Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s the state-owned National Bus Company, with its familiar corporate livery, was a common sight across much of England and Wales. The huge variety of the various buses is well documented, but alongside there was a much less well known facet of operations – that of the humble service vehicle. Often in the same corporate livery, this part of the fleet contained the ‘oddments’, such as towing and recovery vehicles, training vehicles, tree cutting vehicles and publicity buses often converted from ex-PSVs, as well as the elusive and often ignored lorries and vans.

The National Bus Company was broken up over thirty years ago, making photographs and details of these vehicles increasingly hard to find. The author has spent forty years researching the NBC service vehicle fleet and presents a selection of photographs to give the reader an overview of a little known but never the less fascinating subject.