Garbage trucks are now an essential part of modern civilization. One can see a number of garbage trucks running on the highways and streets late at night or early in the morning. Garbage trucks are the most important vehicles to keep our environment clean and healthy. Garbage trucks collect garbage from different parts of the city or town and unload it at garbage dumps or waste management sites established for this purpose. There are a number of websites where you can gather useful information on these used dump trucks and garbage trucks. With the increase in urbanization, the generation of garbage from all households has increased substantially. One cannot imagine a clean and pollution-free environment without the existence of these useful vehicles.

Basically, there are five types of garbage trucks: front loaders, rear loaders, claw trucks, pneumatic collectors, and side loaders. These are used in different places according to the various types of job requirements. Initially, wagons and animals were used to carry the waste, but with the passage of time and some technological advance in the automotive field, trucks with open tops were introduced in 1920. The trucks with their open type left a stinking air with their movement and garbage was also seen to overflow. To overcome this problem, covered top trucks were made and used for this purpose. For starters, these trucks were first used in the densely populated countries of Europe and North America, and later in the rest of the world.

It was considered that it is quite a difficult task for the garbage collectors to lift the waste to shoulder height and then put it in the truck. To solve this problem, the hopper model was introduced in 1929, which was based on the cable system to lift the garbage from the ground. In 1937, George Dempster presented a model in which wheeled rubbish bins were made to be dumped onto garbage hauling vehicles. This model was known as a dumpster. In 1938, with the introduction of the Garwood freight packer, there was a revolutionary change in the field of garbage disposal vehicles. These load packers had the novel concept of compactors attached to a garbage truck. With the use of a hydraulic press, the capacity of a garbage truck was almost doubled.

In the year 1955, the first front-loading container was introduced to the market, but these front-loading vehicles were not seen more frequently until the year 1970. In the mid-1970s, Peterson Industries manufactured the first claw truck for garbage disposal in municipal areas. In the year 1997, Lee Rathbun introduced the rear-steer system on a garbage truck. This system allowed the driver to drive and operate the loader simultaneously with the aid of a rear-facing raised cab. This increased the speed of garbage removal considerably.