Bakkie

A pickup truck is a light-duty truck having an enclosed cab and an open cargo area with low sides and tailgate. Once a work tool with few creature comforts, in the 1950s, consumers began purchasing pickups for lifestyle reasons, and by the 1990s, less than 15% of owners reported use in work as the pickup truck's primary purpose. Today in North America, the pickup is mostly used like a passenger car and accounts for about 18% of total vehicles sold in the US.

The term pickup is of unknown origin. It was used by Studebaker in 1913 and by the 1930s, "pick-up" (hyphenated) had become the standard term. In Australia and New Zealand, "ute", short for utility vehicle, is used for both pickups and coupé utilities. In South Africa, people of all language groups use the term bakkie, a diminutive of bak, Afrikaans for bowl/container, due to the cargo area's similarities with a bowl and container.

In the early days of automobile manufacturing, vehicles were sold as a chassis only, and third parties added bodies on top. In 1913, the Galion Allsteel Body Company, an early developer of the pickup and dump truck, built and installed hauling boxes on slightly modified Ford Model T chassis, and from 1917 on the Model TT. Seeking part of this market share, Dodge introduced a 3/4-ton pickup with cab and body constructed entirely of wood in 1924. In 1925, Ford followed up with a Model T-based, steel-bodied, half-ton with an adjustable tailgate and heavy-duty rear springs. Billed as the "Ford Model T Runabout with Pickup Body", it sold for US$281; 34,000 were built. In 1928, it was replaced by the Model A which had a closed-cab, safety-glass windshield, roll-up side windows and three-speed transmission. In 1931, Chevrolet produced its first factory-assembled pickup. Ford Australia produced the first Australian "ute" in 1932. During the Second World War, the United States government halted the production of privately owned pickup trucks.

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Wikipedia