I have the commercial moter every week,as I try to keep up to date with legislation etc.I sometimes buy a Vintage or Heritage Commercial now and again,the same with Truck & Driver and Trucking International,but I think they are expensive with only a few interesting articles in them.
I realise it costs a lot to print and publish these magazines for a limited market,but the vintage mags are nearly £4 which is quite a lot of money.
Cheers Dave.
I buy Heritage Commercials, Vintage Roadscene and Classic and Vintage Commercials every month, and have done since they started. Over the years, each of them has gone through various phases of content and production quality. Currently, C&VC is only average on content, but absolutely terrible on quality. I spoke to Kelsey’s representatives about this at Gaydon in June, and was assured that I would notice a vast improvement starting with the September issue. Perhaps she meant September 2011, because the quality has got worse.
My favourite at the moment is Vintage Roadscene. I prefer to see archive shots rather than endless rally reviews and restoration features. I must admit that some of the articles do go on a bit too long, like the recent military series, but then again everyone has their own tastes. The quality of the paper and printing is top-notch, and not a lot of adverts either. Heritage Commercials has been pretty good for quite a while, a fair balance of articles and the recent “Classic Truck” section will be welcomed by many, dealing with lorries from the seventies onwards. Whilst my own preference is for British lorries of the '30’s to the '60’s, most of us will have more experience of the later stuff.
Regarding the C&VC quality issue, the best thing to do is let them know about it. If enough people tell them, they might take notice and do something. If we say nowt and stop buying the mag, it will disappear. It’s up to us.
fodenway:
I buy Heritage Commercials, Vintage Roadscene and Classic and Vintage Commercials every month, and have done since they started. Over the years, each of them has gone through various phases of content and production quality. Currently, C&VC is only average on content, but absolutely terrible on quality. I spoke to Kelsey’s representatives about this at Gaydon in June, and was assured that I would notice a vast improvement starting with the September issue. Perhaps she meant September 2011, because the quality has got worse.
My favourite at the moment is Vintage Roadscene. I prefer to see archive shots rather than endless rally reviews and restoration features. I must admit that some of the articles do go on a bit too long, like the recent military series, but then again everyone has their own tastes. The quality of the paper and printing is top-notch, and not a lot of adverts either. Heritage Commercials has been pretty good for quite a while, a fair balance of articles and the recent “Classic Truck” section will be welcomed by many, dealing with lorries from the seventies onwards. Whilst my own preference is for British lorries of the '30’s to the '60’s, most of us will have more experience of the later stuff.
Regarding the C&VC quality issue, the best thing to do is let them know about it. If enough people tell them, they might take notice and do something. If we say nowt and stop buying the mag, it will disappear. It’s up to us.
I don’t think it helps when they are edited by people who know nothng about lorries - and how it shows! HC certainly has had the edge for some time now, and the new Editor has some good ideas. His predecessor was a proper lorry man.
I often pick one up when I am in a shop but put them down again almost immediately. I don’t think that I have bought one for about 3 years now. When I ran wagons I subscribed to CM but wouldn’t buy it now. David
Hello I have between 50 to 100 classic lorry magazines, mix of heritage commercials, vintage commercials and vintage road scene they are going free to who ever want to collect them. I need the space and it would be a shame to skip them I live 10 MINS from south mimms services on M25.
truckfing:
I often pick one up when I am in a shop but put them down again almost immediately. I don’t think that I have bought one for about 3 years now. When I ran wagons I subscribed to CM but wouldn’t buy it now. David
I agree with you David - CM used to be written by authoritative people with knowledge of lorries and vehicle operations. Those days are long since gone.
I’ve subscribed to CVC for a while and agree with comments on quality and over advertising, I have recently been buying (at least my Mrs has for me) Heritage Commercials and Vintage Roadscene and have been more impressed with these two, the Heritage mag often has articles from the Northeast so has more of an appeal for me and some good old photo’s and while these mags might include light vehicles, military and emergency types etc they are still worth the price tag (all magazines are quite pricey today anyway). CVC though has definately dropped in standard and, as has been said, despite promises from the Editor, who to me seems to have a finger in too many pies (buses, motorbikes, cars) to be totally commited to a Classic Commercial magazine, no changes have come about. I remember one contributor complaining that they tend to show a bias for the Atkinson Borderer and show little of other makes and I know of some restorations that have appeared in Heritage but CVC has ignored. I think it will have to improve greatly or my subscription will go to the others, as for Commercial Motor, T&D and others, these are great for the modern stuff but I wouldn’t buy them now as I used to when driving.
