We install cameras and GPS tracking on garbage, recycling and refuse trucks for cities, counties and private haulers in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.
Because it is washed down, it cycles hydraulics all day, and its body tips and swings on moving joints, so an install built for a pickup will not last on a route.
A garbage truck works harder than almost any vehicle a fleet owns. It stops at house after house, lifts weight with a hydraulic arm, tips a body full of trash, and gets washed down at the end of the day. Cameras and GPS will live through that, but only if they were installed for it. That is the work we do.
API Signal installs cameras and GPS tracking on garbage, recycling and refuse trucks for cities, counties and private haulers in eight states: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. We are a Geotab certified installer among many others, so we put in the system your fleet already uses instead of pushing you toward a different one. We also offer equipment, so the hardware and the installation can come from one place.
We work on automated side loaders, rear loaders, front loaders, recycling trucks, and brush and bulk trucks. Whether you run three trucks or thirty, send us the details and we will tell you plainly how we would handle the job.
Every truck body is different, but the same few positions come up again and again. Larger systems can carry up to eight camera positions on one truck, including one on the lift arm. Start with the views that answer your most expensive problems and add more later.
On an automated side loader it can be mounted high and centered on the body, which gives the driver a better sense of depth when backing. Some truck types cannot take a camera that high, so placement follows the truck.
Aimed back along the body, it sees the arm at work. When a resident says the truck knocked over a mailbox, the video answers the question.
The side view can come up on the in-cab monitor when the signal goes on, which helps on lane changes.
It records the road ahead, including what the other driver did before an accident.
It shows the cart going up, dumping and coming back down.
The tracker logs where the truck went, and when the PTO or lift arm signal can be read or wired in, it logs what the truck was doing there.
It shows where and when, and with the truck's PTO signal it can tell a truck working its route from a truck sitting and burning fuel.
A camera shows what happened. GPS shows where and when. A connection to the truck's own equipment shows what the truck was doing. On a garbage truck the compactor runs off the power take-off, the PTO, so when the tracker reads that signal the system can separate compactor time from plain idling.
That matters when a supervisor looks at an idle report. A truck that looks like it is idling may have been running its compactor, and reading the PTO signal removes the guess. Geotab's own waste industry material lists engine hours, PTO use and lift arm engagement among the things its platform can monitor, along with camera integration, so video and location can sit in the same account.
We route, seal and test every connection for water, vibration and moving joints, and we check each view with the hydraulics running.
A camera that works on the bench can fail on a route. Water gets into connectors. Wires that cross a joint that moves every time the body tips will break if they were run without slack. A lens covered in grime still puts a picture on the monitor, so nobody notices until the footage is needed. Here is how we install against that:
No federal rule requires rear cameras on a truck this size, but refuse truck work has a fatality rate more than six times the all-industry average.
NIOSH, the federal workplace safety institute, counted 310 worker deaths connected to refuse trucks between 2012 and 2022. That is 22.6 deaths per 100,000 waste collection workers, against a 3.7 average across all industries. Seventy-four percent of those refuse truck deaths came from transportation incidents, which include workers struck by trucks and collisions with other vehicles. NIOSH has investigated cases in North Carolina, including a sanitation worker struck by a backing refuse truck.
NIOSH lists cameras, proximity detection and fleet telematics among the technologies an employer can consider, and it is clear that no technology replaces safe work practices. The federal rule that requires rear cameras covers vehicles at or under 10,000 pounds gross weight, and a refuse truck is far heavier. Whether your trucks carry cameras is a fleet decision, not a federal requirement.
Automated side loaders, rear loaders, front loaders, recycling trucks, and brush and bulk trucks, at your yard or depot.
Yes. We offer equipment along with the installation, or we install the hardware you already own.
All major brands. We are a Geotab certified installer among many others, so we install the platform your fleet already runs.
Yes, where the truck gives us a PTO signal to read or wire in. We confirm what your truck allows before we quote.
No federal rule requires them on a truck this size. The federal rear camera rule covers vehicles at or under 10,000 pounds gross weight. Cameras are still a fleet decision, and they help with backing safety and damage claims.
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.
Constant. Ignition. Ground. API Signal.
Tell us the truck type, how many trucks, and what is on them now, and we will work around your routes.
Tell us about your trucks and hardware, and we will get back to you within 24 hours.
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