Truck or Lorry

Tuck: A large road vehicle that is used for transporting large amounts of goods.

Lorry: A large, heavy motor vehicle for transporting goods.

To hire a truck or a lorry, that is the question! There may sometimes be confusion as to which vehicles can be hired from St. Albans Car and Van Hire, as different people refer to vehicles larger than a car, sometimes as lorries, sometimes as vans, and sometimes as trucks.

In fact, although our name might suggest that we only hire out cars and vans, in fact the vans vary in size, and might also be referred to as lorries – or trucks, although aren’t referred to as these names on our website.

The term truck is more commonly used in America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa, but does actually refer to a lorry-sized vehicle. The first known usage of the word truck was in 1611, and referred to the strong small wheels on a ship’s cannon carriages. It started to be used for a motor-powered vehicle in the 1930s, when it was shortened from the vehicle name motor truck.

The word lorry has been in use for many years, initially used for a horse-drawn goods wagon, and since 1911, with the meaning of a self-propelled vehicle.

Almost all trucks and lorries share a common construction - they are made of a chassis, a cab, an area for placing cargo or equipment, axles, suspension and road wheels, an engine and a drivetrain.

Whichever word you choose to use to describe this type of vehicle, both truck and lorry refer to the same type of vehicle, and so when hiring a vehicle bigger than a car, it doesn’t matter what you call it, as at St. Albans Car and Van Hire, we can provide what you need!