A History of Motorized Deliveries
It might seem logical that motorized commercial vehicles, like delivery vans and buses, appeared on the scene after the advent of the automobile. After all, the earliest cars were quite primitive. Consider the 1893 Benz Viktoria, for instance. Its single-cylinder engine produced a mere 3 horsepower. But this assumption would be incorrect. The very same Benz Viktoria was repurposed to create the first combustion-engined bus in 1895—the year Autocar magazine was founded—and, soon after, the first combustion-engined van.
The story goes back even further, to the 1830s, when the first steam-powered buses were tested, achieving speeds of around 12 miles per hour, in London.
In the early days of motorized commercial vehicles, the benefits were immediately apparent. “It is evident that steam and petroleum vans are coming into more and more extensive use, and a large number of orders for them are being given out,” Autocar observed nearly 130 years ago. “Tradespeople understand the value of these vehicles, not only for the speedy and economical delivery of goods, but also as an advertisement.”
Autocar reported that the Grands Magasins du Louvre, a major department store in Paris, had begun a trial with a petrol-engined Peugeot parcel van to assess its cost-effectiveness compared to its existing, and expensive, fleet of 200 carts and 500 horses.
Just two months later, the magazine relayed further details: “The vehicle weighs [610kg] in running order and will carry a load of [480kg] at a speed of 9mph. It is in continuous use from 8am to 7pm. Were it horsed, the teams would have to be changed every four hours.”
Unsurprisingly, within a year of the petrol vans’ operation, the cost of a Louvre delivery dropped dramatically, from 70c to 7c. Another substantial advantage was that eliminating horses halved a vehicle’s length, theoretically doubling a city’s traffic capacity.
Autocar noted the impact on city traffic: “The streets in Paris are for the most part very narrow, and vans and buses take up so much space that the whole traffic is often at a standstill until these ungainly vehicles can extricate themselves. This would be certainly avoided if the traffic were much faster.”
Steam power had initially taken the lead, but it soon stumbled, as the magazine explained: “Serpollet’s steam vans, constructed for [Paris clothes shop] La Belle Jardinière, were among the first to be used for the delivery of goods. [However] the machinery occupied at least one-third of the vehicle, so that a great deal of valuable space had to be sacrificed – a matter of great importance to users who have to deliver enormous quantities of goods during the course of the day.”
