Alexander Winton
Alexander Winton was a Scottish-born American automaker whose Winton Motor Carriage Company built one of the first automobile haulers in 1899 to deliver cars to customers.
What they did and why it matters
Winton's car hauler is often cited as an early form of the semi-trailer truck, built to solve a delivery problem every manufacturer faces: getting products to distant customers without wear or damage. Rather than drive each new car hundreds of miles to buyers, Winton built a vehicle that pulled a trailer carrying one car. The idea of a powered unit towing a separate cargo carrier was later refined by August Fruehauf. Today's car carriers and dedicated trailers that haul finished goods to distribution centers carry on that approach.
Related people
Sources
- Winton Motor Carriage Company (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
- Origins of the semi-trailer truck (InTrans, Iowa State University) intrans.iastate.edu