For almost a century, the United Kingdom's road network rumbled to the sound of haulage and delivery vehicles almost exclusively made up of trucks built on home soil. From the 1920s right through to the 1960s, British manufacturers became renowned the world over for their production of reliable workaday lorries and quite rightly earned a reputation for quality engineering. The likes of Albion, Commer, Foden and Scammell would eventually become household names, greatly contributing to the country's economic growth as well as playing major roles in times of conflict, such as during the two World Wars. Yet in the 21st Century, a truck proudly carrying the badge of a British company is seldom seen and furthermore it is even rarer to find one that has actually been built within the country. Once the domain of the Atkinson, Bedford and ERF, today's highways and byways are plied by MANs, DAFs and Ivecos and the many firms that in times gone by successfully competed within the European truck industry, only the very few such as Leyland and Dennis have survived the test of time, albeit in the form of subsidiaries to larger organisations.The Big Book of Trucks charts the history of the King of the Road, from the humble steam wagon to giant diesel-powered articulated juggernauts.
