bought Truck&Driver but left it at Home
Promotionspages are more than ever,some links to Forum-Topiks,but otherwise found i the Magazins in past more helpfull.
Was always helpfull,the News,without own Internet to be up to date
haven’t new Trucking yet,but,haven’t they not been in Gloucester some Time ago?
Bring back Headlight, the only mag for drivers taught me a lot, all you will see for the next few months in the so called truck mags is truckfest pics Yawn.
You are right.Just gave me Trucking during Breakfast
how many truck mags are there?
i’ve only seen T+D and trucking, bought a couple of copies of each over a few months, but found them pretty ■■■■ thin for the money, cover to cover in 15-20 mins if that, and fairly dull as well.
But i guess unless you are into truck ■■■■■■■■■■■, there isnt much subject matter to trucking, save for the ever changing legislation.
There are also the FTA monthly journals lying about at work, for all the ‘serious’ stuff, interesting as they are, its only another 15 mins worth of reading.
Neither of the above I would pay for really, its all online somewhere for free.
What I find very strange about Truck & Driver is that it has little input from working lorry drivers, for a magazine that has as it’s slogan ‘100% for drivers’. Maybe it needs more stories from those at the sharp end, in other words, US!
I’ve taken T & D since it first started many years ago, since Reed got hold of it, in my opinion it has went downhill. Considering it’s stable mates, Commercial Motor & Motor Transport, they were good reads many years ago. Now they are mere shadows of their former selves.
Headlight was a good read, now sadly missed by many of my peers, the older drivers.
Trucking I bought for many years, I cancelled because I think it is more for the bosses nowadays.
Heritage Commercials I only discovered last year, a very good read with excellent input from drivers, past & present. I dont grudge it’s cost every month. A good investment.
Alex
One of the problems I have with the “Trucking magazines” is they both come out on the first thursday of the month and whichever you read second seems like youve read it all in the other, i.e. you read road test on new Volvo in “Trucking”, you read “truck and driver” and guess what, they have road test of new Volvo!
If you have acsess to the internet what monthly magazines hail as breaking news could have been public knowledge for 5 weeks or more!
Maybe a cheaper and smaller weekly publication would have a market as you all know life on the road has an awful lot of down time whether its sat at an RDC or parked up for the night in a lay by!
i dont buy any because they are all pretty much the same. truckstop news is ok, its free 
as regards to the road tests that the mags do. does anyone care 
for example, a feature on tippers. i doubt i will ever drive a tipper. but if i did i would,nt care what a fm 12 tipper was like if i worked for a company who ran scanias. the boss might, but i would,nt.
i must admit i like some of the fleet focus type things. especially were the guys are working for small firms (ie 10 trucks or less). bang in all the hours they can on the road, help out in the yard. come in at weekends and wash and service the trucks, get no company pension, earn £300 a week and they are always covered in muck/ crap and grease. but credit to em,they always have a smile on their face and they love the job
get T+D evreymonth as an article this month says most off us arnent informed by our superior beings abot legal changes no readers letters this month (think evreyones switched to trucknet) a mr coffeeholic got a mention this month
I reckon Truck and Driver and Trucking belong next to Truckstop News in the freebie bins. At least you can wipe your arse on Truckstop News.
For a more up to date magazine about the industry there is only Motor Transport and Comical Motor as they are at least weekly publications and carry more valuable transport news. The internet and sites like this and TNN will be more up to date after a couple of days though
I dont particularly like all the trucks for sale adverts that fill over 50% of Comical Motor pages but if I was looking for a truck then I understand why they do it.
Most magazines buy copy from other journalists, My motorcycle mags carry the same roadtests, the same routes and the same protective clothing adverts as the foreign competition.
I think the best truck magazine is the French Les Routiers.
How does ‘alecsaville’ get the idea there is little from ordinary drivers in T&D?
He says: "What I find very strange about Truck & Driver is that it has little input from working lorry drivers, for a magazine that has as it’s slogan ‘100% for drivers’. Maybe it needs more stories from those at the sharp end, in other words, US! ’
Take the June issue: Owner driver Nigel Charles and employed driver Kevin Debenham were each the subject of words and picture stories over four pages. I rode with these guys, photographed and interviewed them. They are real drivers in every sense with something relevant to say.
Further ‘real drivers’ featured and were quoted in the Truckfest report and Editor’s Choice while another ( again interviewed by me so I can vouch for him) was the subject of an article about high winds
Meanwhile driver Russ Oliver got two pages on his overseas removals job ina repport written by a woworking driver who met him on the road.
Factor in some quotes from Japanese drivers, a review of a book written by Mick Rennsion (a driver and frequent T&D contributor) and pictures of driver’s kids and that adds up to around 25% of non advertising pages devoted to the experiences of professional truck drivers. More than any other UK road transport mag.
Plus, contributors Craig Sheer, ■■■■ Flute, Olly Dixon and myself either are or have been working lorry drivers
Criticise T&D by all mean,s but do it on the basis of fact not assumptions.
TKDave:
Criticise T&D by all mean,s but do it on the basis of fact not assumptions.
Ok Dave, I’m going to put myself out on a limb here and do just that. The problem with both T&D and CM these days is that they are edited by people who have no real connection or feel for the industry beyond their positions within the Road Transport Group.
