Who still buys them? There seems to loads unsold in my local WHSmith, and who needs them nowadays? T&D is about as informative and interesting as a certain Stobart tv show and on the classic side, Classic and Vintage Commercials is a steaming turd.
So dont buy them… no one is breaking your arm too. I personally have an aversion to olives, every time I go to ASDA I see them on the shelves and some how manage to avoid buying them I dont feel the need to tell everyone on Tesco.net that I dislike olives
Dont like the magazines then dont buy them… not difficult for most folks
But as a point of interest our magazines this year are up on newstrade sales compared to last year so some folks like them
Funny you should ask that, I bought Commercial Motor today for the first time in maybe eight years. It could have been the last copy i bought that many years ago, still predicting the end of the world, still the barely-concealed gloating at the latest firm to close, still the same people pontificating from the same other-world ivory tower.
As for Truck and Driver, I’d say Take a Break is more relevant to road transport. Now I haven’t bought it in many years, and it could have improved, but I always found Dave Young to be a self-serving birth canal, with all the wit and originality of the clown in the canteen who just missed the Channel Tunnel fire.
A waste of money.
i occasionally buy a magazine if something on the cover interests me always worth having a magazine in the car when waiting to start work
Well I reckon T & D has really upped it’s game since Colin Barnett became the editor 
I stopped buying it when they did the 3D thing on Stobarts, but it has definetly improved.
Regards
Dave Penn;
I use to like Headlight does anyone remember it?
Occasionally but t&d and trucking international
I cant talk for my colleagues , but I think we can all agree the 3D issue wasnt the best idea, However the recent CM Middle East and heavy Haulage specials have sold like hot cakes
T&D, It is the best selling magazine for drivers by a long way but it has become complacent , the good news it there is a complete no holds barred review of all T&D’s content, with no scacred cows
I am part of that review and excatly how we rejuvinate T&D is still up for discussion, I think personally its has lost its way and forgotten its focus spending more time on the bling and less on the things that matter to the guys doing the job
A little bling is not a bad thing in the mag… a good cover shot always sells well, but in needs to get far more in depth to the industry , stop being so nicey nicey and reflect at the ground level this is a hard and nasty place to be
For the majority of our industry “OOH SHINY” means nothing
Trouble is, the job is far less interesting than it was 25 years ago when you could read the diary of someone going to Istanbul or somesuch.
Rikki-UK:
So dont buy them… no one is breaking your arm too. I personally have an aversion to olives, every time I go to ASDA I see them on the shelves and some how manage to avoid buying them I dont feel the need to tell everyone on Tesco.net that I dislike olivesDont like the magazines then dont buy them… not difficult for most folks
But as a point of interest all our magazines this year are up on newstrade sales compared to last year so some folks like them
That’s funny, where in his post did he complain about having to buy them? He actually put a question out there, and that was, “Who still buys them?”. Here, read it again…
Who still buys them? There seems to loads unsold in my local WHSmith, and who needs them nowadays? T&D is about as informative and interesting as a certain Stobart tv show and on the classic side, Classic and Vintage Commercials is a steaming turd.
And he’s right anyway (in my opinion). T&D is, frankly boring now and at times poorly written (I stopped buying it years ago). Sadly, newspapers and magazines will soon(ish) be a thing of the past, as they can’t keep up with the immediacy and vibrancy of instant news, articles and pictures, on the vast expansion of the internet and related technology such as the iPad for example.
Even the once big selling Top Gear magazine doesn’t shift off the shelves anymore.
In answer to OP, I haven’t bought one in the last 30 years or so.
used to get the “Headlight” now and then.
AS Harry says the job is less interesting …and so are the trucks.
