The Commercial Motor Show is back!
Will Shiers
Editor at Commercial Motor and UK jury member for International Truck of the Year
I’m really excited to be part of the Commercial Motor Show 2020 – and not just because it’s the UK industry’s first virtual trade exhibition. The reason why I’m looking forward to it, is because we’re bringing back such a well-known and respected brand!
If you’re over a certain age, you’ll remember the Commercial Motor Show from the 1970s, but this event is way older than that. In fact, the show can trace its origins back to 1906, just one year after The Commercial Motor magazine was conceived. Held in London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre, it was originally called The Commercial Motor Vehicle and Motor Boat Exhibition. The boat element was soon dropped, with the show concentrating solely on commercials. By the end of the First World War the biennial Olympia Commercial Motor Show had become the world’s biggest and most respected truck show, attracting exhibitors from all corners of the globe.
In 1937 The Commercial Motor Show relocated to the recently completed Earls Court, where it continued to go from strength to strength. In fact, by the late 1940s it was widely considered to be “the finest display of commercial vehicles that has ever been staged in this country or any other”.
During the 1950s, Britain emerged as a pre-eminent manufacturer of commercial vehicles, and the show was packed with Leylands, Fodens, ERFs, Sentinels, Thornycrofts, and many other long-gone names. In the 1960s and 1970s they were joined by a growing number of European imports, including Mercedes-Benz and DAF, both of whom are exhibiting at the 2020 event.
The Commercial Motor Show was effectively killed in 1978, when the SMMT decided to move it to the NEC and merge it with the International Motor Show. While this decision certainly boosted the crowds, it attracted the wrong people – with truck makers complaining about families picnicking in their shiny new cabs!
Well, 42 years later its back! Register for the FREE to attend Commercial Motor Show 2020 now, and catch up on all the latest vehicles, products and services, all without the need for social distancing! And this time there’ll be no boats, cars or family picnics!
- Thanks to Richard Stanier for the history lesson!
Business Development Director at VTCT Skills for Logistics & Co-founder of Logistics Skills Network
4yLeyland - that town in Lancashire that continues to build trucks which are exported all over the world and are known as Leylands.!
Min wage worker delivering physical product to others .
4yBrilliant long may it continue
Nice article, Will. I was one of the wrong crowd when I went to the NEC in the 80s as a keen teen. The truck halls were a revelation - the Magnum looked like it was from space - and I happily worked in the commercial vehicle industry for quite a few years. And, around the turn of the millennium, I was proud to be part of the team at SMMT when the CV Show was resurrected [in collaboration with IRTE and RHA] - many fun moments on that exhibition. I think we had over 500 world premieres that first post-Telford post-Tipcon time. If you included trucks, vans, bodies, kit, washers, accessories... Good luck to all involved in the new one.
Hickmire Limited, Linford Corner Limited, Liveryman-Worshipful Company of Carmen. Former owner of The King Vehicle Engineering Group
4yReally interesting piece Will. In 1978 I was Marketing Manager for York Trailer Company. We spent more than £200,000 at the first NEC show after many happy CV Shows at Earls Court. YES - £200,000 in 1978. On the first morning the combined car and commercial show was so overcrowded, visitors were being diverted into the commercial halls and were camping out eating their packed lunches underneath our trailers. Fred Davies, my chairman and one of life’s greatest entrepreneurs had me round up as many exhibitors from our hall (4) to be in York’s hospitality area at a specific time and then insisted that I go get Gerry Kunz the SMMT Exhibition Manager to the stand at the same time ( that was the difficult bit). Asking him to come from the main organisers office to see Mr Davies against protests of him being too busy, he eventually relented. We walked to the York stand and as he entered through the curtain into the York hospitality area with me directly behind him blocking his exit he was faced with around 60/70 aggrieved exhibitors at which point Fred Davies announced that ‘these people would like to speak to you’ and walked to the back of the room chuckling whilst the barrage of complaints rang out.
Applied Weighing /Vehicle Weighing Solutions
4yWe just booked a stand today , me too