 The roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from a factory to the nearest railway station.The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a steam tractor manufactured by De Dion-Bouton.Steam-powered wagons were sold in France and the United States until the eve of World War I, and 1935 in the United Kingdom, when a change in road tax rules made them uneconomic against the new diesel lorries.