- Also called:
- lorry
- Key People:
- Arthur William Sidney Herrington
truck
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What is a truck?
A truck is a motor vehicle designed for carrying goods or performing specialized functions like firefighting. Historically, trucks evolved from horse-drawn wagons, with Gottlieb Daimler building the first motor truck in 1896.
Trucks can be categorized as straight (single frame) or articulated (multiple connected frames). They are also classified by their Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) rating into light, medium, and heavy-duty categories. Light trucks, often including utility and sport utility vehicles, account for the majority of sales, particularly in the U.S. market.
Beyond road vehicles, the term "truck" can also refer to a wheeled cart for moving heavy objects, a small wheel, or even a type of railroad freight car in British English. In colonial America, "truck" also denoted bartering or the goods exchanged.
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How is a truck different from a car?
A truck is a motor vehicle designed primarily for carrying freight or goods, or for performing special services like firefighting. In contrast, cars are primarily designed for passenger transportation. Trucks can be classified as straight or articulated, with truck tractors specifically designed to draw trailers. While cars have evolved into complex systems for passenger comfort and performance, trucks are built for utility and cargo capacity. The historical development of trucks also shows a clear distinction from early passenger wagons and their subsequent evolution for commercial and military purposes.
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What are some common uses for trucks?
Trucks are versatile vehicles with numerous applications, primarily centered around the transportation of goods and performing specialized tasks. They are crucial for intercity freight delivery, especially for non-bulk materials, and dominate intracity deliveries due to their ability to reach final destinations directly.
Common uses include:
* Freight Transport: Carrying goods between cities and within urban areas.
* Special Services: Performing functions like firefighting.
* Industrial Material Handling: Moving materials within factories using types like forklift trucks, crane trucks, and straddle trucks.
* Recreational Use: Modified vans and panel trucks are used as recreational vehicles (RVs).Light trucks, including pickup trucks, utility vehicles, and vans, are also popular as family vehicles, particularly in the American market.
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What types of cargo do trucks transport?
Trucks are versatile vehicles designed to transport a wide array of cargo. They are instrumental in moving manufactured goods, requiring protection from the elements or theft, as seen in boxcars. Specialized trucks, like refrigerator cars, are equipped to transport perishable items such as fresh or frozen foods.
For bulk materials, hopper cars are utilized for commodities like coal, gravel, and grain. Tank cars are specifically designed for liquids, including industrial chemicals. Trucks also transport heavy machinery and military equipment, often utilizing flatcars for this purpose. Furthermore, trucks play a crucial role in delivering goods directly to recipients within cities, handling everything from consumer products to specialized industrial materials.
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What are the main parts that make up a truck?
A truck is a motor vehicle designed for carrying freight or performing special services. Trucks can be classified as either straight or articulated. A straight truck has all axles attached to a single frame, while an articulated vehicle consists of two or more separate frames connected by couplings. A truck tractor is specifically designed for drawing truck trailers, which can be semitrailers or full trailers. Key components include the frame, suspension systems, steering mechanisms, engines (gasoline or diesel), tires, transmissions, and braking systems, which can be mechanical, hydraulic, or air brakes.
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How do trucks help keep goods moving in our daily lives?
Trucks are essential for the movement of goods in our daily lives, playing a crucial role in both intercity and intracity freight delivery. They are motor vehicles specifically designed to transport freight or perform specialized services.
Trucks are vital for:
* Intercity Freight: They carry a significant portion of goods between cities, especially when bulk materials are not involved.
* Intracity Delivery: Trucks have a near-monopoly on delivering goods directly to recipients within cities.The first motor truck was built in 1896 by Gottlieb Daimler. Trucks have evolved significantly, with modern designs focusing on efficiency and reduced emissions. They are classified by their carrying capacity, ranging from light trucks to heavy-duty haulers, and by their design, such as straight or articulated vehicles.
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truck, any motor vehicle designed to carry freight or goods or to perform special services such as fire fighting. The truck was derived from horse-driven wagon technology, and some of the pioneer manufacturers came from the wagon business. Because of a well-developed system of roads and highways in North America and Europe, trucks have come to carry most intercity freight, with the exception of bulk materials such as ores, which are typically still carried by ship and rail, and time-critical deliveries, which are usually carried between cities by air. Trucks enjoy an almost total monopoly in intracity freight delivery because of their ability to deliver goods directly to recipients.
