44 Tonne Ton:
miketdt:
I use to like Headlight does anyone remember it?I wish I could say no to that…
I remember it too, was a good magazine if a little stuck in the past.
Rikki-UK:
So tell us what you want in a magazine for you.what would make you spend out for a magazine and buy it each month?
If you tell us we can work towards it… and give you what you wish
dont tell us and the guys producing the magazine have to guess. you have a chance here to shape the future of your magazine
I personally will take your sensible comments and ideas and put them forward
Ok then here’s my view.
Like many it seems I stopped buying truck magazines with the death of Truck. It was the only one worth reading. T&D may still outsell the competition but that’s fairly academic when the competition is crap. I’ve picked up a copy of T&D on the odd occasion I’ve seen it lying about and I’m sorry it just doesn’t speak to me. For instance why have music reviews? Is that relevant? Esp when it’s endless country bands I’ve never even heard of. Not all of us are living in 1970 America driving Kenworths.
So, more tests, I used I love the tests where you put half a dozen trucks up against each other across Europe. Less blinged up trucks.
More relevant gadget reviews and less music reviews of music no one listens to. For instance people are always asking my opinion on gadgets I used such as my digital radio or satnav.
Maybe more competitions, maybe tied in with Trucknet. Again relevant stuff, give away a digital radio or something people actually want.
Columnists that people actually want to read. Whenever I read one I just give up after a couple of paragraphs because it’s just another driver having another moan. I get enough of that as it is. You need humour.
An newbie section maybe. Show new guys how to do things like operate a fridge etc.
iPad editions. I may actually buy an iPad edition of Commercial Motor. But do it properly. Don’t just scan it in, have extras such as videos and working links.
More connectivity. As I see it you do have twitter and other accounts but you don’t really make the most of them. You need to make them worth following. Have you got a Facebook page for the magazines? If not you should have and if you have why don’t I know about it? I never leave the Trucknet page because nothing makes me want to. I actually think ditching roadtransport.com and splitting everything back up again was madness. I know you talk about the strength of he individual brands but they could have still been part of an integrated roadtransport.com brand.
Which brings me to brands. As I see it people buy your magazines because it’s one of only three thy can get anywhere. I don’t think many people have a connection with the T&D brand which makes them proud to read it. Look at the worlds most successful brands, thy are successful because people are evangelical about them and spread the word. Truck had that for me, I loved it. I think you could do this with T&D but in my opinion you need to throw out the whole magazine and start from scratch for that to happen.
So that’s my view, I’ve been thinking about it a lot! Right, I’m gonna go set up a magazine…
Truck was the best. I used to like the euro test where they put half a dozen trucks against each other. Long distance diary was good and the diarys are always popular on here. Perhaps they could look at running some from here in the magazine and paying the writer a small fee.
I remember in the 90s truck and driver used to run a on the job feature where they shadowed a driver and it was always good to get an idea of what different jobs involved.
Ditch the music reviews if I want that il buy q magazine or suchlike. If your going to do reviews it should be things modern drivers need or want dab radios sat navs apps etc.
A bit less bling would be good and maybe the odd article on life from the planners side of things might be interesting.
Some very good points being made already. I do get T&D but i dont enjoy it as much as i used to. The 3D edition was very poor, dont think that i actually read it. Trucking is ok and i will buy it if there is something that interests me. Same with Commercial Motor.
Motor Transport though is a great publication i think. Has some very good interviews and reports that are useful and informative, i am subcribed to it.
I think that near enough all magazines are struggling at the moment due to stories moving so quickly and how easy it is to use electronic media. Maybe the whole road transport publication sector needs a shake up.
I’ve got a box of the later issues of Headlight in my garage. I think it was far more informative than the later mags. I stopped buying mags about five years ago. What you read in one was in all the others, whether it was trucks, buses or trains.
If I’m in the mood to think about the business side, I buy Commercial Motor, if I want to think about life as a driver I would like to think that T&D is the best option, but it just seems to be CM with more pictures.
It doesn’t matter to me why Joe Bloggs transport bought the XF over the TGS. What matters to us as drivers is what’s on the inside of the truck.
Scan through any issue you have at hand now, how many interior shots and configurations do you have pictures of there? 2 tiny pics in a 6 page review and god alone knows how many pictures of the exterior, why?
Do PROPER tests, don’t ask operators how they use them or whatever. Do them yourselves.
When people tune into Top Gear or 5th Gear or whatever, do they want to see the presenters do a rundown of how Ken and Cheryl use their Ford Focus every day? do we hell.
We want to see them load it up with stuff, do the same to a Vuaxhall Astra and then have two journalists driving them across country seeing how well they do against each other.
