This article is about the semi-truck. For the North American use of the word, see pickup truck.

A truck is a vehicle for carrying goods and materials. The word "truck" possibly derives from the Greek "trochos", meaning "wheel." In North America, the big wheels of wagons were called trucks. When the gasoline-engine driven trucks came into fashion, these were called "motor trucks." Lorry is a term from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, but is only used for the medium and heavy types (see below), i.e. a van, a pickup or a Jeep would never be regarded as a lorry. Other languages have loanwords based on these terms, such as the Malay language and the Spanish language in northern Mexico.

In Australia and New Zealand a small vehicle with an open back is called a ute (short for "utility vehicle") or a pick-up and the word "truck" is reserved for larger vehicles.

In the United States a commercial driver's license is required to drive any type of vehicle weighing 26,001 lbs or more.

Engine

The oldest truck was built in 1896 by Gottlieb Daimler. Small trucks such as SUVs or pickups, and even light medium-duty trucks in North America and Russia will use gasoline engines. Most heavier trucks use four stroke turbo intercooler diesel engines, although there are alternatives. Huge off-highway trucks use locomotive-type engines such as a V12 Detroit Diesel two stroke engine.

North American manufactured highway trucks almost always use an engine built by a third party, such as CAT, Cummins, or Detroit Diesel. The only exceptions to this are Volvo and its subsidiary Mack Trucks, which are available with their own engines. Freightliner, Sterling Trucks and Western Star, subsidiaries of Daimler AG, are available with Mercedes-Benz and Detroit Diesel engines. Trucks and buses built by Navistar International usually also contain International engines. The Swedish manufacturer Scania claims they stay away from the U.S. market because of this third party tradition.

In the European Union all truck engines must comply with Euro 5 regulations.

Drivetrain

Small trucks use the same type of transmissions as almost all cars which have either an automatic transmission or a manual transmission with synchronisers. Bigger trucks often use manual transmissions without synchronisers which have less bulk and weight although synchromesh transmissions are used in larger trucks as well. Transmissions without synchronisers known as "crash boxes" require double clutching for each shift, (which can lead to repetitive motion injuries), or a technique known colloquially as "floating," a method of changing gears which doesn't use the clutch, except for starts and stops, due to the physical effort of double clutching especially with non power assisted clutches, faster shifts, and less clutch wear.