In 1896 Gottlieb Daimler of Germany built the first motor truck. It was equipped with a four-horsepower engine and a belt drive with two speeds forward and one in reverse. In 1898 the Winton Company of the United States produced a gasoline-powered delivery wagon with a single-cylinder six-horsepower engine.
In World War I motor trucks were widely used, and in World War II they largely replaced horse-drawn equipment. A notable vehicle was the four-wheel-drive, quarter-ton-capacity, short-wheelbase jeep, capable of performing a variety of military tasks.
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In the last quarter of the 20th century, new truck sales grew tremendously in the United States. In large part, this happened because of the introduction of utility and sport utility vehicles, which are classified as light trucks but operated as family vehicles. Light trucks accounted for more than 90 percent of all truck sales and roughly half of total vehicle sales in the United States annually by the start of the 21st century. This phenomenon was unique to the American market; worldwide, trucks are purchased mainly for commercial operation.
Types and definitions
Trucks can be classified as either straight or articulated. A straight truck is one in which all axles are attached to a single frame. An articulated vehicle is one that consists of two or more separate frames connected by suitable couplings. A truck tractor is a motor vehicle designed primarily for drawing truck trailers and constructed to carry part of the weight and load of a semitrailer, which is a truck trailer equipped with one or more axles and constructed so that the end and a substantial part of its own weight and that of its load rests upon a truck tractor. In contrast, a full trailer is constructed so that all of its own weight and that of its load rests upon its own wheels.
A device called a fifth wheel is used to connect a truck tractor to a semitrailer and to permit articulation between the units. It generally includes a lower half, consisting of a trunnion (pivot assembly) plate and latching mechanism, mounted on the truck tractor for connection with a kingpin mounted on the semitrailer. A semitrailer may be converted to a full trailer by a trailer-converter dolly, an auxiliary axle assembly equipped with the lower half of a fifth wheel, a drawbar, and other special parts.
Axle assemblies of heavy trucks may be made up of two or more axles, any of which may be powered. Normally, they are spaced so that the distance between axle centres is not more than one and one-half times the overall diameter of the wheel and tire. If the axles are separated by a larger distance, the assembly is called a spread tandem.
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Trucks are organized for regulatory purposes in the United States by their fully loaded capacity, or gross vehicle weight (GVW) rating. Light trucks have GVW ratings that do not exceed 10,000 pounds (4.5 metric tons); GVWs of less than 8,500 pounds (3.9 metric tons) are classified as work trucks. These vehicles generally have more in common with passenger cars than with larger trucks. More than half of the world production of trucks consists of light pickup trucks, utility vehicles, and vans. Medium trucks have GVW ratings of 10,000 to 26,000 pounds (4.5 to 11.8 metric tons) and are generally straight designs. They make up about 3 percent of sales. Heavy-duty haulers with GVW ratings of more than 26,000 pounds are cross-country tractor-trailer combinations and off-road construction or mining trucks; these account for the remainder. A small number of off-road vehicles have GVW ratings that exceed 80,000 pounds (36.3 metric tons). About 15 million trucks are added to the world total each year, but since 2004 the ratio of trucks to passenger cars in the world has decreased annually.
Truck operators are taxed and regulated by government agencies. Approximately half of the revenues that are collected from federal and state highway users in the United States come from the trucking industry. Regulations limit the permissible length, height, weight, safety standards, speed, and noise and exhaust emission levels. Standards are generally similar to those for passenger cars.
Between 150,000 and 400,000 recreational vehicles (RVs) are produced each year in the United States, depending on economic conditions. These are primarily vans and panel trucks that are modified by RV manufacturers. Half of the units are trailers that are not self-propelled. The majority of these are attached to cars and trucks by a ball-type hitch. A portion, however, are towed by light trucks with fifth-wheel hitches mounted on the truck bed. This arrangement permits greater loading on the hitch. Motor homes built on truck chassis that have been supplied by major truck manufacturers to the builders account for the balance of recreational vehicle production.
Truck aerodynamics is important for efficient high-speed highway transportation. Cab designs include extended surfaces that smooth the flow of air over and around the truck and trailer bodies and baffle air flow under the truck to reduce drag and lower the cost of truck operation. Narrowing the space between the truck cab and the trailer has a similar effect. Total operating cost savings of 22 percent have been projected for improved truck aerodynamics.