When is comes to videos, we’re guessing more of them have been made about driving properly than any other topic in history. We’re also sure that nothing has been less effective than video about driving properly in history. But this is all beside the point. The video you are about to see is awesome because it is the most British thing you’ll lay eyes on all week. Made in the 1960s, it shows the typical “Goofus and Gallant” style of program where there’s one driver doing all the right stuff and another idiot who is a menace to the general society and the roadways.
We’ll see trucks being inspected on the side of the road by guys in lab coats, drivers pickup up hitchhikers, and a lot of neat old British cars from back more than 50 years ago. The trucks themselves are much like the trucks that dominate Europe today, cabovers. The snub noses make them maneuverable and they also help keep the usable length of the cargo area as long as possible to move the most stuff. Europe’s trucking laws have been different than ours for a long, long time.
One thing is for sure, the picture painted of being a 1960s English truck driver is a pretty placid one. Just cruising along and enjoying the scenery, etc. Meanwhile in the real world the guy would be running behind schedule, cursing traffic, and jamming gears like a maniac.
Art vs Life we suppose.
Went all over the UK with my father when he drove for British Road Services, starting in the early sixties. Sketchy trucks with the motor up inside the cab noisy and smelly.
In his day after the load was on he had to sheet it and rope it, now it´s drop a container and hook up another.
After the BRS he went to Commer Cars, as a test driver/fitter, which was bought out by Dodge who stopped the development of the TS3 engine which was low in the chassis and gave rise to the cab over design..
Initially the Dodges were loud like 140dbs in the cab and until that was fixed I could´nt ride along.
It was´nt as interesting as before because it was just ride around trips to put miles on the vehicles, no visiting far off towns and delivering.