Founded in 1947, Heiberg Garbage & Recycling has grown their operation from a single truck to 26 front/rear/side loaders and roll offs today. Over those 68 years Heiberg has constantly evolved, staying on the cutting edge of the most modern sanitation practices, all the while offering old-fashioned, bespoke service on a personal level in a way the giant faceless corporate mega-haulers simply can't match. (e.g. the walk up stops at 3:10 & 9:09) Such are the merits of a family owned and operated local company. Touring their facilities and meeting everyone who makes the operation tick quite literally gave me the warm fuzzies inside. It's no surprise they're doing so well in the Portland hauling market. This vid came about rather serendipitously. Instead of my usual regime of actively seeking out trucks and haulers, I stumbled on this truck parked street side in the Northeast Portland neighborhood of Hollywood sometime in mid-July. Having spotted the Sterling's bloated face from a distance I couldn't resist a closer look. Of course out came the phone for a few snaps for the ol' Instagram, at which point the driver approached and asked what was up. What particularly piqued my interest was the shoulder can he was carrying. My usual spiel led to a few minutes of chatting, and an arrangement to ride along and film the following week. I met up with Jimmy at one of his first stops of the day near Burnside & NE 28th. A series of stops took us up back into the Hollywood neighborhood I first saw the truck in, a trip to the Metro Central transfer station to dump, followed by a short cardboard route. The route consisted of 1 and 2 yard Heil-lift bins, the occasional roll cart, and two walk-up stops, both seen in the vid. (To the pedants out there Jimmy wasn't mixing streams, I just mixed clips when editing) The Heil rear load container lift deserves mention. Like Gar-Wood's kick bar, Leach's packer chains, and City Tank's reeving winch, it was first developed by Heil to allow their hinged hopper Colectomatic design to handle dumpsters. Given the fact that the hopper sill on those packers moved with each cycle the Heil design couldn't rely on pivoting a container's trunnion bar about it as did everyone else. Instead the two arms engage the side handles of dumpsters so that it can be lifted and dumped into the hopper. You'll notice the handles consist of a piece of flat bar bent into an L-shape, with a small piece of rod serving as both the third side of the handle and the lift point of the container. 7:38 shows it pretty well. The design of these handles is actually prescribed in the ASNI container standard for 1-3 yard rear load bins. Although the Heil system has fallen out of favor elsewhere in the country Oregon remains a holdout, not sure why. Dealer support perhaps? It's important to note the Heil lift can be found on all makes of rear loaders, especially the Leach Alphas which Portland haulers have taken such a shine to. The Heil PT 1000 packer is competent as ever, an evolution of the venerable Formula 4000. This one could use some adjustment of the engine speed up switch at the packer controls but otherwise is in excellent shape. Paired (as it often seems) with the “bloated” looking Sterling, renowned for its spacious cab interior. A shame they aren't built anymore, I particularly liked the look of the axle forward versions right at the end of the production run. Thanks to Jimmy Heiberg and everyone else at Heiberg Garbage & Recycling. Shoutout to Heiberg's biggest fan Simon Barker. Filmed July 20th, 2015. For more garbage trucks follow georgewuzheer on: Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/georgewuzheer Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/georgewuzheer