The 1965 Büssing Platform Truck

Christoph Büch has made a name for himself as a truck photographer. His main profession was initially as a cab driver in West Berlin, then for decades as a bus driver for the Berlin transport company BVG. In his spare time, he began to express his passion for trucks with his camera at an early age. It is not enough for him to simply photograph a truck; he attaches great importance to the ambience and surroundings. Christoph is particularly well known on Facebook for his photos of trucks in the rain, roaring along the road in a cloud of swirling drops. This article, however, is about the beginnings, when he captured the Berlin feeling of the 80s in black and white.

The fourth part of our Ackermann chronicle focuses on the last quarter-century of the Ackermann company from Wuppertal. In 1979, the spectacular GLZ introduced an innovative concept for increasing cargo space to the market, but the hoped-for success failed to materialize. By then, Ackermann had become part of the American Frühauf Group and was manufacturing trailers and bodies of all kinds until its unexpected demise in 1996. Our freelance contributor Markus Hügle from Teningen has thoroughly researched and described in detail what Ackermann had to offer during its nearly 150 years of existence. Part 1 covers the early days through the post-war period, while Parts 2 and 3 describe the period up to the 1970s.

Few tourists from Western Europe make the long journey to Armenia. Yet the country is just waiting to be discovered – with great openness and hospitality, good food and an optimistic future. Roger Biosca took up the challenge and set off with his camera to photograph not only the official sights, but also the old Soviet trucks that can still be found there.

Anyone traveling through Saxony's Vogtland region who is interested in historic vehicles should not miss a visit to the Werner Poller Foundation. The elderly but lively trucking company owner and commercial vehicle collector has opened an impressive museum in a former brewery hall in Plauen. There, he makes his lovingly restored trucks accessible to an interested public. Perfectly presented in the best lighting, many vehicles from the GDR and other Eastern European countries can be admired. Admission is free.

Many things are bigger in the USA than in Europe, starting with the distances: The area of the EU is around 4.5 million square kilometers, that of the USA 10.5 million. The skyscrapers are taller, the cans of Coke bigger and the dimensions of the trucks in some states are almost unimaginable in Europe, except in Scandinavia. But not only the highways of the USA are full of exciting vehicles, collections, museums and the numerous truck events are also worth a visit. In this article, our freelancer Klaus Werblow from Berlin reports on the “Iowa 80 Trucking Museum & World's Largest Truck Stop” in Walcott, Iowa.

Cyprus, like Malta, was a British colony for almost a century. It is therefore not surprising that relics from this era are still present on the island. For truck enthusiasts, it is the old English trucks that arouse interest. It may be that there are not many of these veteran vehicles left in the meantime. But about twenty years ago, truck spotting on Cyprus was still quite worthwhile. Christoph Büch from Berlin had a look around Cyprus in 2003 and shows some of his finds in this article.

Today they are rare, but in earlier times they used to enrich the street scene: vehicles that served solely as advertising. The advertising vehicles were on the road, for example, with a body in the form of a baby carriage, a rolling shop window, and moving bottles of various contents. Most of them were based on truck or bus chassis, but there were also smaller variants on passenger car chassis. Their time has long since passed, supplanted by television and the Internet.

Airfield vehicles are specially designed for use at airports. They perform various tasks on the airfield to ensure the safety and supply of aircraft and passengers. Anyone who does not have to deal with them professionally or is about to embark on an air journey hardly ever sees these vehicles. That's because they are hardly ever on the road.

In our article, we take a look at the airfield vehicles of recent decades: aircraft tractors, special tankers, baggage and catering transporters, as well as buses that can only be found on the airfield, plus huge fire trucks that help save lives in the event of a disaster. From a multitude of photos, we have selected the most interesting ones. The captions reveal some of the details we researched about the individual vehicles.

Skill at the wheel of a truck is the theme of the "Lorry Driver of the Year" competition, which was held in England every year since after the Second World War. In our report, the authentic photos are particularly fascinating. The photographers from the magazine "Commercial Motor" were out and about at the event site in Birmingham in 1960 to take pictures of the competitors and their vehicles, which have long since become classics. Looking at the old black and white photos, we feel transported back to a bygone era.

For the 17th time, a special kind of classic vehicle festival took place on the site of a southern German gravel works between Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Participants were able to let off steam with their historic vehicles and construction machinery to their heart's content and spectators were invited to marvel at the colorful goings-on without barriers and fluttering ribbons. In addition, the meeting was, as always, characterized by a variety that could hardly be surpassed. Andreas Fehsenmeier and his son Linus from Heidelberg were there for truckinfocus.com and sent us an interesting report with great photos.

Over the past decades, the name Wörnitz (Germany) has become synonymous with Europe's largest classic truck meeting. The event takes place every two years, in 2024 for the 18th time. On the rain-free weekend from September 6 to 8, around 400 vehicles gathered at the Wörnitz truck stop, including many rarities and new acquisitions. They came not only from all over Germany, but also from other countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.

The event “Historical Container Handling and General Freight Traffic in the Port of Hamburg” takes place twice a year after it became so popular that a one-year cycle was no longer sufficient. Apparently, organizer Jürgen Danner hit the bull's eye with his idea of a themed event where everything fits together: Vehicles, equipment, cargo and even the participants not only in action, but also in historically appropriate clothing. For truckinfocus.com, our freelancer Matthias Herrfurth photographed the vehicles at the last event in September 2024 and organizer Jürgen Danner contributed some pictures showing the lively activities that really breathe life into the event.

Saurer commercial vehicles were built in Arbon on Lake Constance from 1903 to 1986. A number of buses and trucks from the traditional Swiss manufacturer have been preserved, including an S4C tipper built in 1953. Its history can be traced back without any gaps and all previous owners are known. Today, Holger Hahn from Munich looks after the 70-year-old veteran truck. This report is about his visit to an old lady who earned her living with the conventional truck many years ago.

On June 8, 2024, it was that time again: as every year, the British Motor Museum in Gaydon hosted the "Classic and Vintage Commercial Show" over two days. What is probably the largest gathering of its kind in Europe regularly attracts up to 400 commercial vehicles from before the year 2004, with participants from other countries adding to the diversity of classic commercial vehicles. Admission is also valid for the museum, with around 400 classic cars and more than 160 tables with models of all scales. Our freelancer Richard Stanier from Stoke-on-Trent provided us with a photo report of the event.

In 1957, Ferrari commissioned three identical special vehicles from renowned Italian coachbuilder Bartoletti. Painted in Ferrari red, these spectacular transporters could each carry three racing cars to race tracks across Europe. In the decades that followed, the race car transporters were almost forgotten, but then various model car manufacturers took up the theme. Inspired by the models, some full-size copies were built in the USA, and in the Netherlands, too, years of detailed work resulted in a faithful replica, which Niels Jansen presents in this article.