For what it’s worth, I still think the modern trucks scene has plenty of interest in the different vehicle makes you see on the roads, but also the variety of liveries. But in fairness, the 2020s pale into insignificance compared with 40 years ago.
Akey change those four decades ago was up until 1983, the maximum legal gross vehicle weight in the UK was just 32½ tons, on four axles and so the UK’s roads were a wash with 4x2 tractors pulling two-axle trailers. The maximum length was 15½ metres, and trailers were typically ‘40-footers’.
The tractors were mostly day cabbed units, although the sleeper cab was becoming more commonplace as more operators sought to take on longer distance work and that meant drivers having more nights out.
Most operators still never left the UK, but there was a growing number trying their hand at Continental haulage, and in those days there wasn’t a Channel Tunnel – you had to get the ferry across the water, be it from Dover, Hull, Harwich, Southampton, Poole or even Plymouth.
VARIED TRUCKS
At the time, manufacturers selling in the UK in
