Business: Trucks

Until 1935, when the annual Automobile Show in Manhattan was moved ahead two months to November, year-end motor news was completely monopolized by the prima donnas of the passenger car industry. Ignored were trucks & buses, the output of which in better days rolled up a wholesale value of more than $500,000,000 yearly and last year was worth $388,000,000. Last week for the first time the truck industry had an opportunity to flourish its record.

Production of 750,000 units was only 10% under the 1929 peak and made 1935 the second biggest truck year in U. S. history. The trend to lighter trucks, however, has reduced dollar volume, which was more than 30% below 1929. Government spending boosted sales, but the prime cause for the truck makers' burst of speed was the spark plug of general business recovery.

Style & Comfort, as truck makers belatedly learned from the passenger car industry, appeal to even the most hard-boiled operator. Streamlining is a feature of most modern trucks, not because it offers any material economy at average truck speeds but simply because a pleasantly bulbous monster with plenty of chromium sells faster than a dull, angular one. Cabs are comfortable, smartly finished, scientifically ventilated, and more of them have been shoved forward over the engine. Performance has been stepped up but SAFETY is now the watchword. A good truck will stop faster than a light roadster, and while pleasure car accidents have increased nearly 60% in the past eight years, commercial vehicle accidents have risen only about 10%. Bus accidents have actually declined. Nearly all truckmakers are experimenting with Diesel engines, though only 600 Diesel-powered units were put on the roads last year. Of those only about one-third were in new chassis, the rest going into models previously powered by gasoline. Milwaukee's Sterling is a leader in the Diesel truck field, but its production is still trifling. Federal truck regulation is expected to boom the Diesel makers, for truck operators, facing higher labor costs, may try to economize on fuel.

The Industry. Only 14 passenger car makers or their affiliates produced all the 3,400,000 pleasure vehicles made in the U. S. and Canada last year. With a 1935 production of 750,000 units, the truck industry consists of some 50 companies, most of which are known only to the people who buy trucks. Many have a distinctly regional flavor. Brockway Motor is strong in the Northeast. Kleiber of San Francisco, Moreland of Burbank, Kenworth of Seattle, distribute on the Pacific Coast. Corbitt Co. is a North Carolina concern.

A number of truck makers are specialists. Four Wheel Drive Auto Co.'s product is popular with municipalities for road building and snow removal. Marmon-Herrington also makes four-wheel drives, largely for the Army. Hug, another contractors' and municipal truck, is made in Highland, Ill. Few people suspect that Yale & Towne (locks) is a builder of electric trucks.