When Was the First Pickup Truck Built?

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 recognized by World War I that motorized vehicles were a permanent fixture and were much cheaper to maintain than horses, thus paving the way for future mass production.

The pickup put the final nail in the coffin of the horse-drawn wagon and has served since then as the world's most-common motorized workhorse and family passenger vehicle.

The World War I-era pickup truck was a utilitarian, no-frills vehicle manufactured for the sole purpose of hauling goods from one place to another.

While Ford pioneered the factory-produced pickup, Dodge marketed an upscale but tough pickup-style vehicle that saw work in World War I as cargo trucks, ambulances and light repair trucks.

The 1925 Ford pickup was equipped with a front mat, jack, tire pump and a tool kit containing a screwdriver, tire iron, monkey wrench, spark plug wrench, end wrench and hub cap wrench.

The 1925 Ford pickup truck featured an L-head, 4-cylinder engine that generated 20 horsepower on a 100-inch wheelbase.

Although Ford offered more popular trucks, Dodge was more innovative, offering its Screenside Commercial vehicle that was basically a truck with safety screens on the side and built on a car chassis with a rated 1,000-pound payload capacity.