Frankydobo:
I remember one contributor complaining that they tend to show a bias for the Atkinson Borderer and show little of other makes …
And the problem is? 
240 Gardner:
truckfing:
I often pick one up when I am in a shop but put them down again almost immediately. I don’t think that I have bought one for about 3 years now. When I ran wagons I subscribed to CM but wouldn’t buy it now. DavidI agree with you David - CM used to be written by authoritative people with knowledge of lorries and vehicle operations. Those days are long since gone.
I’ve been reading CM for as long as I can remember - at least 40 years - but i’ve seen the quantity of interesting articles deteriorate since the introduction of the likes
of TRUCK, TRUCKING INTERNATIONAL; TRUCK&DRIVER. What that would lead me to believe is that I, for one, want to read about everyday life in the world of road-haulage, not just legal and compliance issues, corporate law, etc. Articles in CM seem to be written from a different perspective, one that in my experience that even
operators find of little constuctive use. With the advent of various trade bodies and the internet, any legal issues can be relatively easily addressed. So that brings us back to the transport enthusiast - the likes of ourselves perhaps. There’s still articles of interest, but they’re deminishing to the point where i’ve considered stopping buying CM myself.
A high proportion of CM’s revenue comes from advertising, particularly the classified section, but that will continue to be the case until the powers-to-be revitalise their
publication to increase sales. Perhaps theres too many magazines chasing a shrinking market.
I must admit to buying all the titles at one stage or another and since moving house spare space has made me concentrate on the classic mags.Commercial Motor was a must have back in the 60s,70s and 80s,so was Motor Transport and these had good pictures and articles written by people who had knowledge about the industry which appealed to drivers as well as management,nowadays a years worth of CMs wouldn’t have enough interest to fill one page on the Scrapbook…its aimed at senior management.Truck was great when Pat Kennet was at the wheel but that sadly bit the dust,again he was a lorry man,the modern mags like Trucking and T&D have gone off the boil for me so I no longer buy them,I was buying them just to keep the collection complete(I had every issue from day one)but common sence kicked in,it was a lot of money for very little.
For me Trucknet has replaced the mags,theres loads of interesting stuff to read on here and most of its from the horses mouth. 
Cheers Bubbs
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head Bubbleman. TruckNet has superseded most of the magazines. There’s something for everyone, and at all differerent levels.
Just look at the top bar here… JOBS, BUY&SELL, ROAD TRANSPORT.COM, BIG LORRY BLOG.
I still like to read a magazine, but its getting to the point where lack of content makes them a pointless expense.
bubbleman:
nowadays a years worth of CMs wouldn’t have enough interest to fill one page on the Scrapbook…its aimed at senior management.
I think it misses that mark too, as it comes across as being written by people who are not particularly knowledgeable. Since they switch between different publications, the writers are no longer career specialists in commercial vehicles and/or road transport.
T&D was a letdown again this month. I only bought it because there’s nothing on tv but I must’ve skipped at least a third of it. I had a quick look at the cover story of the Elton Line artic unit that had an interior like a posh boat. Didn’t interest me as I’ve outgrown buying stuff for lorries but found the bit about the Sheffield car transporter firm interesting. I agree with posts about CVCs’ classified ads; I used to like looking through them, but not now it’s full of rotten Rovers and Bob the Builders knackered transit van. Has anyone noticed that much of what’s in the classifieds is way overpriced? I mean, Ford Cargo needs tidying up (and new cab, chassis etc) £3000 no offers.
Oh, and then there’s that mind numbing A to Z of trucks that’s been on the go since the Great Western Railway ran Vulcan lorries…
Before Christmas i went up in the loft to get the decs down and i found every issue of TRUCK magazine. All in perfect condition ( many in binders ). There cant be many complete sets still in existance. Needless to say ive been looking through them ever since.
This is the cover of the very first issue.
I remember buying the first issue of TRUCK when my dad took me took me to the CV Show at Earls Court. Still got every issue, though not in binders. Now that was,
an interesting magazine. I can sit for hours going back through them.
