The American Delivery Truck: An Illustrated History
The American Delivery Truck: An Illustrated History
ITEM E546
By Robert Gabrick
Even when motorized vehicles replaced the horse, not everyone owned a vehicle to drive, much less to haul with. Rural residents relied heavily on vendors to bring the goods directly to them or their nearest town, and vendors relied on delivery trucks to deliver their food items or services. The idea took on a life of its own and in 1915 Reo created an entire class of vehicles called “Speed Wagons” that provided the basis for a new generation of delivery vehicles dubbed in Commercial Car Journal “Speed Trucks.”
The Speed Truck chassis could provide for a whole range of special delivery-type vehicles to satisfy a growing need for reliability, speed, convenience, and a level of style that would create the right impression for the user to haul goods to its customers. Other manufacturers created specialized chassis and mechanical configurations for delivery vehicles and, in addition, companies such as Boyertown Body created bodies to suit the needs of the customer, including vans, panel trucks, and even pickup trucks. Color, paint schemes, and lettering were crucial to creating a positive image. Some of the major marques featured in this illustrated history include Reo, Federal, Diamond T, Sterling, Divco, International, Fargo, Dodge, Chevrolet, Ford, Graham, Stutz, and Diamond T, to name a few.
Softbound, 128 pages
When Ertel Publishing bought Enthusiast Books, the company acquired a large inventory of transportation-related titles, including 13 books I have written. This book is one of those 13. It features a chronological narrative text and more than 200 illustrations of trucks, sales brochures, and advertisements. Chapter 1 begins in the early 1900s when motorized vehicles competed with the horse. Chapter 2 is devoted to electric vehicles, including those manufactured by Ward, Walker, Thorne, and Autocar. The introduction of the game-changing Reo Speed Wagon—equipped with pneumatic tires and higher gear ratio—and the advent of the “speed truck” category is the subject of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 chronicles manufacturers’ efforts to offer trucks for house-to-house delivery, with a look at the diverse solutions offered by Divco, Twin Coach, Pak-Age-Car, Step-N-Drive, Federal, Available, and White. Full-line manufacturers including Gotfredson, Reo, Mack, Diamond T, Sterling, Graham Bros., International, Available, Federal, White, Republic, and Stewart marketed lighter-capacity, conventional chassis delivery trucks that are covered in Chapter 5. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a photo album of various delivery truck bodies, including van bodies for mobile grocery stores, moving, horse hauling, and bulk shipping manufactured by Boyertown Auto Body Works of Boyertown, Pennsylvania.
Book Review by Robert Gabrick