Rikki-UK:
I cant talk for my colleagues , but I think we can all agree the 3D issue wasnt the best idea, However the recent CM Middle East and heavy Haulage specials have sold like hot cakes
T&D It is the best selling magazine for drivers by a long way but it has become complacent , the good news it there is a complete no holds barred review of all T&D’s content, with no scacred cowsI am part of that review and excatly how we rejuvinate T&D is still up for discussion, I think personally its has lost its way and forgotten its focus spending more time on the bling and less on the things that matter to the guys doing the job
A little bling is not a bad thing in the mag… a good cover shot always sells well, but in needds to get far more in depth to the industry , stop being so nicey nicey and reflect at the ground level this is a hard and nasty place to be
For the majority of our industry “OOH SHINY” means nothing
I agree with everything you say about T&D and that’s after last buying it in (I think) 2005.
I don’t want to influence your review too much, but if you only do one thing, please make it a disciplinary offence to show pictures of the latest cab-happy-debutante-with-a-chrome-fetish folding his arms in front of his latest millstone, it only encourages Commercial Motor to kick them when they inevitably fall shortly afterwards.
Cheers.
I miss Truck magazine - it had some really good exclusives over the years. I first bought a copy as a 7 year old and 31 years later I still by the odd mag. The thing is people have changed online is the way everything is going my wife doesn’t buy a paer anymore she reads it online. Like someone said trucks today are all the same - I remember still to this day coming home from the newsagent with a copy of Truck which had an “exclusive” on the magnum.
people don’t to Iran anymore. Even Russia has really finished. No waiting to “clear” etc. Thinking back I remember waiting inline for a slot at a Presto super market with 7 trucks all in line waiting to tip boxes of this and that somehow RDC are some more clinical
I’m in agreement with the anti bling sentiment. Looking at these I’ll prepared doughnuts that we all know will be bust within twelve months is depressing.
Personally I only ever buy it if there is a long distance diary style piece. They could be going anywhere but I do enjoy reading other drivers on job experiences.
Muckaway:
Who still buys them? There seems to loads unsold in my local WHSmith, and who needs them nowadays? T&D is about as informative and interesting as a certain Stobart tv show and on the classic side, Classic and Vintage Commercials is a steaming turd.
Agreed! A bit more industry detail without talking about down to drivers about “Bosses” would be cool. Page three babe for every issue would be nice■■?!!
Rikki’s bang on about the bling; I scan through T and D in the newsagents along with Trucking and the classic ones, and T and D seems to be “look how wonderful this lorrys’ spotlights are” every issue. Trucking is a lot of doom and gloom and the terminally crap “my mistake” features and CVC has the “A to Z of every commercial vehicle built” that has wasted space for the best part of 10 years.
Basically, all the mags shoot themselves in the foot one way or another.
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Ha, ha! Thank god you didn’t say you buy them!
My mini rant at Rikki would have been pointless then!
So tell us what you want in a magazine for you.
what would make you spend out for a magazine and buy it each month?
If you tell us we can work towards it… and give you what you wish
dont tell us and the guys producing the magazine have to guess. you have a chance here to shape the future of your magazine
I personally will take your sensible comments and ideas and put them forward
I’ve got some old truck mags in the loft from the early '90s and the truck v truck features were more interesting because there were more manufacturers. Merc v Leyland Daf, Sed Atki v ERF, Iveco v MAN, Scania v Foden etc etc and in any combination. I used to like Trucks features on old motors still working (an AEC Mammoth Major and an AEC Mercury come to mind). CVC have a similar feature but it’s way too short just so a few sleep inducing readers letters can be fitted in.
Also, where T and D have the Scania bling thing, T and D are obsessed with Atkinson Borderers.
Rikki-UK:
So tell us what you want in a magazine for you.what would make you spend out for a magazine and buy it each month?
If you tell us we can work towards it… and give you what you wish
dont tell us and the guys producing the magazine have to guess. you have a chance here to shape the future of your magazine
I personally will take your sensible comments and ideas and put them forward
Frankly, I would close them all and let a new one evolve if it was warranted at all.
Who really needs magazines when we have forums such as this?