The POD was built by Heil exclusively for Waste Management (USA), under license from Edelhoff in Germany, where it was marketed as the MSTS (Multi-Service Transport System). the American version is very similar to the Edelhoff, but was mounted on domestic low entry truck chassis made by FWD or Mack, and featured a more curved storage body.
The concept was basically a small, maneuverable front loader with a hand-loaded carry bucket for household collection. When filled, the body could be detached from the chassis, hoisted upright on its end, and then replaced with an empty container. Several filled containers could be reloaded on to tractor-trailers and hauled to the dump site, while the collection truck continued its route. The packer consisted of a shallow blade operated by two hydraulic rams and linkage. Bruce Polit operated one of the early models, and notes that despite being fitted with a crusher panel (to force bulky objects into the throat of the packer), jam-ups were not uncommon, requiring entry into the hopper to manually clear them.
The POD was produced for WMI through the mid-1990s, and used by select branches from coast to coast. Most appear to have been mounted on FWD low-entry cab/chassis, but at least one example has been documented on a Mack LC 632 chassis. Both manual and automated cart dumpers have been fitted to the carry bucket. Some west coast WMI divisions were known to be using the POD system as recently as 2013, put presumably these have by now been phased out.
