In the early 80’s with the residential waste hauling industry changing to plastic 95 gallon semi-automated refuse carts and matching lift mechanisms. The cart lifters at this time would interfere with the dumping operation of the commercial containers that Perkins was famous for. Robert Hoppe, had a vision of a lifter system that could dump the new plastic carts and then tuck under the hopper, allowing the operator to dump commercial containers with the same truck. This vision took form in the Perkins Cylinder Tuck-away lifter which quickly became the best selling lifter on the market. The Tuck-away was the first cart lifter to utilize the sweeping arc motion to grab the cart. Perkins lifters offer pioneering features such as rotary actuators, breakaway faceplates, and high ground clearances.

In 2001 Perkins Manufacturing sold the commercial container division and concentrated its efforts into further developing and expanding the cart lifter line. Today Perkins Manufacturing holds over 20 issued and pending domestic and international patents. We manufacture more than 70 products and accessories for the waste industry (residential, industrial and commercial users) and we have expanded beyond the waste industry into servicing; hospitals, Universities, Casinos, paper shredding companies and the list continues to grow. Perkins Manufacturing distributes its products worldwide. Perkins is also the only cart manufacture that is ISO certified and has been since 2005.