Get the new Actros and instead of driving it nicely around a test track and using publicity shots, hook it up to a trailer, do the same to an older Actros, fill the trailer with exactly the same stuff as t’other and send both of 'em down to the South of France to do a delivery. See how easy it is to get on and off the train/ferry, how it helps you get on a bay. Does the stereo and heater still work when the gate ■■■■ has nicked your keys?
Asking people who run them every day seems like a good idea, but it isn’t. We buy those mag’s to be entertained, and journalists should be able to review them, in an every day situation, while being entertaining about it.
When was the last time T&D did a review on what trailer it’s easiest to change a bulb on at 3 in the morning in the freezing cold?
Park 5 of the most popular trailers on the market side by side, and get a driver to change a bulb on each against the stopclock. Don’t just tell us how quick it was, give us a step by step guide too then if we need to do it on that type of trailer we might just remember.
Have one such “big” feature a month.
Send a journo round 5 roadside cafe’s a month and get them to review them, honestly, and if the foods covered in grease let him say so. Then at the end of every year you can publish a big book of your reviews (dated, of course, to cover arses) and sell that to us as a little stocking filler of where to eat.
That’ll do for a start I reckon.
I agree with the posts about music reviews; Who gives a ■■■■ if some unknown bunch of red necks have a new album out? Kids drawings need the boot if I want to see scribbles I’ll give my son a crayon thanks. Truckings’ Truck on Trial needs less of a history lesson and more info on the vehicles but not waffle about the injection and emission processes.
turnip:
Rikki-UK:
So tell us what you want in a magazine for you.what would make you spend out for a magazine and buy it each month?
If you tell us we can work towards it… and give you what you wish
dont tell us and the guys producing the magazine have to guess. you have a chance here to shape the future of your magazine
I personally will take your sensible comments and ideas and put them forward
Human interest !
Long distance diary !
A day in the life of !
A view from behind the desk ( not the boss either ).
Real reporting, not re written press releases with photos.
And whilst the odd nice truck is welcome, not every issue.
Shobba is essential.
Oh get someone else to write the crossword it’s just silly.
Cab mutt (or other cab pet) of the month
I think a ‘newbies’ page where people can ask genuine questions and not get trolled in response would be a good addition
Fuel prices in Europe just to give us something to cry about
Heres my tuppence worth, I started buying TRUCK about end of 83 til its sad demise, features like LDD and Test Match being my favourite, then along came T&D in about 84 and I bought that up to about 5 years ago, Pat Kennet’s Better Driving and Looking Back features being among my favourites. Sadly nowadays I doubt I’d even bother to flick thru one, as has already been said, far too much bling and spot light truckshow type nonsense, far better to be looking at real issues affecting us today. I was also a regular reader of Truckstar when I worked in NL, they seem to have got it right for a transport magazine, and not too PC about things either, maybe Colin the editor would do well to have a look and see how the Henks do it, just a thought. Good luck anyway.
short walk:
Heres my tuppence worth, I started buying TRUCK about end of 83 til its sad demise, features like LDD and Test Match being my favourite, then along came T&D in about 84 and I bought that up to about 5 years ago, Pat Kennet’s Better Driving and Looking Back features being among my favourites. Sadly nowadays I doubt I’d even bother to flick thru one, as has already been said, far too much bling and spot light truckshow type nonsense, far better to be looking at real issues affecting us today. I was also a regular reader of Truckstar when I worked in NL, they seem to have got it right for a transport magazine, and not too PC about things either, maybe Colin the editor would do well to have a look and see how the Henks do it, just a thought. Good luck anyway.
Afternoon j ! Still alive then ?
How do the Danes do it ?
I love magazines, spend monthly a fortune on them, nothing beat to lay in bed with a nice magazine and something to snack.
But I buy mainly working magazines, e.g. Pratical Classics, Car mechanics, classic bikes, tractors etc.
Why because my interest is in how people do it, how something works, why something is made like that and who are the people behind it.
I think it would be good to have a magazine, with usefull information, how to for example add an aux to a standard truck radio, how to change a light bulb on a Daf 105 etc.
A dairy of a driver, there are lots of people out there who do interesting jobs, not only oversize and heavy, but timber, tankers, silo trucks, tippers hiab,etc. I would like to think that a indept article where it’s in the spotlight from an drivers point of view, not from onlookers point of view.
Some old stuff, transport companies, test of gadgets and how to get the most of your satnav, I pad, inverter, dropper, cb, fridge, cooker, flasks and many more.
I like magazines that you will keep, because the information inside is usefull and handy to look back on a later day when the question get raised, and you think where did I read that?
A good columnist or maybe a guest columnist every month,with a good story and some humour.
Food test,for in the cab and truck stops, MSA, Greasy spoons and vans.
Technology in understandable language, e.g. Ad-blue, what is it, how does it work, why etc.
