This year’s Hess Truck is a garbage truck, and I’m a kid again

There’s something about little boys and trash trucks.

I know, because I was one of them.

When I was very young, a Hamilton Township dump truck picked up the trash. Just a plain dump truck.

Then the township hired a private hauler, and everything changed. Those big trucks would stop right in front of the house. The guys tossed the bags in the back, and if you were lucky, they’d run the packer blade right in front of you.

Magic.

I pestered my parents for a toy trash truck until I got one.

So when I saw this year’s Hess Truck, I smiled.

Meet the 2026 Hess Truck

It’s the 2026 Hess Hauler Truck and Snow Plow, a green-and-white garbage truck that hauls its own little plow. Hess says both vehicles are new to its lineup.

Here’s what you get, according to Hess Toy Truck:

• The Hauler: 72 LEDs, seven light patterns and six sound effects, the most ever on a holiday Hess Truck. Push a button, and the rear trash hatch opens with a compacting sound.
• The Snow Plow: An ATV-style quad with a pull-back motor, an adjustable plow blade and 12 lights that turn on when you turn the rider’s helmet. It rolls down a ramp from the back of the Hauler.
• Price: $49.99, with free standard shipping and batteries included.
• Where to buy: Only at HessToyTruck.com. It went on sale Oct. 19.

The trash truck still stops the show

My wife is a preschool teacher. Every time the trash truck comes down the street, everything in her classroom stops.

The kids run to the window to watch the action outside.

Those kids are going to love this year’s Hess Truck. I know I do.

🔗 The Hess Truck’s back — so are the memories of Christmas Eve

My son opening his Hess Truck from Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe on Christmas Eve. | photo by EJ

A Christmas Eve tradition

In our family, the Hess Truck was always the first gift of Christmas Eve.

Every year at my aunt and uncle’s house in Hammonton, my son opened that year’s truck from Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe before anything else.

Most of those trucks got played with until they fell apart. A few of them still survive in my basement.

A few of my son’s Hess Trucks survived, including the 2002 truck and airplane. | photo by EJ

Still rolling after 60-plus years

The first Hess Truck was the 1964 Hess Tanker Trailer, sold at Hess gas stations, according to the company’s history page.

The gas stations are long gone, sold off in 2014. But the truck keeps coming every Christmas.

I just wish my kids were still little so I could justify buying one to play with.

Heck, maybe I’ll get one anyway.