I have CVC on subscription, and have done for around 18 months after I took part in the Trans Pennine for the first time.
I was actually fortunate enought to have a small article published earlier this year after I had found an old Atki Borderer lying derelict in a farmyard near Leeds, and I received a few enquiries about it.
I haven’t looked at other classic mags, but I guess they are like all other mags in their respective fields, and that they are much the same.
Ken.
Like bubbleman, I used to buy most of the truck related magazines when they came out, and never threw any of them away. I too had Truck & T&D from issue 1. Then when I moved house I took them all down from the loft and they stretched the whole length of the hallway, to a height of about 3 feet. Whilst they beat Rockwool hollow as roof insulation I didn’t think that the rafters of the new house would stand up to the (considerable) weight, so I took them all to the tip in my 1967 VW Devon caravanette (something else I should never have got rid of) along with a full collection of Small Car, Cars and Car Conversions and The Automobile plus other mags of interest (■■■■■■■, Men Only etc). This would never have happened had e-bay been around at the time! The only ones I kept are Motor Sport from 1964 and Motor Cycle Sport from about 1972. These are making the rafters creak above our bed, so have been reluctant to keep any later mags i have bought, apart from those I manage to secrete away from the wife’s eyes in the garage.
Les
Muckaway:
T&D was a letdown again this month. I only bought it because there’s nothing on tv but I must’ve skipped at least a third of it. I had a quick look at the cover story of the Elton Line artic unit that had an interior like a posh boat. Didn’t interest me as I’ve outgrown buying stuff for lorries but found the bit about the Sheffield car transporter firm interesting. I agree with posts about CVCs’ classified ads; I used to like looking through them, but not now it’s full of rotten Rovers and Bob the Builders knackered transit van. Has anyone noticed that much of what’s in the classifieds is way overpriced? I mean, Ford Cargo needs tidying up (and new cab, chassis etc) £3000 no offers.
Oh, and then there’s that mind numbing A to Z of trucks that’s been on the go since the Great Western Railway ran Vulcan lorries… :lol:
A couple of years ago I sent a private email to the Ed of C+VC about something and at the end mentioned what a waste of space this part of the mag was. Problem was he printed the email as a letter. You wouldnt believe the comments that came back from other readers, one of whom said that this was the best part of the mag!!! 
Apparently if I didnt like this part of the mag then I wasn’t a ‘proper’ old lorry enthusiast!! Yeah right, like I really need to know about some bloke who built one 3.5 ton three wheeled van in his shed in Grimsby in 1924!!!
I’ve still got my first CM from December 1968 featuring a 690 Beaver on test and bought it continually till the early 80’s though have bought few since then.It seems an absolute shadow of itself with two thirds adverts. I’ve got some earlier copies and they are like a social history of the UK transport scene in the 60’s and 70’s with Union involvement and changing legislation etc. Heritage has definitely improved since this Editor took over,the mis-prints have all but gone and none of that guff about what nice families everybody has wherever the previous bloke was doing a review of some restoration. The problem I have with CVC is that every month we are told there is a backlog of articles yet a lot of this would disappear if the Editor did’nt waffle literally paragraphs of irrelavance in every issue, that and the regular inference that budget restorations are good and a cheque book restorations are not, a vehicle restored is a vehicle saved, I could’nt care less how it got there.The A-Z bit I dont mind but articles about pre-war restorations I dont bother with.Nick Baldwin seems like a bloke who would be interesting to talk to and used to do a one page article on old wagons in early editions of TRUCK, another one that I thought lost its way and stopped buying a couple of years before its demise. I forgot to renew my subs for TRUCKING a couple of years back and get what I need from blogs on here for legislation and news. A while back I ploughed through some TRUCK euro tests which were from 77/78 featuring Bedford ,Leyland, MAN, SA, Scania and others I don’t recall, very interesting but they were all different then unlike these EURO motors that we have today. And finally don’t forget the excellent common-sense and down to earth Headlight which probably beat the lot but still closed, they even offered me the choice of some legislation books which I still carry with me, in lieu of outstanding subs.
Boden mentioned the Headlight mag one of my happy memories was going to scottish motor show with my uncle at kelvin hall glasgow about 1968 i think stopping off at the cafe before beatock opposite the quarry, getting the mag it was like gold dust to me a great time . happy new year bob