A Guide to Lorry Spotting

Try starting a conversation with most people (aside from the haulage companies) about trucks, and they'll be asleep before you even get to discuss the merits of a mid-lift axle. But it seems that there is a new guard emerging - a breed so dedicated and eagle-eyed, that they are turning the talent of high speed number plate reading into an art form. Well ok, there's a little bit more to it than that. But what it amounts to is being in the right place at the right time, and being quick enough to be able to recognise or decipher the truck make and model, the registration plate and the haulage companies' identification. This lot are quick-witted, they are patient and they are serious.

So who are these lorry spotters? Are they bookish statisticians on their holidays from Cambridge? Or are they frustrated accountants hanging around service stations in their macs with a secret penchant to be truckies? Well no, according to the haulage companies' they're just normal people who happen to like trucks - and if numbers quoted by the website lorryspotters.co.uk are anything to go by, the hobby is taking the UK by storm.

Hovering off a bridge over a busy motorway as half the world's traffic sprays you with muddy road water; or sitting on the side of the M1 as the other half of the world's traffic hurls empty coke cans at you isn't everyone idea of fun. But for the lorry spotter it's a pretty good day out.
Dictaphone in hand, pencil at the ready, these enthusiastic hunter-gatherers slowly but surely collate the information they need - make, model number, registration and the holy grail - the haulage companies' identification. In years to come "spotting the spotter" could become a hobby in its own right as once you start looking out for the lorry spotters, it becomes a fascinating skill to spy them at work from their preferred hiding spots. (Pun intended.)

The beauty of lorry spotting over, say train spotting is that it is a moveable feast. Not restricted by the constraints of the train lines, you can travel freely to carry out your research. There are of course some particularly popular spotting sites, usually involving a motorway. Groups of spotters sometimes meet up at the intersection of the M5 and the M6 because of sheer volume of traffic. Haulage companies' have stories of dedicated spotters who make round trips of up to 18 hours just to get another notch on their clip board!

www.lorryspotting.co.uk has over 4000 users who each pay £25 a year to join. The site has a database of over 13,000 lorries from nearly 100 haulage companies. The idea is to log on and record all the data from the lorries you have spotted, and join the league table vying against other members for the most sightings.

Of course, it's not all about competition and impressing your favourite haulage companies, and many lorry spotters do it for their own satisfaction. The web is awash with sites where you can download photos of trucks and lorries; blogs and forums devoted to lorry spotting; and software designed to help you collate your spotting data.

But the last mention would have to go to Alf Cooper - a well-known lorry spotter. Travelling up to 40,000 miles a year to pursue his hobby, the 78 year-old died on the job one day. But his dedication paid off and two months after his death he was still at number two on the league table.