Trucking Tidbits | Trucking Through Time: The Semi-Trailer

Did you know?

In 1914 Detroit blacksmith August Fruehauf and a friend and work partner Otto Neumann -who by the way, got the job working with August by walking by the shop and helping him shoo some horses away -things were so much simpler back then- together were able to come up with a simple single axle trailer for a lumber dealer Frederic Sibley.

Hooked to a modified Ford Model T, it carried Sibley’s boat on vacation trips. Sibley then had Fruehauf modify the trailer for hauling lumber. It was called the “semi-trailer”.

The design revolutionized the transportation industry and paved the way for the modern trucking industry we know today.