New Electrically-Powered RCV Bodies from Heil and Boivin Evolution Inc.

What happens when you combine an industry leader in garbage truck body design and specialized refuse body manufacturing with a visionary refuse-industry veteran known for innovation? You propel refuse collection into a lower-carbon future.

In April of 2022, an innovative partnership was formed between Heil — a leader in refuse collection truck body innovation and technology — and Boivin Evolution Inc. (BEV) — a pioneer in technology — with the acquisition of certain intellectual property related to electrically-powered refuse collection vehicle (RCV) bodies.

BEV RCV’s can be configured to be completely self-powered with their own battery packs for conventional diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), or electric powered chassis, and can also be integrated into the electric-powered chassis to use a common battery pack. An RCV using BEV’s technology can complete a full ten-hour route on a single overnight charge, while still packing ten tons of legal payload, with battery charge to spare. This offers waste haulers and their customers a new technology and economically viable tool for sustainability initiatives.

According to BEV President, Claude Boivin, “With this all-electric body, maintenance costs are reduced, NOx emissions — when paired with a diesel chassis — are reduced, and overall energy consumption goes down. When paired with an electric chassis, BEV technology enables an RCV with virtually no emissions.”

A Proud History of Innovation

For more than 100 years, Heil® has been at the forefront of excellence, innovation, and customer satisfaction in the Waste Industry. In 1901 in a small, rented building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Julius P. Heil started the Heil Rail Joint Welding Co. Inspired by a new process called “welding,” Julius Heil began applying the technology to rail cars. Before long he used the same process on tanks and truck bodies.

As uses for electric welding grew, so did the Heil Co. The first Heil garbage truck bodies were built for the City of Milwaukee in the early 1900s. By the 1930s Heil garbage trucks were collecting solid waste in hundreds of American cities of all sizes. The rest, as they say, is history.

Heil products are represented by a network of more than 50 knowledgeable dealers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including Ingram Equipment Company. Internationally, the Heil network reaches into 150 different countries.

Heil proudly manufactures a wide variety of garbage truck collection bodies including Front loaders, rear loaders, side loaders, multi-compartment vehicles, and roll-off hoists. All of Heil's garbage truck bodies are made in the United States and, the company is proud to call Fort Payne, Alabama home.