That said, I still don't personally own a truck, borrowing them as needed. An all-electric model of good quality would be pretty tempting to me.
But trailers are widespread and gardening/furniture shops provide them either for free or for a very low price.
Canadian here who drives a truck in the snowy mountain roads, I'm pretty confused by this. Why do you say they are not good? There is nothing I'd rather be in than an F350 with studded tires and four-wheel drive on the highway when the road conditions go bad.
But there is another problem with trucks. It rains a lot in Norway especially on the west coast and in mountains. And it really sucks to load-transport-unload without the roof under the rain. Most trailers here are with the roof for this reason.
On your last point, are truck canopies not common in Norway? Something like this: https://canopy-world.com/
Canopies are really rare. What is typical is vans or cargo vans in all sizes. That is, something with a roof and front-wheel drive. As roads here are good, there is little point in high-rised cars. And on icy roads or with snow good winter tires are much more important than 4WD.
Minimal maintenance, largely stored sitting idle, no cleaning required. You don't even need to unethically deem your workers as contractors.
Trailers have a capacity advantage though. Sometimes the shit you're moving simply won't fit in a large pickup truck. In those cases though, having a truck with sufficient power to tow that trailer is still handy...
The only thing you need is practice. The next time you use a trailer, take it to a big WalMart parking lot during a slow time and play around with it a little bit. You'll get a feel for where the "fulcrum" is, and start using your mirrors to steer. This isn't an impossible task. All the semi truck drivers you see on the road have to get really good at this in order to pass their CDL, and lots of them never backed up a trailer before they took the course.
My main point though is mass market trailer rental to the general public will probably never be very popular. Most people have never attempted to back up a trailer before and at least the first few times they attempt it the chance they'll jackknife it is pretty high.
But backing up! Its like pushing a rope. And I had to get the rear of the wagon within 1ft of the target - an old tire with a grain auger's business end in it, so I could unload.
Yes, every time I park it. It is much easier to learn how to back with a trailer than to learn how to drive
Sheet materials and long materials up there no problem, everything else in the boot.
https://www.harborfreight.com/1195-lbs-capacity-48-in-x-96-i...
At $350, not having to share a utility trailer with careless drivers seems quite attainable.