Comprehensive cover policy
Page 42
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
MORE THAN 1900 photos are printed in the 704 pages of The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles; 2500 manufacturers are listed, and the book claims to cover every commercial vehicle built for use on public roads in the nineteenth century until the autumn of 1978.
Even motorcycle-derived three-wheelers get mentions — so long as they are purpose-built load carriers.
The encyclopedia is essentially one of chassis makers,
and bodybuilders are -included only where they have made a complete vehicle. Streetcleaning equipment, snowploughs and mobile cranes are not specifically listed, though they may be mentioned if they were made by firms which built other vehicles as well.
As an example of the book's comprehensiveness, the obscure Sandringham (GB), 1903 of King's Lynn, Norfolk, gets an entry. This 10hp vehicle was built (probably based on Daimler) by Frank Morris, car repairer to King Edward VII.
On the other hand I did not spot one photo of an articulated bus, although the MAN and Mercedes examples are listed.
The editor is G. N. Georgano, previously a teacher and now head librarian at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu,