Truck

A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration; smaller varieties may be mechanically similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful and may be configured to be mounted with specialized equipment, such as in the case of refuse trucks, fire trucks, concrete mixers, and suction excavators. Strictly speaking, a commercial vehicle without a tractor or other articulation is a 'straight truck' while one designed specifically to pull a trailer is not a truck but a 'tractor'. Modern trucks are largely powered by diesel engines, although small to medium size trucks with gasoline engines exist in the US, Canada, and Mexico. In the European Union, vehicles with a gross combination mass of up to 3.5 t (7,700 lb) are known as light commercial vehicles, and those over as large goods vehicles. Trucks and cars have a common ancestor: the steam-powered fardier Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built in 1769. However, steam wagons were not common until the mid-1800s. The roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from a factory to the nearest railway station. The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a steam tractor manufactured by De Dion-Bouton. Steam-powered wagons were sold in France and the United States until the eve of World War I, and 1935 in the United Kingdom, when a change in road tax rules made them uneconomic against the new diesel lorries. In 1895 Karl Benz designed and built the first truck in history using the internal combustion engine. Later that year some of Benz's trucks were modified to become the first bus by the Netphener, the first motorbus company in history. A year later, in 1896, another internal combustion engine truck was built by Gottlieb Daimler. Other companies, such as Peugeot, Renault and Büssing, also built their own versions. The first truck in the United States was built by Autocar in 1899 and was available with optional 5 or 8 horsepower motors. Trucks of the era mostly used two-cylinder engines and had a carrying capacity of 3,300 to 4,400 lb (1.5 to 2 t). In 1904, 700 heavy trucks were built in the United States, 1000 in 1907, 6000 in 1910, and 25000 in 1914. After World War I, several advances were made: pneumatic tires replaced the previously common full rubber versions. electric starters, power brakes, 4, 6, and 8 cylinder engines, closed cabs, and electric lighting followed. The first modern semi-trailer trucks also appeared. Touring car builders such as Ford and Renault entered the heavy truck market. Although it had been invented in 1897, the diesel engine did not appear in production trucks until Benz introduced it in 1923.The diesel engine was not common in trucks in Europe until the 1930s. In the United States, Autocar introduced diesel engines for heavy applications in the mid-1930s. Demand was high enough that Autocar launched the 'DC' model (diesel conventional) in 1939. However, it took much longer for diesel engines to be broadly accepted in the US: gasoline engines were still in use on heavy trucks in the 1970s. Truck is used in American English, and is common in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Pakistan and South Africa, while lorry is the equivalent in British English, and is the usual term in countries like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, and India.