BRITISH TRUCKS
(^38) July 2019 Truck & Driver
F
act: in the ’50s and ’60s,
British trucks ruled the
world. Legendary brands
such as AEC, Atkinson,
Bedford, Guy, Leyland,
ERF and Foden could be seen
on the highways, dirt tracks and
deserts of almost every country
on the map, especially those
coloured ‘British Empire pink’.
As others struggled to rebuild
after the Second Word War,
Britain built an unimpeachable
lead on every other truck
manufacturing country right
across the globe. Design, quality,
innovation and originality were the
hallmarks of British engineering,
Seddon Atkinsons had a strong following in the South West of England
all exemplified in British trucks.
But in the melting pot that was
the 1960s and 1970s – a time of
real industrial strife, particularly
for the automotive sector – British
truck manufacturers made
several key mistakes.
First, exports. They ignored
the rapidly growing export sales
opportunities in the recovering
economies across the Channel,
instead focusing on colonial
markets such as Australia,
Kenya, New Zealand and South
Africa – markets notoriously hard
to service and support because
they were so far away – despite
being small in terms of sales
volume and high in the cost of
doing business.
As a result, the door was left
wide open for manufacturers in
the Netherlands, Germany,
France, Italy and Sweden, not
just to establish themselves but
to do so without any real
competition from the
acknowledged ‘world leader’.
Complacency
Second, complacency, the result
of buoyant sales revenues and
high sales demand. Operators
thought nothing of waiting a full
year for a new truck, while if you
wanted a Gardner engine, that
might even stretch to two years.
Even worse, most operators
ran their own workshops, so
manufacturer dealer networks
made their money from selling
trucks, not looking after them or
supporting their users. After-
sales support was low on the
priority list. Parts? “We’ll order
them in when we can.” Service?
“Guess we can book you in,
but...” And if you broke down,
you were entirely on your own. It
was the norm; operators
accepted it, and nobody really
expected any better.
But things began to change
by the 1970s. Operators were