Side Loader Garbage Truck

A side loader garbage truck is a truck that has an opening on the side of the truck to collect trash. Often times a cab-controlled arm is installed to grab and dump bins into the truck’s hopper, which has an oscillating compactor that pushes trash into the truck body.

This type of truck typically does not have an ejector so it unloads by tilting the body up, similar to a dump truck. The side loader garbage truck’s compactor merely pushes the trash in so does not compact it significantly until the truck body is full, but the smaller apeture to the truck body breaks down some larger items. Some trucks have a packer helper panel that holds down trash that sticks up from the hopper while the compactor works to clear the hopper.

Side loader garbage trucks are used to collect household waste, recycling and recycling. If the automated arm can’t collect certain items such as tied plastic bags, or if trash inadverdently falls from the bin during collection, the collector can toss the item into the hopper manually as well.

The advantage is that side loaders are very time-efficient at emptying curb-side bins and generally only the driver is needed to operate the truck. The disadvantage is that automated side loaders can only service one side of the street at a time and can generally only handle smaller bins. This garbage truck is also less efficient at compressing loads than the rear or front loader garbage truck.

One variant of the side loader is the saddle bag side loader. Bins are emptied in the saddle bag, sorted into several partitions based on recycling, which are then dumped into the body of the truck which are partitioned in the corresponding areas as the saddle bag. This is useful for recycling but has limited application for other types of waste.