Many years ago, Ertel Publishing founder and longtime Vintage Truck magazine editor Pat Ertel declared every final Sunday in June to be a special day honoring old-truck enthusiasts and their rides. Drive Your Old Truck Day (DYOTD) quickly became a hit with readers all over North America and even in other parts of the world.

In case you are just joining the fun, DYOTD is a time when we ask our readers to get their old pickups and SUVs out of the garage and let the public see them on the road, at parks, and in parking lots. We ask owners to take a few good photos to commemorate the day and send the best image to us for publication in that year’s September/October issue. This year’s DYOTD takes place on June 30, 2024.

How do you participate in DYOTD? It’s easy.

Take several clear photos with your camera (or smartphone) set on its highest resolution. The locations can be anywhere you like, but try to choose an interesting setting so your truck stands out. Pick out the best photo and send it to us through one of the following methods:

as an email attachment to brad@ertelpublishing.com
by regular mail to Vintage Truck Magazine, P.O. Box 838, Yellow Springs, OH 45387

This next part is important! Several submissions each year arrive accompanied by zero information. Please let me know:

your name
city and state
year, make, and model of your truck

Feel free to include 50 to 100 words about your truck and where you drove it on DYOTD.

The deadline to get those pictures to us for inclusion in the magazine is Monday, July 8. (If you mail it in an envelope and it gets here a couple of days late, don’t worry. We’ll still consider it.)

If DYOTD sounds fun but you would like to take it up a notch, keep reading.

DYOTD Train Contest

Last year, we asked readers to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Vintage Truck magazine by including the number 30 in the DYOTD photos. Response was so positive that we decided to make an annual photo contest out of the holiday—this time, with a prize!

The 2023 contest theme is Gas Stations. If you would like to participate, pose your truck(s) at a gas station, and take your best shot. It doesn’t matter if the station is old and decrepit or new and shiny—just so the photo is in focus and the truck is well presented. The staff will choose one Grand Prize winner, and there will no doubt be several honorable mentions. The winning image will be one the staff feels best exemplifies the spirit of DYOTD.

Last year, we debuted our Vintage Truck Magazine Drive Your Old Truck Day Photo Contest—or VTMDYOTDPC, if you think that abbreviation helps somehow—with a Gas Station theme.

This year’s theme is Railroads. If you would like to participate, pose your truck(s) at a train depot or next to a locomotive or at a crossing—something that says, “Here’s my neat old truck, honoring the roles that trains and trucks played in building America’s infrastructure!”

Take your best shot. It doesn’t matter if the station (or train) is old and decrepit or new and shiny—just so the photo is in focus and your truck is well presented. The staff will choose one Grand Prize winner, and there will no doubt be several honorable mentions. The winning image will be one the staff feels best exemplifies the spirit of VTMDYOTDPC.

The DYOTD Railroad Contest Grand Prize will be, appropriately enough, a copy of Milwaukee Road Mainline: Chicago to the Twin Cities (1965–1985) from the ErtelGiftShop.com online store. This 126-page softcover book by hardcore rail enthusiast John Kelly documents the entirety of the Milwaukee Road line in its final two decades of existence. I personally edited John’s book and was fascinated by the hundreds of vintage photos and detailed history of this once-critical line.

I can’t wait to see your pictures!