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 languagegroups use the term bakkie, a diminutive of bak, Afrikaans for bowl /container, due to the cargo area 's similarities with a bowl and container.
