Refuse, recycling and green waste commodity may be placed in any one of a variety of different waste containers. Conventionally, these containers range in volume between two cubic yards and ten cubic yards and can normally be categorized as either being designed for collection by a front end loader (FEL), side loader (SL) or rear end loader (REL) style track. Since the application and methods of collection are considerably different among these styled units, the containers for each of these trucks are normally mutually exclusive.
FEL waste containers generally include channels or fork pockets built into the sides of the waste container. The collection of commodity from FEL waste containers has typically required a specialized commodity collection vehicle having a pair of spaced forks supported by a pair of lifting arms. To engage and unload the FEL container, the fork must be inserted into the channels and the lift arm must be actuated to lift and invert the FEL container over an opening communicating with an interior storage compartment of the vehicle.
The collection of commodity from SL containers requires a specialized collection vehicle having a pocketed assembly mounted to a lift carriage. To engage and lift the SL container, the pocketed assembly is positioned into a specialized hooked plate configuration attached to the SL container and the lift carriage is actuated to lift the SL container over an opening communicating with an interior storage compartment of the vehicle.
To load commodity from REL containers requires a specialized collection vehicle having a lower back-end configured to engage each end of a trunnion on the container and a cable at the rear of the vehicle configured to be connected to a top rear portion of the REL container. A motorized winch on the vehicle is then used to pull and lift the REL container off of the ground while the body of the REL container pivots about the trunnion and empties its contents into the rear of the vehicle. In lieu of the winch and cable, some commodity collection vehicles utilize a hydraulic lifting apparatus configured to move the container about the trunnion into a dumping position.
Since the applications and the methods of collection between FEL, RL and REL tracks are so different, the designs of waste containers to be collected by the different style tracks are normally mutually exclusive. As a result, waste hauling companies are forced to maintain a larger inventory of varying types of collection vehicles and an equally large inventory of varying types of containers making it expensive and inconvenient. Further, the modification of containers to fit the collection mechanisms of other specialized collection vehicles is also expensive and inconvenient. Therefore, there is a continuing economic need to find ways to make these specialized commodity collection vehicles more route flexible by enabling them to be more capable to unload commodity from the normally mutually exclusive containers, wherever possible.