You won’t believe how far bakkies have come!
Given that trains were originally intended to transport cargo, it seems almost odd that the first pickup truck (or “bakkie” as it is more commonly known in South Africa) only appeared commercially several years after the modern car became part of daily life.
It appears that while American farmers were chopping their Model T Fords to include a cargo bed as early as 1908, the first factory produced utility trucks only emerged in the 1920s.
According to author Rob Wagner of eHow: “The first factory-produced pickup was a Ford Model T Runabout with a cargo bed in the rear. Although it debuted in April 1925, many Model Ts had already been converted by owners to pickup truck use by 1918.
“Companies employing horse-drawn wagons to deliver goods and haul waste material recognised by World War I that motorised vehicles were a permanent fixture and were much cheaper to maintain than horses, thus paving the way for future mass production.”
How different the landscape is today. In the United States, Ford told USA Today that there were so many F-series trucks sold in 2014 that if they were all parked bumper-to-bumper, they would snake from Los Angeles to New York City – “with about 50 miles to spare”.
Not that South Africa has been any slouch in the bakkie department. Year in and year out, total bakkie sales touch the 100 000 mark, with the Toyotal Hilux dominating the last three decades.
It is estimated that bakkie sales make up some 20% of all vehicle sales in South Africa.
What is interesting are the spinoff industries that bakkies have spawned. Specialised shock absorbers, mag wheels and tyres are but some of these, but perhaps the most well-known is the bakkie canopy or “cap”, as it is known in the US.
The industry is a vast one these days, given that so many new bakkie manufacturers and models are entering the market. No longer is a make-shift canopy sufficient; each has to be custom-designed to suit the specifications of that particular model.
Take for example a Ford Bantam canopy. The vehicle is a fairly common site on South African roads, but its smaller size means that its canopy will have to be made to order. Manufacturers also have to be careful not to lose sight of the original styling of the bakkie, so as to keep everything as “natural” as possible.
With more people driving bakkies not simply because they are excellent for transporting goods, but also for their aesthetic value, it is little wonder that the canopy industry is booming.