American Car Haulers

There are few sights more magnificently American than an enormous truck thundering along an interstate highway carrying a collection of brand-new automobiles, each apparently enjoying a more comfortable journey than the unfortunate driver responsible for delivering them. The car hauler is one of the great unsung heroes of the automotive industry, a machine devoted entirely to transporting other machines that, somewhat ironically, possess perfectly serviceable engines and wheels of their own.

In American Car Haulers (2000), Richard J. Copello celebrates the remarkable vehicles and specialised equipment employed in the transportation of automobiles across the United States. Published by MBI Publishing, this illustrated volume explores a fascinating corner of American trucking, where engineering ingenuity, industrial logistics and an extraordinary ability to squeeze expensive machinery into improbable spaces combine to keep the nation’s motor industry moving.

Transporting cars is, after all, rather more complicated than simply loading them onto a trailer and setting off towards California. Each vehicle must be carefully positioned, secured and delivered without acquiring the sort of scratches that would cause an anxious dealership manager to experience a medical emergency. Meanwhile, the transporter itself must negotiate bridges, highways, loading ramps and corners that occasionally seem designed by people who have never encountered anything larger than a bicycle.

American car haulers are particularly impressive examples of specialised commercial engineering. With their elaborate multi-level trailers, hydraulic loading arrangements and ingenious use of available space, they transform ordinary trucks into mobile parking garages capable of transporting an extraordinary quantity of automotive merchandise.

Copello’s book captures the distinctive character of these working giants, celebrating the machinery, operators and transport equipment behind an essential but frequently overlooked industry. While glamorous new cars attract admiring crowds in showrooms, the vehicles responsible for delivering them rarely receive quite the same attention, despite doing considerably more actual work.

There is something wonderfully absurd about the entire enterprise. Millions of cars are manufactured every year specifically to provide independent personal transportation, yet before reaching their owners they must first be carried around the country by an enormous diesel-powered vehicle. Apparently, even the world’s most advanced automobiles require somebody else to give them a lift occasionally.

For enthusiasts of American trucks and commercial vehicles, this is a particularly appealing subject, combining powerful highway tractors with highly specialised trailers and the practical ingenuity required to transport valuable cargo safely over immense distances.

Condition: Good. This is a previously owned copy dating from 2000, showing ordinary signs of age and handling. Unlike the enormous transporters featured within its pages, it requires no commercial driving licence, complicated loading procedure or several acres of manoeuvring space.

Published by MBI Publishing in 2000. ISBN: 9780760306949.

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where we admire the magnificent machinery that keeps America’s highways functioning, particularly when it can be appreciated without purchasing diesel by the hundred gallons.

An excellent addition to any collection of American trucking literature, commercial vehicle history or specialist transport machinery. Particularly recommended for enthusiasts who appreciate the extraordinary engineering involved in carrying eight perfectly functional automobiles across a continent because, apparently, driving them individually would be far too straightforward.

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