The best time to start with, is the post-war era. If ever there were problems with transporting, it was at this time. Mountains of rubble had to be moved away and never before were more buildings being erected than at that time.

Trucks were almost always used vehicles, because the new production hadn't yet started and no-one could afford them anyway. Converted military vehicles were often used, indeed the engine performance was invariably too low, and after all, using them with a trailer allowed almost double the transport capacity.

Flat-bed trucks offered a bit more, they however, had to be unloaded by hand using shovels. Thus, quite soon, tip-up trucks were brought into service. If the tonnage was relative low, they could also be operated by cranking. Thus we arrive at the automatic loading and unloading.

Those who had an excavator at their disposal, could count themselves to be fortunate. Of course, they cannot be compared with today's vehicles. Looking at them now, they give the impression of coming out of the steam-age. Indeed, who could afford to leave such a vehicle standing around unused? Whatever the case may be, the hauliers had to make do with this equipment for a good 15 years.

Of course, quite early on, there were all-wheel drive trucks. Indeed, no-one thought about using them with trailers and smaller loads on the roads. Mostly they were somewhat smaller vehicles which would go deep down into the excavation-pits empty and then return loaded. All in all, they were more economical for short distance haulage.

What remained, was the trailer, even though they had now outgrown the tractor. The disliked twin-wheels were done away with and much larger wheels were used. As a triple-axle vehicle, they were fitted with two tiltable containers. Together with the removable side-flaps, which were often wooden with metal frames, the permissible gross weight was easily exceeded.

The problem was, that sand and gravel are taken out of the ground and are washed shortly before being loaded. The remaining water flows out of the load during the transporting. The longer the truck could be driven before the weight was checked, the better. Of course, the police also knew all about this and often did their checking quite close to the quarry or gravel-pit.

During the day, the normal haulage was carried out, in the evenings, on their way home, they often had another load for the private house-builders. This didn't cost the contractor much. By the way, the only rationalisation was, that on big construction sites, the gravel or sand was conveyed by chute to the ground level, then loaded, together with the cement, using a cable-winch, into the drum. 11/14