Articles on manufacturers of trucks, trailers, brakes, tachos, equipment, tests of straps or straps against rope, forklifts, safety equipment, tools the list is endless.
And yes a little bit bling is nice now and than
If I look what people do here, they love the dairies, and anything what you don’t do yourself is interesting, but sometimes the more reachable stories are the best
You could be a farm delivery driver, but there is only very few of us who deliver mega structures around the world, so for me the stories of Joe Blog doing a multi drop round the country site does much more than a multi man operation to put a mega load 3miles up the road.
And yes some articles from the office point of view.
And what would be nice is to go back after a half year to a company and see if their new truck is still favourable, or has thrown some trouble.
I nominate Mike C or the sadly missed SmashedCrabFace for a guest column
No longer buy any of them now I drive…What is the point?
I can find out more simply talking to others, so why would I want to pay to find out from a glossy mag. whose journalists have probably jazzed it up, just as they do on the TV 
National Geographic is my chosen read, informative, inspirational and brilliant photography 
europleb:
got bored reading about silly billys buying trucks well over specced and far more expensive than need be then spending 5k on a paint job,id love a look at their business plans and costings forecasts.the tippers always made me crack up ill have the biggest heaviest cab for day work then bolt on a load of expensive old crap then carry less and get paid less than the others.
But who cares if someone has over spent on a truck?
Do you buy a car magazine and wonder if someone has taken a loan out to pay for mods? Does it honestly matter 
Truck mags have always had highly spec’d trucks on the cover, airbrushed to the max and as many lights and chrome as possible.
Its good on the eyes and certainly better than viewing billy basic spec white ones
I think that the beginning of the end for Truck magazines was the death of Phil Llewellin in 2005. Long Distance Diary was what made me and many other people buy Truck magazine, and although trucking was certainly much more interesting and exotic 20 or 30 years ago, there were many Long Distance Diaries based in the UK which Phil’s writing made into great reads, for example a multi drop frozen food run for Woodward Foods in North Wales which was his part of the world. What I’m trying to say, is that most of the contributors to this thread (which is one of the best for a while) have concentrated on what subjects would be of interest to most drivers , but it really isn’t what you write about, it’s the way that you write about it. An outstanding film/DVD or book is rarely successful just because of the subject matter, but because a lot of work and thought and energy has gone into it. The current Trucking magazines really have lost their way and are just “going through the motions” Time for some new thinking!
I go through phases of buying mags.
The trouble is they stick to a regimented format which can be quite refreshing if you haven’t read one for a few months but then after 3 or 4 back to back issues they get a bit predictable.
Just my opinion but the likes of this and other forums can cover all the easy to answer questions to a depth which just wouldn’t be viable or interesting in a mag.
I would like to see more in depth articles because although I think all the mags cover interesting topics I’m often left wanting more info from what are basically overviews.
I 've always been drawn to the LDD type of articles and although I admit there isn’t the variety of journey undertaken these days they are still out there. Nick Garlick has written some very interesting stuff recently.
As for articles on trucks themselves I like a bit of bling but it seems that T&D in particular just trawls truckfest and makes a list of trucks to feature for the next year. It’s a missed opportunity when there is so much interesting kit out there these days.
I do appreciate that it’s tough out there and suspect there are many promising articles ditched due to companies not wanting the details of their operation appearing in the press that just happens to be read by there competitors.
Cheers
Neilf
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I don’t find Shobba hilarious and I’ve never read the LDDs but then like the Doha tales, it’s a bit before my time.
Are some of the drivers’ comments in Truck on Trial features scripted? None of my co drivers could review their vehicle in that style.
I subscribe to Commercial Motor & buy Heritage Commecials, and I also read the gaffer’s copy of Motor Transport. I used to subscribe to Truck. Truck closed down during my last year’s subscription & I was sent 3 copies of T&D. What a let down. I have NO interest in kid’s attempts at drawing, nor do I wasnt to see somebody’s scabby dog.
I have to agree with Quicksilver about Phil Llewellyn’s articles. They were well written without being condescending. His book “The Road to Muckle Flugga” is well worth reading. The closest I’ve seen to his Long Distance Diaries is the postings on here by New Merc Man. That’s not to say that the other diaries aren’t worthy of praise, just that NMM’s most closely echo the style of Phil’s.
I also remember Headlight but, as has been stated elsewhere, although a good read, it didn’t move with the times.
I had a look at CVC today as it was Foden orientated but I still put it back; A big part was some blokes’ memories of them in Dubai (cue me yawning) and at £4.20 they can shove it up their arses.
I saw the bling/b’ssed motor on T and D’s cover and didn’t even look inside it.
i wouldnt have thought that a bog standard run of the mill truck on the cover every month would sell too many copies either