The history of the Peterbilt brand began in 1939. At that time, Al Peterman from Tacoma, Washington, bought the Californian company Fageol Truck & Coach Company.

Peterbilt brand history

The company was in a very difficult financial situation and Peterman decided to save them, modernizing the trucks manufactured so far, and also changing the name to Peterbilt. And so on August 2, 1939 the first Peterbilt left the factory – model 334, which went to Beckley Bros.

Until the end of the 1950s, the number of recipients was strongly limited. All this changed, however, in 1958, when the brand Peterbilt was taken over by Pacific Car and Foundry, in short Paccar (the same which today also has Kenworth and DAF). The owners of the group showed great potential in trucks from the west and decided to make them a permanent element of the roads of all US states. And so in a few years Peterbilt became a popular brand throughout the country, which of course helped very successful projects in the form of models 351 (1954) and 359 (1967).

Source: wikipedia.org