Types of trucks, with real examples

There are two ways to sort trucks, and most guides mix them up:

• By size: light duty, medium duty and heavy duty, set by how much the loaded truck may weigh.
• By job: what is built on the chassis. A pickup bed, a box, a coupling to pull a trailer, a tipping body, a tank, a mixer drum.

Below are both, with real models from VehiclesDB, a catalog of 1,215 truck models from 111 makes built from official vehicle registers. Every model name links to its page.

Truck types by size: light, medium and heavy duty

In the US, trucks are grouped into eight classes by gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), the most the truck may weigh fully loaded:

Class	GVWR	Duty
1	up to 6,000 lbs	Light
2	6,001 to 10,000 lbs	Light
3	10,001 to 14,000 lbs	Medium
4	14,001 to 16,000 lbs	Medium
5	16,001 to 19,500 lbs	Medium
6	19,501 to 26,000 lbs	Medium
7	26,001 to 33,000 lbs	Heavy
8	over 33,000 lbs	Heavy

The classes and weights are the US Department of Energy's vehicle weight classes, which follow the Federal Highway Administration's; the light, medium and heavy grouping is from the same page.

Europe sorts goods vehicles into three categories by maximum mass, set in Regulation (EU) 2018/858, Article 4:

• N1: up to 3.5 tonnes. Vans and pickups.
• N2: over 3.5 and up to 12 tonnes. Light and medium trucks.
• N3: over 12 tonnes. Heavy trucks and tractor units.

This is why a register can call the same model a van in one row and a truck in the next: a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter built over 3.5 tonnes is an N2 truck, and the lighter ones are N1 vans. In our catalog it is in both the truck list and the van list.

Types of trucks by job

Pickup trucks

An open cargo bed behind a cab, on a light duty chassis. In our catalog these cars carry the pickup body type:

Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Toyota Hilux, Toyota Tundra, Isuzu D-Max, Honda Ridgeline and GMC 1500.

The bigger "heavy duty" pickups sit one class up. Ford sells the F-250 and F-350 as its Super Duty range, rated to tow up to 40,000 lbs with the strongest option. Several registers record them as trucks, not cars.

Box trucks (straight or rigid trucks)

The cab and the cargo box share one chassis, so the truck carries its load itself. These are the delivery and distribution trucks of every city, mostly medium duty. Manufacturers build distinct models for this job:

• Volvo FL, which Volvo calls "your delivery truck", and the Volvo FE, "your versatile city truck" (Volvo Trucks).
• Mercedes-Benz Atego, for "distribution haulage" (Mercedes-Benz Trucks).
• MAN TGL, 7.5 to 12 tonnes, for "the distribution segment" (MAN).
• Iveco Eurocargo, 7.5 to 18 tonnes, for regional and urban work, and the lighter Iveco Daily, 3.5 to 7.2 tonnes (Iveco).
• DAF XD, "for distribution and vocational applications" (DAF).

Semi trucks (tractor units)

A tractor unit carries no cargo of its own. It pulls a semi-trailer that rests on a coupling over its rear axles, the fifth wheel. Together they are a semi, an 18-wheeler or an articulated lorry. The long-haul models:

• Volvo FH, "the original long-haul icon" (Volvo Trucks).
• Scania's R series, "for long-haul transport", and S series, such as the Scania R500 and the Scania S500 (Scania).
• DAF XF, "for long and heavy haulage" (DAF).
• MAN TGX, which MAN says "sets the benchmark for long distance transport" (MAN).
• Iveco S-Way, 18 to 26 tonnes, for long distance (Iveco).
• In North America: the Freightliner Cascadia, built for on-highway work (Freightliner), and the Mack Anthem, "the new standard of regional haul" (Mack).

Most of these models are also sold as rigid trucks, with a box, a tank or a tipper on the chassis. The register records the model, not the body on it.

Dump trucks and construction trucks

A tipping body for gravel, earth or rubble, on a strong chassis with high ground clearance. Construction trucks are their own models:

• Volvo FMX, "our toughest construction truck" (Volvo Trucks).
• Mack Granite, "the new standard of vocational trucking", which Mack sells for construction (Mack).
• Scania P models, "ideal for urban and regional operations and well-proven for construction" (Scania).

Garbage trucks and municipal trucks

Refuse collection, street cleaning and other city work, usually with a low cab the crew can step in and out of. The Mercedes-Benz Econic is "built for municipal operations" (Mercedes-Benz Trucks).

Off-road and utility trucks

All-wheel drive trucks that carry tools and attachments where roads end. The best known is the Mercedes-Benz Unimog, sold for "extreme off-road capability" and year-round service work (Mercedes-Benz Trucks).

Flatbeds, tankers, refrigerated trucks, mixers, tow trucks and fire trucks

These are bodies, not models. A body builder fits a flat deck, a tank, an insulated box with a cooling unit, a concrete drum, a recovery crane or fire equipment onto a truck chassis, most often a medium or heavy model from the lists above. The registers record the chassis make and model (a Volvo FM, a MAN TGS), so a list of "tanker models" can't come from them, and we don't invent one.

The most registered trucks

Which trucks are actually on the road? These are the truck models most often found in the registers that record trucks by make and model, with how many of those registers record each:

Truck	Registers that record it
Volvo FH	10
Mercedes-Benz Actros	11
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter	10
Iveco Daily	10
Volvo FM	10
Mercedes-Benz Atego	10
Ford Transit	10
DAF XF	9
Volvo FL	9
MAN TGX	10
MAN TGS	10
Mercedes-Benz Arocs	10

The order is by popularity: for every model the registers give a rank per country, and we combine them. European heavy trucks lead, because most of the registers that record trucks are European. The Sprinter, the Daily and the Transit are here because their heaviest versions are registered as trucks, not vans. The full list, most registered first, is on the trucks page.

Where this data comes from

Every truck in VehiclesDB appears in official vehicle registration data. Most truck records come from the registers of the Netherlands, Finland and Norway, with more from Australia, Israel, Spain, the UK, Luxembourg, Argentina, Germany and the Swiss canton of Thurgau. The US has no open register that lists trucks by make and model, so American trucks such as Kenworth, Peterbilt, Freightliner, Mack and International are in the catalog only where other countries register them. We'd rather say so than pad the list.

Sources for the facts on this page, read on November 11, 2026: the US Department of Energy's vehicle weight classes, Regulation (EU) 2018/858, and the manufacturers' own model pages linked above.

More about trucks

• Truck brands, A to Z: every truck maker in the registers, the semi truck brands and the groups that own them.
• Types of vans: small, medium and large vans, and why a pickup is often registered as a van.
• Types of motorcycles: the same guide for bikes, with the models riders register most.
• All trucks, A to Z: every truck make and model in the catalog.

If you're building a fleet, logistics or insurance tool and need this list in code, the same makes and models come from one call to the vehicle API with kind=truck, or as a download.