Trucking Magazines

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi,

I’m wondering if I’m going to open a can of worms here,but we’ll see.

I have for the past few years bought various trucking magazines,this week I went to buy the latest copy of Trucking and Truck &Driver.
However ,looking at them in the newsagents I decided that I just didnt want any more pics of airbrushed ,painted to the heavens ,dripping with chrome and polished alloy Scania’s and DAF’s and Mercs.
These paint jobs must cost thousands, wouldn’t it be better to pay the driver another pound an hour and for somebody to have some practical benefit from the money.
I know there are some drivers who would rather have bling than money in the paypacket but at the end of the day ,what do we go to work for?
Am I on my own with these thoughts?

Cheers Bassman

2

Not alone Bassman, I often skip the bling reports. I like the truck trials, but there is an awful lot of tosh churned out. Kids’ drawings, music reviews, and van reports don’t get a second glance. The classic mags can be just as repetitive with endless war stories and rose tinted views.

3

In another life, I asked a few operators and driver that question.

Their reply was usually that work didn’t leave them much time for hobbies, they spent longer in the truck than they did at home and they wanted something that they liked and made the truck stand out.

You could ask the same question of a company that has paintings on its office walls.

the real waste of money is the Government Ministers who have collections of old masters etc hanging on the walls of their private offices.

these very valuable works of art have often been ‘left to the nation’ or, worse, ‘purchased for the nation’ presumably with the expectation that they would be hung in the National Gallery or somewhere where the public could enjoy them. Instead they are hanging on the wall where some minister can gawp at them when he/she should be working.

4

GasGas

I’ve no quibble with a driver trying to make his surroundings more comfortable for his leisure hours, you know the time when you are an unpaid security guard, but I just don’t understand this modern compulsion for all things bright and beautiful.
We’ve all heard about the drivers who will work for £5 an hour and a tin of polish but you don’t put the tin of polish and shiny motor on the table on Sunday dinner time. You might talk about it but you don’t eat it, or at least I never have.

You go to work to earn money , if you enjoy the job ,and on the whole I enjoyed my time, so much the better ,but I liked my wages to be in a paypacket not a reflection on a shiny truck.

Cheers Bassman

5

You don’t put a fancy car on the table to feed the family but many people buy nice cars to drive twice a day for a few minutes. Horse for courses. If we only did things that had practical benefit the world would be a boring place.

You’re also just assuming bling and wages is either or, based on nothing but hearsay. Not necessarily the case.

6

I wouldn’t necessarily equate a flash truck with a low wage, although if it was my decision I would rather have money than a lightbar.

But some people genuinely get a lot of pleasure from driving and looking after their bosses’ truck…just look at Truckfest!

I can’t imagine that I’ll ever get a blinged up mouse for my Apple Mac, wipe the keyboard down nicely and enter it at Computerfest though.

7

I don’t tend to buy any mags now I often flick through and read the one or two bits that interest me in WH Smith’s though.
There does seem to be an emphasis on blinged up motors now I was an avid reader back when there was things like long distance diary and you got to see what different jobs where about and a real in-depth test on new and in service trucks.
If you read a truck test now especially in trucking you will have a two page history on how alias trucks built the f86 8wheeler for the UK through a history of the f7 fl 10 and fm 12 and half a page on the new fmx which is a great truck and pitted against the daf cf which you will get a history of the daf 2500 the scammell routeman and Leyland constructor with and there both great and the volvo just edges it due to having a better space to keep your phone. But I guess they can’t afford to lose the advert revenue from Paccar or volvo renault.
End of the day the publishers will be constantly looking a what sells most and it must be what’s in the mags now.

8

kr79:
I don’t tend to buy any mags now I often flick through and read the one or two bits that interest me in WH Smith’s though.
There does seem to be an emphasis on belonged up motors now I was an avid reader back when there was things like long distance diary and you got to see what different jobs where about and a real in-depth test on new and in service trucks.
If you read a truck test now especially in trucking you will have a two page history on how alias trucks built the f86 8wheeler for the UK through a history of the f7 fl 10 and fm 12 and half a page on the new find which is a great truck and pitted against the daf cf which you will get a history of the daf 2500 the scammell routeman and Leyland constructor with and there both great and the volvo just edges it due to having a better space to keep your phone. But I guess they can’t afford to lose the advert revenue from Paccar or volvo renault.
End of the day the publishers will be constantly looking a what sells most and it must be what’s in the mags now.

Thing is until they get rid of the drawings and the Wallon Jennings type reviews, and replace them with something else, they won’t know if they’ll sell more.

9

Kr79 is spot on, I’ve noticed the history lesson to fill in space. Then, a rather too eloquent review of the vehicle by the driver, and the final testers’ wishy washy judgement.

