Imagine being in the year 1905. Automobiles were becoming more acceptable as a viable form of transportation . From the automobile came the idea of adapting the body and chassis to haul goods and travelers. 

Early forms of busses could seat twelve passengers. The motor car became an extension of what had been in use for years using horse and wagon teams to haul freight from railroad depots to close by towns and factories. The new motor truck could go farther and faster than horses and did not require a livery or stable to maintain. However there were limitations to trucks. Poor roads that became mud when it rained, speed meant nothing over twenty miles an hour. Speed limits of ten to twelve miles an hour became the norm in cities and around curves. Out in the countryside you could go as fast as twenty. Even a new Maxwell two ton truck with an eighteen horsepower engine had a top speed of only eighteen miles per hour. 

The early adopters of the early motor trucks were stores and local manufacturers making their own deliveries. Some enterprising men formed for hire companies taking on whatever freight they could find. Nothing too far yet. The idea of intrastate or even interstate transportation was not developed yet and would not be for at least two decades.

To introduce the idea of motor vehicle use to transport freight the truck manufacturers demonstrated the use to various firms. Packard demonstrated using a truck to two packing houses in Chicago, Illinois to deliver from the stock yards to the local plants. Swift & Company and Anglo-American Packing Company were given such demonstrations over several days in 1905. Another such test was given to the Chicago department store of Carson, Pirie, Scott to make store deliveries to customers with up to 120 deliveries in just a few hours as far away as the suburb of Evanston. 

Some firms committed to a small fleet of motor trucks. The Adams Express Company took delivery of five Packard trucks in 1905 for use in New York City. They were equipped with two cylinder fourteen horsepower engines with chain drive and rubber tires. 

Business owners needed to decide whether to stay with liveries providing horse teams or taking a chance on motor trucks. In Syracuse, New York one livery owner added an addition to his building to open a garage to service the half dozen trucks already in use in that city. With delivery of another dozen trucks the next year he soon found revenues from servicing of trucks surpassed those of the livery side. Meanwhile, in Toledo, Ohio the Pope Motor Car Company decided to get rid of all of its horses, which had been used for trucking and teaming purposes.

All was not rosy for the new use of motor trucks. In New York City of 25 steamship companies, ten refused to allow trucks on their docks. Five fully allowed trucks while ten refused to reply to letters sent out until they met with lawyers or insurance agents. It seemed they worried about fires being started by the gasoline engines being used on motorized vehicles. No worries though from the horses dropping piles of…well, you know!

As with most new technology or new products in 1905 truck manufacturers were being formed like weeds in a field. Choose any large or medium sized eastern or Midwest market and there was an enterprising concern setting up a factory to build the newest truck.

Mack Motor Car Company selected Allentown, Pennsylvania as the home for the their “Manhattan” cab over engine truck.Packard began making in 1905 a one and a half ton truck with a 15 horsepower engine under the drivers seat. The Commercial Motor Truck Company purchased a site at Plymouth, Ohio and began construction of their first building, to be two stories high, 100 feet long and 64 feet wide where 50 men will be employed. 

Although a young industry there were a few companies already hauling freight by truck, among them Motor Express Company of Saginaw, Michigan which bought 3 trucks in 1905.