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Stan Robinson Commemorated on new DAF's paintwork
15th November 2012
The life of well-known Staffordshire haulier Stan Robinson, whose sudden death in April shocked the industry, is being commemorated by a specially painted truck that has just gone onto the road.
His son Mark described the new top-of-the-range DAF XF105 with its special paint finish by leading airbrush artist Andy Scott of Barnsley, as “a fitting tribute to my father who devoted his life to building the family business and to the transport industry.”
The livery includes a ‘time line’ setting out the key dates and events in the Robinson family’s involvement with road transport. It starts with Stan’s own father who delivered coal in the post war years in a three tonne Bedford, often with Stan in the cab. And it shows how Stan started the present company in 1970 with a single truck, which he drove himself.
Steady expansion over the following four decades saw the business grow to a size where it now employs 330 people, runs a fleet of 180 trucks from four locations, and provides a full warehousing and logistics service.
Mark says that his father would have been proud to see the new DAF as he was passionate about the appearance of every truck in his fleet. “He always wanted our trucks to look smart and to convey a good professional image to our customers. And he made sure that they were well looked after in our own workshops, as this new one will be.”
At the wheel of the new truck is Nigel Brown, who has been with the company for 35 years and who knew Stan very well. “He was a great guy to work with,” says Nigel. “He was not the sort of person to run the company from behind a desk but was a man who was always ready to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in. He was a very fair man to work for and understood what driving a truck is about and is sadly missed amongst the drivers and all those working for the company.”
As the DAF will form part of the main fleet on general haulage work around the UK it will soon become a regular sight on the roads. But at 44 tonnes and with its Super Space cab and 510 horsepower engine it’s a long way removed from the two-axle Commer with which Stan started the business.
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