As garbage truck engineering expert witnesses, we have had a rich experience in studying the complexities of garbage trucks in the process of analyzing accidents and preparing for cases. As such, we have a deep appreciation for these dirty and often disdained vehicles. The lowly garbage truck is a marvel of modern engineering and this blog post is meant as a brief primer on the most common types of garbage trucks, their impressively designed capabilities, and their common features.
Rear Loader
This heavy-duty vehicle has an open rear hopper – a compartment where waste is deposited before it is compacted. The rear loader is extremely versatile in the type of refuse it can collect. While some garbage trucks can only pick up garbage that fits into a special container, a rear loader can pick up and compact items as large as a whole couch. Rear loaders can be loaded manually – by hand, can pick up residential containers using a cart tipper, or can pick up commercial waste in containers using a winch attached to the back of the container.
Once the trash is in the hopper, hydraulically-powered packer panels extend down into the hopper and scoop the trash into the body of the garbage truck. The packer panels compact the trash into the body, allowing the truck to collect much more than a non-compacting truck before having to go to the dump.
Front Loader
Front loaders and primarily used for collecting commercial refuse. They have two big arms that extend from behind the cab, up and over the door to the cab (so the driver can get in and out and see) and then back down to the front where they have forks that are inserted into pockets on the sides of the commercial containers. Once the forks are inserted into the pocket, a hydraulic system lifts the arm causing the container to move up and back so that the garbage falls out into an opening in the top of the truck. Front loaders also have a system to compact the garbage back into the body of the garbage truck.
Front loaders can also be used to collect residential garbage by attaching an automated front loader system. These systems have a container that rides on the forks, the container has a specially designed grabber arm that picks up trash cans and dumps the garbage into the container on the forks. Once the container on the forks is full, the operator uses the hydraulic arms to dump the trash from the container into the opening at the top of the truck.
Automated / Side Loader
Automated refuse trucks, often called side loaders, are designed to simplify waste collection by using a side-mounted grabber arm with a hydraulic lifting system to collect trash containers. These trucks can pick up hundreds of containers in a single day, and the operator doesn’t even have to get out of the truck. They control everything with a joystick and control panel in the truck.
Automated trucks are one of the more common garbage trucks in residential areas because they can be run by a single operator and are fast and efficient. This truck is probably the type of truck that visits your neighborhood.
Roll Off Trucks/Containers
Roll-off trucks are used to deliver big containers to wherever they are needed. These trucks use a tilting frame and a hydraulic hook or winch system to lower the container to the ground where it can be filled with about 170 trash bags worth of stuff. The truck then comes back, pulls the container back onto the frame and takes it to be dumped. Roll off containers are often used for home remodels and other types of construction.
Split Body Trucks
These trucks look as if they have been split in half. The real reason they have two compartments is they use this truck to separate materials that shouldn’t go together. This can mean they have both trash and recycling in the same truck, or they have different recycling materials (such as glass and paper) and would prefer these to not be mixed.
Split body trucks can be either side loaders or rear loaders. Front loaders are more complex and a separator at the top of the truck controls which side the materials will be dropped in, whereas the rear loaders are the same as normal, just with two sides.
Balancing Benefits and Risks
Just like all powerful and complex machinery, garbage truck accidents can and do happen (see this site for a review of some examples – osha.gov). As such, it’s critical for vehicle operators to be familiar with their truck’s design, the refuse collection mechanisms, and to identify potential dangers in advance. Should an accident occur, a thorough cause analysis and engineering reports/testimonies may be required to figure out what really happened, which is where we come into play as product liability expert witnesses.
At Alpine Engineering and Design Inc., our expertise in engineering garbage trucks could make all the difference in your case. With our in-depth knowledge and reputation as trusted engineers, our professionals can identify the causal factors in injury cases, and can effectively communicate them through reports and testimony.