
Treat it as a claim to check. On 3 October 2026, 36 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode in 12
If your business is named here and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct it. If you want to respond, send us a statement and we will publish it alongside. Full detail: Corrections, right of reply and removals.