10

Hi
I follow the argument about fancy cars as opposed to a blinged up truck. I always like my car and which ever truck I was driving at the time ,to be clean, inside and out.
My point is that in today.s magazines there must be more than blinged up trucks to the haulage industry for them to write about.
I also appreciate that a truck that catches the eye can be a revenue booster for, both owner drivers and larger fleets. I also agree that a driver of a blinged up truck isn’t necessarily low paid but in todays supposed times of austerity I would have thought that the cost of some of these paint jobs would take a lot of justifying.

Cheers Bassman

11

Do remember to claim the cost of your trade journals as a business expense when you do your self assessment tax return.

12

I think they are a victim of a less varied, more corporate business that we operate now, compared to say 15 - 25 years ago. They can only report on what is there… there is less variety amongst the hardware and operators.

The most variety available now seems to be amongst trailers and bodywork, but they aren’t very ‘■■■■’ on the front cover are they :confused:

Plus as regards testing new lorries, there really is not a lot to pick fault in is there?

If you think back to the ‘Truck in Service’ articles that Truck Magazine did, they used to look at a “haulier” (where are they now?!), what it ran, what jobs they did and how they maintained them… who maintains their own fleet now?

Those articles then changed format, into looking at 3x operators using the same truck to compare their experiences - probably as the subjects for those articles was changing.

What would a typical article say now? … “We’ve got a yard full of Volvo/Merc/Man etc, they all do 150,000-300,000kms per year, they are all comfy to drive and they seldom break down”… that’s pretty much it!

We can perhaps look back at the early 70’s to mid 90’s as an ideal situation for publishing; more varied fleets and operators; newer, more exciting kit to write about (through the 50’s & 60’s most hauliers were making do with post-war austerity), no competition from the internet, and a rise in publishing capability and journalists (step forward Pat Kennet, George Bennett, et al).

There is also the fact that when you have been reading these mags for 30-odd years, there will not be much in the way of stuff you have not seen before.

I’m glad I can look over my cherished collection of ‘Truck’, but fear not much will alter for now… Perhaps ‘Saviem’ can start up a fanzine? - I would subscribe!

13

Very true even this century we have lost erf foden and seddon atkinson add in the leyland group of companys ford and bedford the seperate companys that became iveco saviem and berliet there was a lot more choice to test and write about in the past.

14

Not forgettng the large numbers of agency and foreign drivers used my the large companies these days. “I likeski lorry very muchski. Seat is good. Very good I get paid £7 per hour to drive. Very happy.”
Wouldn’t shift many copies would it?

15

Although I still buy and read T&D and Trucking International I do skip some stuff these days. For my money Headlight was always the best read and I for one wish they would bring it back in it’s original and informative format. Also the original TRUCK magazine with Pat Bennet (RIP) & of course Phil Llewelyn’s long distance diaries.

16

the only item i looked forward to was shobba,absolutely brilliant,i took out a subscription on truck and driver,now shobba has gone i wont be renewing and will only buy it if it looks interesting

17

Classic Truck is very good if 70s to 90s lorries are your thing. Current issue comes with a transport cafe book that was on sale on it’s own recently.
Heritage Commercials is good for older stuff but Classic and Vintage Commercials isn’t soft, strong or very very long for the price it sells for. Unless you want to see endless Atkinson Borderers, being told how good they were and how Atkinson messed up by not having a tilt cab. Oh and some war stories and the A to Zzzzz of lorry manufacturers that’s been going on since you could buy Atkinson Borderers.

18

truckman20:
the only item i looked forward to was shobba,absolutely brilliant,i took out a subscription on truck and driver,now shobba has gone i wont be renewing and will only buy it if it looks interesting

I dearly wish to meet the man, the legend that is Shobba.

As a young pup, I used to love his cartoons in the motorcycle mags.

You either ‘get’ Shobba or you don’t.

I think we both became disillusioned & disappeared from the bike mag scene at roughly the same time, I nearly ■■■’d in my pants when I found him again 15yrs later, purely by chance, in a truck mag while waiting in a workshop.

I remember my favourite from the bike days, a hairy arsed biker type is popping his head above the clouds in Heaven & see’s that God actually rides a Vespa !

My favourite from the truck mags is the knuckledragger who uses Diesel as a perfume/aftershave, & due to the exhorbitant price of Diesel, finds himself dripping with attractive wimmin.

Who is Shobba?

Surely this is not some kind of ‘Banksy’ exercise in creating a fake anonymous mystique !

I want a Shobba original, I want it for me, to put on my wall. Not so that I can sell it in the future as part of a retirement fund.

19

Pat Kennet and George Bennett have been mentioned ,they really used to drive (no pun intended )the magazine along and in their day there was more variety to write about.
It seems to me that new borders need exploring to bring back the allround interest in the magazines that there used to be.

Maybe debates like this might provide a bit of impetus.

Bassman

20

Chas:
I remember my favourite from the bike days, a hairy arsed biker type is popping his head above the clouds in Heaven & see’s that God actually rides a Vespa !

Found it.

Like I said, you either ‘get’ Shobba or you don’t.