American Truck Historical Society

06/02/2026

06/01/2026

chock blocks have arrived. Truck registration for the 2026 ATHS National Convention and Truck Show begins June 2. The event official opens to the public June 4-6 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds in Springfield, Missouri. More details at ATHS.org

06/01/2026

ATHS National Convention and Truck Show, June 2-6 (open to the public 4-6), Springfield, Missouri, ATHS.org for details

05/31/2026

Happy ! And what better way to celebrate than with one of the greatest trucking stories to ever come out of the Beehive State.

A farm kid from Plain City, Utah bought a Model T in 1920 because he tried farming after a 30-month LDS mission down South and just couldn't hack it. That one truck evolved into C.R. England one of the largest refrigerated carriers in American history.

Chester Rodney England started hauling milk for Weber Dairy before sunrise, then spent his afternoons moving produce for farmers across Weber County and Cache Valley. His boys, Gene and Bill, grew up in that cab. Summers were weeklong runs to Wyoming. By the time they were old enough to hold a license, they were already driving the family's one and two-ton Fords, Chevys and Internationals.

Both sons went off to World War II. Gene earned a Bronze Star at Okinawa. Neither of them smoked, so they spent the war years selling their cigarette rations and saving every dollar. Two weeks after coming home, they bought a used 1940 Kenworth with a Cummins diesel. Their first refrigerated trailer had a brand-new mechanical re**er unit that broke down constantly. Chester kept a fan and two feet of ice at the front of the trailer and just made it work.

By the late 1950s, C.R. England was running 72-hour coast-to-coast service on two-lane roads before a single interstate existed. The first driver to complete the California-to-Philadelphia run was a man named Robert Gould, who later became their first East Coast terminal manager.

Gene drove big rigs until he was 90 years old. His kids finally had to tell him to stop.

Today the company runs over 4,000 Freightliner Cascadias and 5,300 refrigerated trailers. Four generations deep, still family owned, still based in Utah.

Who remembers seeing those C.R. England re**ers rolling? Drop a comment below!

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05/30/2026

📸 ATHS Photo of the Day
The American Truck Historical Society Library preserves thousands of vintage truck photographs—but many still lack key details.
Do you recognize the truck, the company on the door, the era, or any other clues?
Take a look and share what you know. Every detail helps us document trucking history. 🚛 🔎 www.aths.org/resource?resource=17022

05/29/2026

ATHS National Convention and Truck Show is less than a week away ---- Board President David Schnautz and Convention Chair Peter Wild hopped aboard the OPIDA podcast to talk everything Springfield. See ya soon!

If you like classic trucks, Springfield, Missouri is the place to b...

05/29/2026

When the hospital gets a cabover... 😂🚛

Meet Rovi — Rovex's autonomous hospital transport robot. It hooks up, hauls its load, and navigates the route all by itself. This little guy autonomously tows stretchers and hospital beds through hallways, elevators, and busy corridors without a driver.

It's even got a friendly cabover face, glowing headlights and wheels. 🤩

And yes — that photo is REAL. Not AI Rovi is currently making the rounds at BayCare Health System in Florida. The company is gorovex.com.

Okay truck fans, most important question of the day — how would YOU paint Rovi and what accessories does it need? 😄
. . we now return you to our normal trucking history content.

05/28/2026

NHTSA campaign records (No. 73V148000) document May 1, 1972 as the official production start date for the White Road Commander, the Class 7–8 cab-over-engine (COE) truck that would become one of the most recognizable working rigs of its day.

The Designer You Didn't Expect
The man who styled the Road Commander was Larry Shinoda — yes, that Larry Shinoda, the designer behind the 1963 Corvette Stingray and the Boss 302 Mustang.
When Ford president Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen — son of a GM president, architect of the muscle car era, and the man Shinoda named the "Boss" Mustang after — was pushed out by Lee Iacocca in 1969, Shinoda's loyalty kicked in and he followed him to White Motor Corporation. Knudsen took the president's chair; Shinoda became VP of design.
His task was to modernize White's aging 7000 COE, a truck that had fallen behind the competition with its dated, riveted steel construction. His team completed a prototype by February 17, 1972, with an unveiling at a national sales meeting just five days later. Ten weeks after that, production was underway at White Motor Corporation's New River Valley facility in Dublin, Virginia.

What Was Under That Cab
All-aluminum cab with hydraulic tilt, high-tensile bolted steel frame, and diesel options from Cummins, Caterpillar, and others ranging from 190 to 450 horsepower.
The 1975 RC2 added the wraparound split windshield and tapered doors shared across the White stable — Autocar and Western Star included, both White-owned at the time. It also introduced a pull-out drawer inside the cab consolidating all electrical fuses and connections. Simple, efficient detail, decades ahead of the industry.

Further Than You Think
The Road Commander met EEC and ECE regulations and moved into Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and other European markets. It also ran across Australia and New Zealand.

The Afterlife
White's bankruptcy in 1980 and Volvo's acquisition didn't kill the design — it just changed the badge. The cab lived on through Autocar, Western Star, and White-GMC well into the early 1990s. That's making history.
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Join the American Truck Historical Society and become part of a passionate community with the mission to never let trucking's legacy fade from the road. Learn more at ATHS.ORG

05/27/2026

Meet Wyatt Vanderlinden! He’s been around trucks since he was a baby at ATHS shows, and now, at 14, he’s hands-on restoring a 1954 R-130 and a 1963 C900 —mostly on his own. Wyatt’s passion for originality and preserving history is proof that the future of this hobby is in great hands. Don’t miss his inspiring Next Gen feature in the May/June issue of Wheels of Time! Become a member and get your subscription at ATHS.org.