Fire Engines Photos

Lovely! seems to be Magirus TL30. Typical with right hand side steering

Added by JACQUES PETER on 23 April 2025.

Switzerland was one of the last countries to adopt left hand drive on commercial vehicles, a trend which only started in the sixties there. When I was working there as a student on vacation in 1963 I asked about this. I was told that on the numerous narrow mountain roads it was much more important for the driver to see the edge of the road than anything else. As this often involved a drop off of several hundred metres, I could see how this made sense! I am not sure it was actually relevant for an urban fire truck like this ladder, but maybe Saurer did not even offer left hand drive when this unit was built. Back then, most countries bought fire truck chassis which were locally built, and in the case of Switzerland that did not mean much choice…..

Added by Rob Johnson on 24 April 2025.

Yes precisely, and on another subject, Swiss post office Beetles had also right steering to enable the postman to be on the side of the postboxes/sidewalks and not open the door on the traffic side!

Added by JACQUES PETER on 25 April 2025.

In France right steering was also adopted early 20th century to enable the drivers to see the edge of the streets/roads, which were at that time in very poor conditions.

Added by JACQUES PETER on 25 April 2025.

Hi J-P! Not only in Switzerland, but also here in the States the USPS has a huge fleet of custom built mail delivery trucks with right hand drive, for exactly the same reason.

Added by Rob Johnson on 29 April 2025.

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