Our family motoring trips were
always exploited for any educational value possible.
This could be a detour from the
actual route to take in a place or geographical feature of interest, striking
up a meaningful conversation or debate on something seen on or by the road or
playing a game, usually on a vehicle spotting theme. The I-Spy series of books
could take up the hours of restless and tetchy children on a long drive to a holiday destination as long as there
were essential toilet breaks or opportunities to suppress (or deal with the results of ) travel sickness.
These sorts of activities had formed part of my own childhood and naturally,
having turned out to be a well rounded and informed individual I attribute some
of the credit,for this, to them.
Motoring was of course a bit different in the
late 1960’s and early 1970’s than it is today.
For one, my parents drove a
series of Volkswagens from camper van to 1600 Squareback (this 1971 model is
still used by my youngest brother today) and 412LE Estates. Such was the
comparative rarity of a foreign made car on British highways that their owners
always waved at each other, perhaps in a way a portent about the then future demise
of the home grown car industries in the face of overseas competition.
That era
of motoring was also one of the giving away of freebies by petrol companies in
return for a fuel purchase. There were collectible coins, of lightweight metallic
form, with the two that I remember most clearly being the history of flight and
the England World Cup Squad of 1970.
Other brands promoted 3 dimensional cards
with the images appearing to move when pivoted slightly with pictures of
wildlife, miniature footballer busts (in the days of predominantly male
footballers), general knowledge or quiz booklets and the always popular amongst adult items of individual drinking
glasses that would with regular petrol purchases build up into a nice cupboard
full.
Nowadays the offerings at the pumps are pitiful and of no educational or
entertainment value whatsoever unless you really want to go half price to Sea
World, Chessington Zoo or Thorpe Park Amusements.
A main on board activity that
our own children enjoyed when young was lorry spotting.
It was a time of the emergence of very
large scale logistical companies whose livery clad trucks and trailers could be
seen with great regularity on any journey up and down or across the country.
The
best known company was of course Eddie Stobart and their merchandising was
legendary to such an extent that it was rumoured that, in lean economic times, the sale of model
vehicles and other collectibles was more of a moneyspinner than the actual haulage
business.
A fan club flourished with the main activity being ticking off the
individual numbers and female names of the lorries. This reached fanatical
proportions and with the green shirted tie wearing drivers attaining almost
mythical hero status amongst the officianados. They were under strict instruction to sound their horns and wave when confronted by a fan club member.
We as a family went along with
this hysteria but gradually changed our allegiances to what we perceived to be the brave underdog
company of James Irlam Transport.Their lorries seemed to appear on the roads as
a challenger to the all conquering Stobarts.
The Irlam livery was, in contrast,
very plain but no less distinctive.
If in a large chain toy shop the shelving
displaying the Stobart Empire would be extensive compared to the other brands
on offer but these as well as Irlam included Currie European, Norfolk Line,
Prestons of Potto, Longs of Leeds, Schenker and my favourite almost tongue twisting Norbert Dentressangle as well as many
other smaller fleet operators.
The business model of lorry models was soon
taken up by the majority of truck companies as a bit of an extra income but complimentary to the core operation.
Then, as though overnight, the Irlam
lorries just vanished from our regular family motorway and truck road routes. It was as sudden as that.
There could have been many reasons for their
disappearance such as enforced bankruptcy, unviability as a commercial business
and voluntary liquidation, difficulties in obtaining bank funding, involvement
with illegal activities or simply that the founding members gave up trucking.
James Irlam & Sons Ltd was founded by
James Irlam in the 1940s in the Manchester area. His son, Ken, later took
over the running of the firm. In 1964 the firm operated with just one truck.
The business later passed to Ken Irlam's four sons, one soon selling his 25% share of the
business to his three brothers in 2004 to pursue other ventures.
At its peak Irlam Transport ran 263 trucks and 633 trailers
employing nearly 700 people.
At the end of 2007, its rival, Stobart Group (who
shared some of the same major name clients as Irlam), approached the Irlam family
with a view to acquiring their firm. This was evidently considered but initially rejected
although a defining event seems to have been, in January 2008, the death of the
senior family member Ken Irlam. Shortly afterwards, the three remaining
family members agreed to sell James Irlam & Sons Ltd for a total consideration of £59.9 million to the Stobart
Group.
Initially, the James Irlam brand and livery were to
remain, but James Irlam was soon completely integrated into the core Eddie
Stobart Ltd and re-branded under the core Eddie Stobart brand name.
It was big
business indeed but even Edward Stobart, the founder had started off in a similar
way to the Irlam family with only 26 Vehicles in 1985 and which he often
insisted on washing down by himself in the yard between contracts.
In that
knowledge how could we be upset about the disappearance of Irlam lorries?.
It
was just a case of transport evolution and firms going the road that many other household names have gone over the last few decades.
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