Over the past 100-plus years, trucks have evolved as Coca-Cola delivery trucks attest. From the solid axles to right-hand drive to the bottles exposed to the elements, this truck looks radically different than today’s modern beverage delivery trucks, but still fulfills the same function–to deliver beverages to retail customers.
Coca-Cola delivery truck in the early-1920s
This photo was featured in the August 1952 issue of Coca-Cola Overseas. This Model T Ford and body cost Coca-Cola $570 in 1921. The first Ford truck with a special body to hold 24 cases (and eight more on top, when required).
Coca-Cola Ford Model AA panel delivery truck in El Paso, Texas, 1931.
Ford Model AA truck operated by the Birmingham, Alabama bottler, Crawford Johnson & Co., Inc., 1931.
Ford Model AA 1-1/2-ton panel truck in downtown Denver, Colorado. This truck was operated by the Denver Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
1935 Ford delivery truck delivers Coca-Cola during a flood in Richmond, Virginia.
1953 Ford cab-over-engine Model P500 Coca-Cola delivery truck.
1954 Ford F500 Coca-Cola delivery truck used in Ohio. This truck was marketed to Coca-Cola bottlers with the feature: “With all the doors up, forklift trucks can load or unload pallets at top speed.”
Ford Coca-Cola delivery truck in 1941.
This 1900 photo shows a Coca-Cola delivery truck with three young boys sitting on side of truck.
The Rapid Truck, made by the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company in Pontiac, MI, was the first truck in Knoxville, TN. This photo was taken in 1909.
Two men stand by a Coca-Cola delivery truck in 1910.
This 1921 photo was featured in The Coca-Cola Bottler magazine.
Drivers stand beside their delivery trucks outside the bottling plant building in 1921.
A 1931 snapshot of a truck used by a Coca-Cola advertising department to install marketing and advertising displays.
Taken on what is now the downtown connector just south of 10th street. You can see old O’Keefe high school on the right which has since been incorporated into Georgia Tech. The Georgia Tech Coliseum would be just to the right of the shot.
A Coca-Cola delivery truck sits next to a statue in 1950s Egypt.
Edinburgh Castle stands over a Coca-Cola delivery truck and Castle Street in this 1953 photo.
A 1953 photograph of a Coca-Cola delivery truck on Westminster Bridge with Big Ben and Parliament buildings in the background.
Coca-Cola being loaded aboard the Endeavor, the New Zealand Antarctic supply ship in 1957.
