This article is about Ford Trucks in the UK and Europe

For US Truck operations, see Ford Trucks (US).

The Ford Motor Company started building trucks in the 'UK from the 1920s. The early models were built from kits from the USA.

HistoryEdit

For the main history of the UK operations, see Ford of Britain.

Ford in Britain initially built light trucks based on the Model T car.

The operation later moved on after WW I to designing a rang of trucks to suit the British market, and sold under the Thames brand. These was replaced in the late 1960s by the Ford D series and the less common Ford A series. The light commercials of the Thames range were replaced by the Ford Transit Van and the Car derived Ford Escort.

In the 1970's they decided to enter the European Long Haul market with the Transcontinental design to compete with the modern trucks from Volvo, Scania and Mercedes etc.

For the 1980s the Ford Cargo range was introduced as a family of models with a common look and parts to cover from the sub 7.5 ton sector up to the Top weight Artic units for 32 ton operations.

MergersEdit

Ford merged(divested) their European truck building operations in the 1980s with Iveco of Italy, (part of the Fiat group of companies) in a Joint Venture as part of the rationalisation of the groups operations. To cut costs they effectively divested some operations were they needed to invest substantially to maintain market share and create a new generation of vehicles. This was to free up working capital to invest in the core Car production operations, which were facing stiff competition and over capacity from the low(er) cost foreign based car manufacturers both in the main US market and in Europe.

Model RangeEdit

• Ford Model T - 19 ? - Assembled at the "Trafford Park" factory in Manchester, England.
• Thames Sussex
• Thames Trader - 19?
• Ford D series - 196?
• Ford Transcontinental - 1978-83
• Ford Cargo - 198?

SpecialsEdit

County Commercial Cars Ltd of ? build a twin axle conversion for their own Ford truck and then got asked to build them for other operators, Ford then arranged for them to supply conversion Kits to be fitted on the production line for some models.

See alsoEdit

• Ford - Tractors
• List of Truck Manufacturers
• Heavy Haulage
• List of Heavy Haulage Contractors
• County - 4-wd specialists

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit