Let's celebrate 50 years of truck and trailer history
Nov 1, 2009 12:00 PM, BY BRUCE SAUER
DO you think the commercial truck and trailer industry will ever offer truck bodies and trailers that are light enough, durable enough, and inexpensive enough?
The commercial truck and trailer business is constantly striving to develop a better way to do things. And the way the market measured “better” 50 years ago is a lot like the way the market measures it today. Customers continue to want to transport more stuff in less time. They want equipment that lasts longer, is more efficient, and costs less.
After thumbing through 50 years of Trailer/Body Builders back issues, it strikes us that what was news then is news now. In the half-century that Trailer/Body Builders has been in business, the themes of the stories that we wrote decades ago have a familiar ring to them today. The “why” element of stories rarely changes. People and companies make changes (and news) to provide more value to the people that they serve.
It's the “what,” “who” and “how” elements that really keep us in business. What are people doing differently? How are they doing it? Fortunately for us at Trailer/Body Builders, these change constantly. New people, new ideas, new solutions to the changes in the marketplace. If that were not the case, we as a magazine would have nothing to offer you. Because of you and your marketplace, Trailer/Body Builders has had plenty to write about over the past 50 years. Let's take a look at the 50 years that we have spent together.
Our start
Trailer/Body Builders published its first issue in November 1959. Dwight Eisenhower was president at the time. Three years earlier, Eisenhower signed the bill that literally paved the way for the prosperity of our industry — the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which authorized the Interstate Highway System. Growth in trailer manufacturing can be attributed in large measure to the network of highways that made interstate transportation much easier. As the highway system began to be built, the implications were substantial. Building and maintaining these highways was a boon for the sales of truck bodies, equipment, and trailers. And as those highways opened, distant markets became accessible in ways they never had before. The result: local and regional manufacturers gained access to more customers.
But highways were merely one way to move freight. Our early issues gave considerable attention to the evolving concept of intermodal transportation. For example, the second issue we published carried the thoughts of John Hulse, managing director of the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association, in which he listed nine reasons why containers could succeed in the 1960s (the concept failed in the 1930s). One of the biggest disadvantages at the time was a lack of manufacturing standards.
Truck trailers also lacked standard dimensions as the 1950s were drawing to a close, but that was changing. In 1959 alone, 10 states legalized 40-ft trailers, leaving only two states in which 40-ft trailers were too long to be legal.
Steel had been the material of choice for truck bodies in the first half of the 20th century. Yeah, rust was a problem, but at least it didn't rot like the wooden truck bodies that were popular earlier. But at the end of the 1950s, engineers were figuring out how to use aluminum effectively. The Penn Body Division of the Hockensmith Corporation made big news in our second issue by developing a dump body made of aluminum extrusions. The Brown Trailer Division of Clark Equipment Company also was making breakthroughs, designing an exterior-post van trailer that provided a 94-inch load width.
The 1960s
As America entered one of its more turbulent decades, the industry continued to search for better materials and designs for use in truck body and trailer manufacturing and for more efficient ways to move freight.
Our first major feature story on the use of plastics came in June 1960. It combined two concepts that we frequently covered back then — materials and containerization. Built by Space Structures Inc (remember how captivated everyone was with “space” in the 1960s?), these containers were made of plastic and foam. They were designed to allow refrigerated cargoes to be shipped in dry-freight vans.
Ten years after the German defeat in World War II, a rebuilt Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft formed Volkwagen of America in 1955. Led by the Beetle, an array of imported automobiles increasingly entered the North American automobile market. The international influence spilled over into the truck market as Volvo, Renault, and others provided vehicles for the U S market.
And speaking of truck chassis, don't think the current talk about alternative fuels is anything new. The milkman may be a thing of the past, but our July 1960 issue carried a story about milk delivery trucks that were powered exclusively by electric motors. Smith's Delivery Vehicles Ltd from the United Kingdom opened a U S office in Runnymede, New Jersey, and began selling a 1¼-ton delivery vehicle that could carry 80 cases of milk. The truck had a cruising range of 30 miles and a top speed of 25 mph. Blantyre Dairy of Toronto had a fleet of 30. The fleet manager determined that the operating cost of the trucks was one cent per mile. “There is only one other vehicle in our operation that we can move for less money, and that is our wheelbarrow,” the owner of the company said.
The outlook for the industry was encouraging as the new decade began. A major labor strike by steelworkers had caused economic chaos, but there were plenty of reasons for optimism among those in the commercial truck and trailer market: growth of the highway system, increased use of bulk hauling, and technology that allowed more refrigerated goods to be transported by truck. Container production had shot up from 1,977 in 1958, but had grown to 6,000 in 1960. Doubles trailers were beginning to be allowed on turnpikes. And the U S economy was strengthening.
The commercial truck business was growing, as was the industry's trade association — the Truck Body & Equipment Association. The 13th annual TBEA convention drew almost 2,000 people. The association had won a favorable ruling on federal excise tax that year, along with a postponement in a lighting requirement from the Interstate Commerce Commission. TBEA also reported progress in developing standards for refrigerated truck bodies.
But all was not harmonious with TBEA members. Containing a mix of distributor and manufacturing members, TBEA had to deal with tension between the two groups. Complaints included manufacturers who were selling direct and distrust between manufacturers and distributors. As one speaker said at the association's 1963 convention, “This problem is indeed a very real one and, in my opinion, one which deserves our most serious consideration.”
In 1964, a tiny band of truck equipment distributors formed a group of their own — the Truck Equipment and Body Distributors Association.
“Distributors were complaining that the manufacturers were running the show at TBEA,” says Ron Collins, co-president of Venco/Venturo. A lot of people felt that no one was serving the truck equipment distributor.”
Ron's father, Art Collins, was president of a manufacturers rep company. He began talking to people about starting a new association — what is now the National Truck Equipment Association.
“The attraction for everyone was that it was cheap,” Ron Collins says. “For $50 dollars, manufacturers could display posters on an easel.”
Distributors could learn about sales, advertising, and managing their businesses.
“There was no money to pay anyone,” Collins says. “Art was the whole show. But he would talk to anyone for nothing, and he provided distributors with programs to improve their business.”
Collins says his father hired an addressograph salesman to serve as the association's first executive director and gave him a little desk in the upstairs office.
Membership started growing. Initially the meetings were sporadic, with no annual convention. “We were new at this,” Collins says. “We had no idea how many people would show up. Those early meetings were just get-togethers that we held to try to drum up members.”
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