The 'LAD' cab came about as a joint venture between Leyland, Albion and Dodge to share development costs of a common lorry cab for the trucks produced by these companies. Motor Panels of Coventry were already building a cab shared by Thorneycroft and Guy, but these were not volume manufacturers and the LAD cab offered a much more profitable product. It was used on many different Leyland trucks, as well as Albion and Dodge vehicles from its debut at the 1958 Commercial Motor Show. When production ended in 1979 135,000 LAD cabs had been produced.