The result is that perfectly good, well connected and in touch pieces by the likes of you get cut or changed in such a way as to lose all semblance of relevance in many cases. Staff written pieces often suffer even more so.
In T&D that results in a patronising tone created entirely by editorial staff trying to cater for a perceived common denominator which is well below the current average intelligence level of those it is seeking to attract - this is particularly true given the number of highly qualified people from other fields who have entered the industry in recent years as a means to “escape the rat race” having made their money elsewhere first.
Dumb these people are not, and they are also those who are most likely to take pleasure from printed entertainment, and yet they are pretty instantly alienated by the tone which is taken. I get the ■■■■ magazine for free, for heavens sake, as part of being Admin here, and I still can’t be bothered to read the thing any more. Under the previous Editor, I read it cover to cover, every month, and paid for the privilige of doing so!
CM I can’t really criticise for obvious reasons involving not shooting myself in the foot and remembering which side my bread is buttered, but suffice to say the lack of specialist interest shows in the finished result - a point I will happily prove to you when we next meet using “before and after” versions of my own work (which after this post may no longer appear in print!!! 
) I know I could do more if I wanted to, but the continual loss of meaning through uninformed editing makes the idea just that bit too soul-destrying to push for it.
The whole Group badly needs a rethink and to get back in touch at Staff level, before it destroys it’s reputation irrevocably. At least their involvement with TNUK is step in the right direction, so for that if nothing else they should be applauded…We can only hope that the grass-roots influence here spreads further, and there will one day be a trade press for the trade once more.
Lucy:
I get the ■■■■ magazine for free, for heavens sake, as part of being Admin here, and I still can’t be bothered to read the thing any more. Under the previous Editor, I read it cover to cover, every month, and paid for the privilige of doing so!
Same here. I’ve read one thing in this months magazine, the cover story on the Editor’s Choice, and that is only because I’ve know the guy and his dad for years and worked with them when I was an OD. If it wasn’t for that I most likely wouldn’t even have taken it out of the plastic bag it was delivered in.
T & D worth getting for shobba, makes me laugh every month 
Im sad I know. 
I used to buy headlight and I miss that mag. I don’t bother with any of the others as I personaly find them a waste of money, I will read if I find them laying around but not that bothered even then
I too have little to no time for T & D these days 
I had been an avid reader for years and found it both entertaining and educational. These days I find it barely worth the effort let alone the money 
Yet like a loyal trooper I pick up a copy month after month hoping to be proved wrong only to be continually disappointed
I find it so be sorely lacking in “real world” content and it’s general editorial style to be both ignorant and patronising too. It seems to have lost both it’s way and to a certain extent it’s “teeth”. Seeming to prefer to tread a steady corporate line rather than the more gritty realistic one it used to
The features are basically just a different “shiney” truck each month, or so it seems, and there are many drivers out there that this just does not appeal to.
How about a return to the “diaries” and “on the job” type of articles with these in turn approached in a more realistic manner. On that vain I would further add that TRUCKNET UK has members who frankly make the pathetic inane and pointless ramblings of some of your writers pale in comparison.
So lets face it then, these days all that is on offer from T & D is …■■?
With the likes of the internet, sites like this one which allows for a more free and honest exchange of information and opinion T & D’s days are I fear numbered. The news is, by virtue of the medium, weeks out of date. The articles and writing styles dull, patronising and corporate.
Give me “Cofffeeholics” videos, diaries from the likes of “8 wheels”, “Mad Monk”, “Grumpybum” ,“Reef” and the many other fantastic efforts.
The comedic and brutally funny “Mike C”
The up to date news from “Krankee” his team and the member contributions
The free flow of REAL information.
and you can keep your magazine, I’ll keep my money in my pocket and we’ll all be better off
That said, at least you’ve got Shobba 
I really want to meet ■■■■ Flute.
montana man:
That said, at least you’ve got Shobba
I’ve just read this months Shobba and even that is a partial repeat this month, the last two panels were used in a previous issue. 
Mike-C:
I really want to meet ■■■■ Flute.
You would think a bloke who spends so much time in Germany would know how to use something as simple as the Maut, but it seems not.
Coffeeholic:
montana man:
That said, at least you’ve got ShobbaMike-C:
I really want to meet ■■■■ Flute.You would think a bloke who spends so much time in Germany would know how to use something as simple as the Maut, but it seems not.
You would think that his German might have improved a bit too Neil.
When he did a roadtest on the MV Pauline from Zeebrugge to Killingholme, there were a couple of Denby lads on who said he was a decent bloke and had some beer in his truck
I’ve never bought T&D. I often flick through but echoing what others have said it doesn’t seem to have much in it. To me there seems too much ‘padding’ and it always seems quite short on relevant content, IMHO.
I think it is a shame, it has potential to be much better (perhaps like it used to be - I can’t comment on that).
Talking of funny names the first time i got sent to Stobarts i had to ask for a guy called ‘Tommy Trout’!! Now he was an ex driver and a planner there and i’m sure someone here will know him, he went to work at Tescos after that and then MRS. But turning up some where and asking for ‘tommy trout’ is like asking for a ‘long stand’ !!! I’m sure he would see the funny side and take no offence, well i hope !!!