100 + years of Commercial Motor

We are more than pleased to let you all know- that we have completed a project to put almost every issue of Commercial Motor since 1905- online - next weeks Commercial Motor will carry a reprint of the very first issue.

Subscribers to CM will get free access (even with the TruckNet discount - ) those who dont subscribe will get a set amount of free views .

So why is it not free? there are over a million pages that have been scanned , and then we have drawn the text from those pages so you can search for what interests you- and then put it all online. thats a huge cost. its a major project and has cost not a few pennies.

This is a major undertaking by Road Transport Media, and seen by us as producing an archive, not a money spinner, If it is popular we may do the same for our other titles.

Its not for me to say… but if you go to commercialmotor.com and look for the archive link you may get the opportunity to look through it before it becomes restricted to those that subscribe or pay

And no, I dont know the pricing structure, its not my project, just giving you guys( TruckNet members) a chance of getting a preview before it goes live as a thank you for your input here

You may lose me for a few months while I digest that lot.

It is something I have always wished for, but I am sure I could search motor transport and commercial motor a few years ago for free, mind you in those days I used to get it delivered to my house for free too.

Thanks Folks

Going to enjoy delving into that lot,great job. :smiley:
Thanks. Mike.

That lot kept me up well past my bedtime. Top marks to CM for doing it. As a historical reference work, it will become the standard.

Constructive criticism- I found the search engine to be lacking. It would not find the roadtest of any vehicle, for example. The options I would like to use are, “Search Article Titles” and “Search Magazine Contents Pages Only.” Something like that, anyway- the people building it will have better ideas.

When it becomes a paying service, will it be possible to subscribe to the old stuff only, at reduced cost? I have little interest in the present day news, and would not like to pay for a full subscription to the magazine.

It’s great. Good luck with it.

A superb idea and well done to CM. I don’t think a small fee would be too much to ask for all the info there is in the archive. :slight_smile:

extrucker:
A superb idea and well done to CM. I don’t think a small fee would be too much to ask for all the info there is in the archive. :slight_smile:

I used up all my free goes last night, but am unwilling to pay the full price for the magazine subscription. I would never read them. I get the news from here and it is more up to date.

There is a lot of info on Chris Hodge Commercials site, is that his own or is it scanned from the website?

Based on the above posts, I would suggest a fee of £10-£20 per annum to have access to all content over 10 years old. This could come with an agreement not to post copies on the internet. Transgress, and you account is closed, with no refund.

The search facility is a little primitive. There needs to be an advance search facility whereby specific terms or group of words can keyed in in order to restrict search down to what the researcher is looking for.

Also on the page enlargement there needs to be enlargement tools as when looking at downloaded pdfs on one’s computer.

The above sort of facilities need to be added especially if a charge is to be made to use the service.

Apart from that this is a great new source of information to those interested in road transport history and well done to the team for all the work involved.

Question will it be sold as a DVD or set of DVDs?

I really dont have an answer to your questions, as this isnt a project I have been involved in, just managed to wangle getting permission to give you lot a free preview before it goes fully live - its still in what IT bods call “Beta” at the moment and isnt the final release.
I will send the project managers a link to this thread so they can pick up on your comments.

I can guess and this is only a guess, that getting this far, scanning over a million pages and extracting the text hasnt been cheap, and before they throw lots more money at extra features they would want to see what the take up is - contrary to some peoples thoughts we dont have unlimited funds or budgets- not being critical of the constructive comments on here , just pointing out that we cant simply throw money at this and hope.

Rikki-UK:
I really dont have an answer to your questions, as this isnt a project I have been involved in, just managed to wangle getting permission to give you lot a free preview before it goes fully live - its still in what IT bods call “Beta” at the moment and isnt the final release.
I will send the project managers a link to this thread so they can pick up on your comments.

I can guess and this is only a guess, that getting this far, scanning over a million pages and extracting the text hasnt been cheap, and before they throw lots more money at extra features they would want to see what the take up is - contrary to some peoples thoughts we dont have unlimited funds or budgets- not being critical of the constructive comments on here , just pointing out that we cant simply throw money at this and hope.

I understand what you are saying and fully agree about the cost, it is more about the convenience of the things, especially with a good search engine.

Most people in transport have contributed over the years to the printed media by weekly or annual subscription. I used to get one delivered to my home and someone was paying for it. At DHL it looked like a newsagent and the mags were just free to pick up read and return.

I would not be allowed to store 10 years of interesting magazines in my house without divorce papers, never mind 100 years.

If you are in the office, can you just burn me a couple of discs off. I will get you a couple pints :stuck_out_tongue:

A Really Excelent archive. I have really enjoyed looking and reading through it.
Such a pitty there is so many text errors.
Kindest regards
CG

Very interesting and very grateful for the free go - it’s just ‘cost’ me an hour though :smiley: :smiley:

Not sure I could justify paying for it, but can see it would be a very useful tool for people wanting lots of archive material.

■■■■■■■■ gill:
A Really Excelent archive. I have really enjoyed looking and reading through it.
Such a pitty there is so many text errors.
Kindest regards
CG

None of the text errors are important, mainly caused by OCR I presume, things like the first letter of a sentence are missing or changed

I searched where I work and found pics of my old N reg Foden 3000;
Loved our old Workshop Managers’ quote of (the ■■■■■■■ L10) “is good for 500000 kms before overhaul…” The pics showed my (then new) motor whos’ engine blew up being driven into the workshop for a service… at less than 500000kms
:laughing:
Rikki, how about publishing “Classic Commercial Motor”?
:wink:

Had a good search for something I’ve wanted to know for a good few years, finally found a snippet of info before the free time ran out and I was able to search further. The short article is below from February 1965.

Commercial Motor 5th February 1965
Hose Problem Air lines and the lighting lead are something of a problem on certain tractors, because of varying height of cab, and lines can become caught up on tank neck or tractor platform edge unless tidily maintained. However. a new line is on the market called Susies ", a spiral hose for air or electrical use that stretches and returns, removing the problem mentioned. But these lines are not as yet suitable for vacuum systems.

No indication of where the term was first used but they were newly on the market probably late 1964, yet already had the ‘Susie’ tag applied to them. A handy site for info as its surprising sometimes how old certain items of equipment, vehicle construction etc actually are, love to be able to look through the real mags! Franky.

Wheel Nut:

■■■■■■■■ gill:
A Really Excelent archive. I have really enjoyed looking and reading through it.
Such a pitty there is so many text errors.
Kindest regards
CG

None of the text errors are important, mainly caused by OCR I presume, things like the first letter of a sentence are missing or changed

I would disagree Wheel Nut, some of the errors are so bad the artical is unreadable.
I’ve also noticed if you press the ‘report and error’ button, if you go back that artical in a week, nothings changed

But, I think its still an excelent idea. What about doing a Truck & Driver one?
Kindest regards
CG

C M website is currently hijacked by some ‘domain registering’ llockobs.

I noticed that myself this morning. What gives, Ricky?

Rikki even! Sorry Boss!

I am off work for a few days, but I have checked and there is a problem with the DNS of CommercialMotor.com which means all traffic is not being directed to the correct server. this I believe is being looked into.