Trucks Versus Horses
Written by Donald E. Meyer, GMC Historian
Early truck salesmen had to convince prospective customers that motor trucks were better than horses for hauling goods, especially in cities. The 1915 GMC advertisement shows horses that went down on the job. This ad also shows electric trucks that were being promoted for short city hauls. However, by 1918 GMC had discontinued building electric trucks after demand dropped off. Operators learned that storage batteries then available had short life and were very expensive to replace. Also the lead batteries were so heavy they displaced too much truck weight capacity.
The graph below shows how trucks rapidly replaced horses from 1910 to 1934. It was copied from GMC Truck History, 1900-1950 by Russell A. Crist, 1956.
