Advances in automation

Collection truck automation has been one of the biggest changes for waste and recycling haulers in the past couple of decades. With industry labor shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been more difficult for waste haulers to find employees—especially to operate rear-load trucks, which require more personnel.

To better address the safety concerns of employees in the field and to add efficiency, automated side-loaders (ASLs) have evolved over the years and have increased in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Genesis of automation

Like any other industry, waste haulers seek faster, safer and more efficient tools to perform their work. Despite rear loaders being the historical workhorses of residential collection, automation has helped the waste industry improve safety and efficiency.

A typical rear-load crew consists of a driver and one or two operators. In addition to requiring multiple people for each truck, the operators ride on the back of a vehicle and enter the roadway to retrieve containers, drag them to the truck and empty them into the hopper.

ASLs and automated front loaders (AFLs) are more productive alternatives because they allow a single driver to quickly perform all collection functions on a route, with a mechanized grabber arm performing tasks that previously required additional operators. In addition to the efficiency of only requiring a single operator, ASLs and AFLs allow all waste collection operations to be conducted from within the safety of the cab.

Although automated residential collection has experienced steady growth, the staffing crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has created a substantial increase in AFL and ASL demand. Worker shortages and significant increases in labor costs combined to make productivity a matter of survival. Inadequate staffing caused haulers to face customer backlash because of missed services, jeopardizing customer loyalty and their municipal contracts.

Being able to service collection routes faster and with half of the staff required for a rear loader allowed automated fleets to thrive, while many haulers that continued operating rear-load-only routes struggled or failed.

Technological improvements

While innovative for the time, many early ASL models required a significant learning curve and had a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to operate. With many more moving parts than a simple rear loader, early side loaders were significantly more expensive than their predecessors and required a higher level of maintenance and upkeep.

In addition, wheeled refuse containers were not readily accessible, with sizes and configurations varying by manufacturer, posing additional challenges for haulers.

Over the years, engineering, hydraulics and controls have advanced, improving speed, reliability and ease of use. Newer trucks have fast, reliable arms and smooth operation.

ASL evolution

Another major innovation in automated collection was the development of The Curotto-Can automated front loader. Developed in the 1990s by the Curotto family, which was seeking a productive method to collect large quantities of waste on their company’s residential routes, the first Curotto-Cans became available to the public in 2000. Environmental Solutions Group (ESG), which encompasses Heil Environmental, acquired Curotto-Can Co. in 2013.

Since that time, AFLs equipped with The Curotto-Can have evolved into an efficient form of automated collection. They have a wheel-stop-to-wheel-go time of four to five seconds per stop. Because the grabber arms are in front of the vehicle, operator comfort is increased with an “eyes-always-forward” operation, eliminating the need for drivers to crane their necks to look backward to service a cart as is the case with most side loaders. Featuring the massive capacity and compaction power of a front loader coupled with the efficiency and speed of a side loader, AFLs offer the best of both worlds in a single vehicle.

Knowing the body height of AFLs potentially limited their use on residential routes with bridges, low-hanging limbs or wires and other obstacles, Heil introduced the Curotto-Can-equipped Half/Pack Lowrider frontload AFL in 2020 to address these challenges by taking 12 inches off of the height of the truck. The Lowrider AFL enables residential haulers to operate the same routes as an ASL with an increase in payload and compaction speed and adds the value of a “take all” capability that does not require a “chase truck” to take bulk items as needed with an ASL. 

Technology outlook

With more fleets committed to meeting their sustainability objectives, electric vehicles have seen a major increase in demand in recent years. One of the challenges with an electric chassis, however, is the limited range of current battery systems. The energy required to power a traditional hydraulic ASL body causes an additional drain on the battery, shortening the truck’s range per charge.

Heil’s all-electric RevAMP ASL is equipped with an independent onboard battery, which saves fuel and extends the range of electric- and diesel-powered chassis because of the elimination of power takeoff.

Electric ASLs also greatly reduce collection vehicle noise, and the RevAMP body eliminates hydraulic oil spills en route. With its lightweight body and efficient lift arm, the electric-powered body helps haulers meet their sustainability goals without sacrificing the productivity an ASL offers.

In addition to the engineering and design innovations with sideload arms and controls, technology is quickly evolving to increase the efficiency and automation of processes that would previously have required manual operator action and time to complete.

That drive toward efficiency has given rise to increasingly sophisticated software systems, such as Dover ESG’s Connected Collections suite that includes the company’s Heil, 3rd Eye digital camera system and SoftPak back-office software. These systems integrate telemetry data into a fleet’s maintenance enterprise resource planning system to enable monitoring of chassis and body health, alerting service teams of service events before they occur, opening work orders, generating parts lists and providing repair instructions. Such systems offer a predictive and prescriptive solution that further increases uptime while decreasing staffing and the need to maintain large parts inventories.

Chad Gentry is director of product management for Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Heil and can be reached via email at cgentry@doveresg.com. Tony Giles is Heil’s alternative fuels product manager and can be reached at agiles@doveresg.com.