10-4 Magazine / November 2025 31 instead of mirrors. I asked a driver of 40 years his thoughts on the matter, as his 2023 was set up with cameras. His answer was that you have to be open minded and at least give new technology a fair chance before coming to a verdict. An answer like that was most definitely not expected, and it gave me something to reflect upon. After all, 100 years ago, plenty of deliveries were still being made by horse and cart. Some of the other trucks I talked to him about were 1970s Atkinsons (an English manufacturer) with wooden cabs! DAF had a big fancy display, in which I was able to seek refuge several times when the unpredictably predictable English weather turned. The trucks they brought to display included an electric cabover and a special edition “UK30” built to celebrate 30 years of DAF in the UK. Including all those driver comfort cabover features I mentioned before, the UK30 also had a lower bunk that could be adjusted so the driver is sitting up! The employee I interviewed was well over six feet tall, and he had plenty of room above his head while standing inside the cab. So, short or not, and no matter the opinions on their appearances, those European cabover trucks are super spacious and comfortable. In addition to trucks, there were dozens and dozens of food vendors, multiple coffee trucks, two big mobile bars, and ice cream vans scattered all over. There were full-on carnival rides, monster truck rides, and a huge variety of vendors. I even picked up a couple custom-pressed number plates for the Marmon and my Mini Cooper back home. Activities continued inside with wrestlers and Gladiators! If you thought 1,000 trucks in a field in the West Midlands sounded like a lot, the TruckFest in Lincoln attracts 3,000 trucks, and a show in Scotland gets 2,000-2,500! The first event was held back in 1983 in Newark. The night before the show it snowed, but 300 trucks still turned up. The organizers couldn’t afford to be in publications, so they sat along the motorway and advertised using CB radios. “Straight away we knew it wasn’t going to be a big enough site, so in 1984 we moved to Peterborough, and then later to our current site in Lincoln,” co-founder Bob Limming told me. There are now nine events held throughout the year around Britain. The one in Scotland has gone on for 38 years now. The event wrapped up on Sunday afternoon with a wide range of awards. Our W900A friend Nick took home Best Supertruck. The mood during the awards was not one of competition, but of congeniality. However, participants definitely knew the prestige of awards, as some spent every moment of Friday evening and Saturday cleaning and then cleaning again (being England, this often meant having to re-clean after a brief rain). I met tons of great people from all over the UK that showed me fabulous hospitality. I am looking forward to attending another TruckFest event in the future. And, as they say “over there” across the pond – cheers! n
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