This book is aimed at inspiring readers to take a road trip, while providing practical advice to help them to do so. Whether looking at popping over to Europe for a quick circuit, hankering to drive the classic routes of North America, or even the aiming to cover a clutch of African countries, there is something for everyone. Importantly, every road trip featured is possible without specialist equipment and, indeed, each and every trip could possibly be completed in a hire car - though for a select few a four-wheel drive hire vehicle would be advisable. The author offers a wealth of advice from his experience taking road trips around the world. From hiring cars and paperwork, to what to take, driving laws, crossing borders and emergencies, the engaging text aims to give the reader confidence to fulfill his/her dreams. The second part of the book provides a wide range of route suggestions, based on the author's own experiences on six continents. A fascinating guide, which will, hopefully, inspire readers to turn their independent travel dreams into reality.

A recovery vehicle, or breakdown wagon, is the type of truck you hope you will never need. Unfortunately, they are an integral part of everyday life and are to be seen in various forms attending breakdowns and road traffic accidents. From the beginnings of mechanised transport there has always been the need for towing disabled motor vehicles, and the earliest recovery was carried out by real horse power. In time, most urban and rural garages would have an old car converted as a towing vehicle, parked in a corner awaiting the call for help. As motor vehicles became larger, so did the recovery vehicles, right up to heavy lorry and bus conversions that could handle the transport of the time. Specialist recovery companies were set up for towing and transport of disabled vehicles, while local garages maintained an ability to deal with customer breakdowns and accidents. Recovery trucks have evolved into large multi-wheeled vehicles with up to five axles, equipped with custom-built equipment, including cranes and heavy-duty winches. Some of these vehicles are the most spectacular sights in road transport. Showing a wide variety of vehicles, Bill Reid celebrates Britain's road recovery vehicles in a selection of rare and previously unpublished images.

Welcomed at end of the 19th century as the solution to the severe problem of horse manure in city streets, electric trucks soon became the norm for short-haul commercial deliveries. Though reliable, they were gradually replaced by gasoline-powered trucks for long-haul deliveries-although a fleet of electric milk trucks survived in Great Britain into the 1960s. Industrial electric vehicles never disappeared from factories and ports. During the past decade, with the availability of the lithium-ion battery, the electric truck is back on the road for all payloads and all distances. The fourth in a series covering the history and future of electric transport, this book chronicles the work of the innovative engineers who perfected e-trucks large and small.

Whether your interest is police, fire, ambulance or associated emergency and rescue services, this fully illustrated book of nearly 200 images captures the 999 services of the west of England going about their daily business. Covering the region stretching from South Gloucestershire to Cornwall, and from Weston-super-Mare to the Hampshire border, West of England Emergency Service Vehicles often captures the emergency services responding live to incidents on land, sea and in the air. Complementing the police (including the Avon & Somerset, Dorset and Devon & Cornwall forces), fire and ambulance services are the RNLI and Coastguard, Air Ambulance, the Bristol Airport Fire Service and specialist vehicles such as the latest HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) vehicles and an Ebola ambulance as well as the Alcohol Recovery Unit and vintage preserved fire appliances. Following on from his London's Emergency Service Vehicles, author Dave Boulter offers a real flavour of the modern emergency scene in the west of England, making this lavishly illustrated volume a must for anyone with an interest in emergency vehicles.

'Speckled with anecdotes, insights and surprises. It is great fun - and utterly timely' Sunday Times 'Standage writes with a masterly clarity' New York Times 'The product of deep research, great intelligence and burnished prose . . . It is rare that I encounter a non-fiction author whose prose is so elegant that it is worth reading for itself. Standage is a writer of this class' Wall Street Journal Beginning around 3,500 BC with the wheel, and moving through the eras of horsepower, trains and bicycles, Tom Standage puts the rise of the car - and the future of urban transport - into a broader historical context. Our society has been shaped by the car in innumerable ways, many of which are so familiar that we no longer notice them. Why does red mean stop and green mean go? Why do some countries drive on the left, and some on the right? How did cars, introduced only a little over a century ago, change the way the world was administered, laid out and policed, along with experiences like eating and shopping? And what might travel in a post-car world look like? As social transformations from ride-sharing to the global pandemic force us to critically re-examine our relationship with personal transportation, A Brief History of Motion is an essential contribution to our understanding of how the modern world came to be.

Southdown Motor Services, the well-known and respected bus and coach operator based on the south coast, ran buses and coaches in a delightful green and cream livery that is still fondly remembered today. Here, Simon Stanford looks at Southdown from the sixties up to their purchase by Stagecoach in 1989, with a variety of different brandings on show, exhibiting a variety of rare looks for the company’s fleet. With a wealth of previously unpublished images, Stanford’s collection of images is both nostalgic and enlightening and will appeal to any fan of Southdown buses or the history of independent British buses.