Side load garbage trucks

[nickaluch]

In the Town of oyster Bay where I live we have town employees pick up the garbage. Three guys on the truck making between $52000 to top pay of $79000 a year. That's not including over time with free health insurance and a pension after 30 years that also includes health insurance when you retire. I guess my $12000 a year property taxes are being spent well.

 

[goodtimes]

We have those. They send a book of stickers to put on a number of garbage bags for the year. The driver gets out and throws the bags in. If the can lid is not closed, they add $10 for each overfilled can to the bill. Supposed to get the larger can if the smaller isn't enough. I think it's good, garbage, recycling, and green waste cans every week, while in old days had one can and a dump run trailer.

 

[eyeofthetiger]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
We have had that system for years.
The doofuses that run the truck do a wonderful job turning major thoroughfares into "slalom" courses in which defensive driving is paramount in avoiding trash totes.


I drive my beater truck on trash day because I dungivaflop if hits trash cans. I use it to knock my trash cans back into the yard.

 

[SeaJay]

Even though the city employed guys by me load it by hand, the rules and regulations for home garbage pickup state that it must be in cans. There are weight restrictions also. It wouldn't surprise me if many of our city garbage departments around the country have similar rules.

The 3 regular guys on my route each get a $50 tip at XMAS every year. They'll take darn near anything I put out.

 

[SeaJay]

Originally Posted By: supton
Amazing that labor costs are that high that buying a new truck (trucks?) is cheaper than one or two extra bodies. I guess that is seen everywhere, but I'm still kinda surprised.


Two extra bodies by me would run over $200,000 a year inclusive of benefits, taxes, workers comp insurance, etc, etc,...

A truck purchased for maybe around that amount (or maybe $300K?) will last for years.

 

[LoneRanger]

Allied Waste started running those automated trucks about a year and half ago around here and I love it.

Seriously, the arm on the truck also checks the weight-- it knows how much poundage of refuse is in the cart because it knows and subtracts the known weight of the cart. This allows them to tier the monthly charge by weight that the customer is producing. This is fair, good, and right. Those who produce more poundage of garbage should pay more for pickup for disposal than those who produce less.

My bill with Allied went from $76 quarterly to $36 quarterly once they started figuring in weight. It was after they went to the automated cart grabbing side load trucks, so that has to be it.

I recycle all plastic, cardboard, paper, aluminum, and tin so my weekly trash volume for pickup is usually only one tall kitchen bag and that's it.
Way glad for the side load robot-arm trucks. Big savings !!

 

[The motor guy]

The upside is now i guess you can load it up with 300 pounds of dirt or whatever and they will take it since the machine doesn't care.

 

[PandaBear]

We had them since like 2006. The driver gets out to pull the can closer to the arm, but don't have to physically lift anything. Can't just sit in the car because there's no parking on the curb and all the cans are next to parked cars, too close to just pick it up without human pulling it closer first.

 

[nthach]

Republic Services used those trucks for a long time in my parent's neck of the woods, but they still roll two to a truck. When I see them in action, I thought it was cool.

Waste Management has a few in service in Oakland but I still see the old-school trash truck around since you can't really service apartment complexes and commercial accounts with the new side loaders but now there's a new front-loader dumpster truck that picks up one from the front, hoists it overhead like a forklift and empties it up top.

 

[MNgopher]

Those have been standard around here going on 18+ years. One or two fewer people to pay (plus benefits and workers comp) in a super low unemployment situation.

Having them provide the cart is great - they break it, they give me a new one. Only needed one new one in 18 years!

And we've paid by the cart forever. They will take extra stuff, but you've got to call them first, and you are billed for it. Otherwise they leave it.

 

[Silk]

They have been using the side loading trucks for over 20 years in Auckland, one driver, dual controls, the driver stands on the near side and loads the bins. We haven't had steel cans since I was a kid, they use a plastic wheelie bin. These days in Auckland they have 2, one for rubbish, another for recycling, they are going to do another for food separately.

In my town we use plastic bags, just recently going to having a paid sticker...although if I forget the sticker it still seems to go. One driver and 2 or 3 guys running on the road loading the rear. We have a recycling bin, and soon will have 2 recycle bins. A separate crew goes around doing the recycle bins, they separate metal from plastic into the trailer at the time...going to 2 bins means they cut that job out.

 

[The motor guy]

If I remember right the trash fee is added onto the water bill.

 

[KD0AXS]

We've had the side load trucks around here since probably the early 90s, maybe even late 80s. Recycling and yard waste took longer to switch over but everything is side load trucks now. If you have more trash than will fit in the can, they will take it but they charge an extra fee. No charge if you have more recycling than you can fit in the can though. In our city we have to get our own trash service, but some cities have a contract with one company for the entire city and trash service is part of your monthly utility bill.

 

[Nick1994]

I thought only tiny desolate towns had people manually pick up trash?

I'm 23 and for my entire life we've only had these types of garbage trucks. Only way to do it IMO. Probably 3-4 times as fast as manually doing it.

 

[JTK]

The outfit my township contracts trash collection with uses a mixed bag of equipment. Some side load, some rear. Sometimes it's a combined trash and recycling truck, others the trucks are separate and come at different times that day. Regardless there's always 2 people per truck. There's no curbs and most of the roadways are rural two lane.

 

[KD0AXS]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Probably 3-4 times as fast as manually doing it.


I don't know that it's really much if any faster. With the rear load trucks you would have one guy driving and two guys on the back of the truck. They can pick up trash from both sides of the street at the same time. The side load truck has to go up and down each street where the rear load truck only has to make one pass. The real advantage comes by only having to pay one person instead of 3. You also don't have the safety risk with guys riding on the outside of a moving truck and manually handling all that trash.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I remember the trash trucks from the mid 70s that looked like long silver cigarettes.

 

[Silk]

When I was a kid in the '50's and '60's, our local rubbish truck was a long nose Austin with a high side wooden body. It would drive around the streets with one guy in the back, and several running around on the road. We had metal rubbish bins - they would take the lid off, and with one hand throw it up to the guy in the back, he'd catch it, dump it and compact with his feet, toss it back to the guy on the road, who caught it one handed, put the lid on and put it back on the verge, not too far from your house. They were all rugby players, and this was their training. I couldn't toss an empty can 20ft in the air with one hand, let alone a full one. In the '70's - same truck, same routine. Had a mate at the time doing it too.

 

[02SE]

They've been using the side-load mechanical-arm garbage trucks at home for so long, I'm not even sure when they started using them. I'm guessing 25 years ago. So we have a garbage can, a recycling can, and a 'Green' can if you want to pay extra for it.

 

[exranger06]

We don't have city trash pickup here. Everyone either hires a private company to pick up their trash, or they go to the dump themselves. Some private companies use the robotic arm trucks, some have workers empty the cans into the truck, I have no idea which kind of truck my garbage guy uses, as he comes very early Monday mornings before I'm even awake. He picks up garbage and recycling at the same time, and takes stuff that's outside the cans too.