Drive Your Old Truck Day and 4th Annual Vintage Truck Photo Contest

By Brad Bowling, Editor of Vintage Truck Magazine

As declared by Ertel Publishing founder Pat Ertel, the final Sunday of each June shall forevermore be known as Vintage Truck Magazine’s Drive Your Old Truck Day (DYOTD), on which day readers photograph their classic pickups, vans, and SUVs out in public and share those memories in our September/October issue. The 2026 DYOTD celebration takes place June 28. The deadline for submissions is Monday, July 13.

To participate, get your dusty, trusty ride out of the garage and have fun with it. Take several clear photos with your camera set on its highest resolution. The location 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 me through one of these two methods:

  • Email: dyotd@ertelpublishing.com by Monday, July 13.

  • Snail Mail: Brad Bowling, c/o DYOTD, P.O. Box 59, Amory, MS 38821. Postmarked by July 13.

No matter how you get images to me, provide your name, city, and state. I also need to know the year, make, and model of the vehicle in the photo. (This information is important. Please don’t make me get out the magnifying glass to determine if you have the 1950 door handle or the 1951 door handle!) 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 me for inclusion in the magazine is Monday, July 13. (If you mail it in an envelope and it gets here a couple of days late, don’t worry. I will still consider it.)

The Optional Photo Contest

If DYOTD sounds fun and you would like to take it up a notch, you can also participate in our 3rd Annual Vintage Truck Magazine Drive Your Old Truck Day Photo Contest (or VTMDYOTDPC, if that’s how your brain works). Yes, you can do DYOTD, VTMDYOTDPC, or both!

This year’s photo contest theme is “Trucks and Barns.” To play along, take a picture of your truck in front of (or even inside) a barn, garage, storage facility, or old—preferably haunted—house. The idea is to come up with something creative, so have fun with it! We will evaluate entries based on our usual criteria of lighting, clarity, sharpness, color, and imagination.

NOTE: If there is a minor child in the photo, please indicate with your submission that you are his or her parent or guardian and that Vintage Truck magazine has permission to publish the image.

The staff will choose one Grand Prize winner, a Second Place, and a Third Place, 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 Photo Contest Grand Prize will be a $50 gift certificate to ErtelGiftShop.com, with $25 gift certificates awarded to Second and Third Places.

I can’t wait to see your pictures!