A question for our British members

JBR said:
When does a truck become a "lorry"? In North America, everything from a Japanese-made compact two-wheel-drive pickup to an enormous tractor/trailer combination is usually referred to as just "a truck".
Click to expand...
Well it starts as a lorry if we want to be pedantic.. in that a Lorry was originally and still is.. a Flat Bed truck with no sides that were often used to deliver bags of coal.., or now with small sides... a Larger lorry like a 46 tonne delivery cargo lorry with a cabin on the back is called a Truck...
 
JBR said:
When does a truck become a "lorry"? In North America, everything from a Japanese-made compact two-wheel-drive pickup to an enormous tractor/trailer combination is usually referred to as just "a truck".
Click to expand...
If memory serves, a lorry is a flat bed truck but Wikipedia gives this definition
Truck - Wikipedia

Also dictionary definition
lorry noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
 

hollydolly said:
Well it starts as a lorry if we want to be pedantic.. in that a Lorry was originally and still is.. a Flat Bed truck with no sides that were often used to deliver bags of coal.., or now with small sides... a Larger lorry like a 46 tonne delivery cargo lorry with a cabin on the back is called a Truck...
Click to expand...
Sorry @hollydolly battery needed recharged in phone and then we worked on laundry. Cheers!
 
hollydolly said:
some of your trucks would be just too enormous to even fit on our roads....
Click to expand...
A few decades ago a company that designs roads and highways proposed building designated local and interstate truck routes. Everyone loved the idea except for most of our state governments, which would have to allot tax dollars to fund the planning and building.

I mean, are you really gonna make highways safer for everyone when you can build a luxurious pool and install a new state-of-the-art kitchen at every one of your houses instead? :mad:
 
The lorry meaning originates from the verb, ‘lurry’ - meaning to lug or pull about. It dates back to the 16th century. The word lorry was first used in Britain to categorise a low-loading trolley pulled by a horse-drawn vehicle to carry other vehicles and large loads.

The word truck in British English first appeared in the 17th century and meant, ‘small wheel or roller.’ These small wheels were used to support warship cannons. Truck is a shortened form of the word, ‘truckle,’ meaning, ‘wheel, roller or pulley.’ This originates from the Latin, ‘trochlea’ - translating to ‘pulley.’ The meaning of truck was to describe a ‘wheeled vehicle used for transporting heavy items.’ mg-extender.jpg
A vehicle like this gets called, in Brit Speak, a pick up or pick up truck. Lorry and truck are more or less interchangeable generic terms. By the way we use the term Semi, a semi trailer means that it's only half a trailer because it's connected to the towing truck, which in Brit speak, is known as the tractor, by way of an articulated coupling. There you go, clear as mud.
 
hollydolly said:
We don't have 18 wheelers here in the UK we don't have roads big enough to accommodate them
Click to expand...
Not too awfully long ago, I drove the periphery of much of Scotland. A lot of the roads are so narrow that compact passenger cars slow, veer to the leftt, and stop so that an oncoming car (also moving slowly) can get past. All the local drivers were very considerate & polite. I loved that visit (a couple weeks). Then from Invermere, trained down to London for five days... what a contrast the Main Streets (red routes) presented!!
 
Last edited:
JBR said:
Not too awfully long ago, I drove the periphery of much of Scotland. A lot of the roads are so narrow that compact passenger cars slow, veer to the right, and stop so that an oncoming car (also moving slowly) can get past. All the local drivers were very considerate & polite. I loved that visit (a couple weeks).
Click to expand...
That's our roads country wide , in the countryside .. except for A roads and motorways or in cities and large towns. Where I live most of the roads are only one car wide, and full of bends, so you can't see another car approaching.. we have 'passing places' on most of our country roads where someone is expected to pull in and give way..

These are my local roads... the first 2 are 2 cars wide..but very narrow so you have to ensure you're as far over to the left as possible..

DSCF7804-jpg-original.jpg
bb2879e5-bdd6-4e09-8de6-a2cf3733674e.jpg


One car wide.. over on the right of the pic, by the tree you can see the passing place..

DSCF8353-jpg-original.jpg

again a very narrow 2 cars wide through the village (main road )...
IMG-2253.jpg
DSCF0005-2-jpg-originaltewin.jpg
 
hollydolly said:
That's our roads country wide , in the countryside .. except for A roads and motorways or in cities and large towns. Where I live most of the roads are only one car wide, and full of bends, so you can't see another car approaching.. we have 'passing places' on most of our country roads where someone is expected to pull in and give way..

These are my local roads... the first 2 are 2 cars wide..but very narrow so you have to ensure you're as far over to the left as possible..

DSCF7804-jpg-original.jpg
bb2879e5-bdd6-4e09-8de6-a2cf3733674e.jpg


One car wide.. over on the right of the pic, by the tree you can see the passing place..

DSCF8353-jpg-original.jpg

again a very narrow 2 cars wide through the village (main road )...
IMG-2253.jpg
DSCF0005-2-jpg-originaltewin.jpg
Click to expand...
When I, or friends of mine, have visited the UK we're charmed and delighted by these roads, and what they say about pace of life. Truly. Many of us have wished we had a bit more of that in Canada. The thing is that, especially with regard to western Canada, very much inhabitation & development occurred during eras when automobiles were larger. So roads were built wider (with wide 'shoulder' margins, too). I have a number of friends who ride horses on our gravel 'back road', as we call it — and they understandably get annoyed when they have to scootch over for a car (which may even spurt a bit of gravel toward legs & hooves).
 
Last edited:

Back
Top