Horses & Wheels

So about 4ooo years ago someone managed to domesticate horses. Whilst we are sure people delivered stuff before this, this was a game changer. And about 1000 years later a very clever person came up with the wheel and that's when haulage and freight services really got interesting because now you had carts and other "vehicles" capable of delivering things bigger and heavier than one person (or horse) could carry.

Steam Powered

Around the turn of the 19th Century steam really took off  with steam ships and Mr Stevenson's famous "Rocket" train changing the way goods were moved around forever. But the issue of getting things from the dock or station to their final destination was still a bit problamatic.

Benz Powered

In 1879 Karl Benz patented the first properly usable internal combustion engine and with it ushered in the age of the motorised vehicle. Many companies sprang up producing horseless carriages (or Cars for short!) and it was not long before small delivery trucks were being produced. Over time these increased in size and capability. And with the British invention of Tarmac to produce a smooth reliable road surface and the addition of pneumatic tyres after WW1 things really got moving.

Troubled Times

By 1926 there were approimately 300,000 commercial vehicles on Britain's roads of all shapes and sizes. One of the biggest impacts of this was the ability to move heavy building materials about more quickly and easily and this fueled a boom in large scale construction. However WW2 interupted this flourishing time and many lorries and vehicles were suddenly transporting soldiers and weapons instead of consumer goods and construction materials.

Post War Golden Age

Many people regard the post-war era as a ‘Golden Age’ of road transport. Roads and motorways sprang up and more and more goods were transported by lorry and truck and innovations such as the HIAB were introduced. By 1960 there were over half a million lorries moving goods around the UK.

Striking Out!

In 1978 many public sector workers decided to strike, including Lorry drivers who were the first to demand better pay. As the lorries stopped moving the nation ground to a halt revealing just how dependent we had become on them.  Finally a deal was reached with the drivers in 1979.

Steady on

Over the last 20 to 30 years the haulage and freight industry has enjoyed a fairly stable existance going from strength to strength despite the various economic crashes that we have endured. With the focus now on climate change and less polluting vehicles it remains to be seen how well the haulage and freight sector will cope but if the past is anything to go by they will find new and innovative ways to keep our deliveries moving...