EDITOR’S CHOICE
(^10) August 2019 Truck & Driver
dealing with big cranes
unceremoniously
launching enormous
lumps of metal into the back of
your trailer is an unavoidable fact
of life. Lee takes as much care as
possible during his day-to-day
work, but wear and tear is
inevitable. “If you look closely at
the FH16, you can see marks on
it,” he says. He’s being a bit
modest there, as the trucks are
in fabulous condition, all things
considered. It’s highly unlikely any
of them will be sold on, either,
moving eventually into comfortable
retirement as part of Jamie’s
expanding heritage collection.
Petrol head
Jamie is what you’d call a serious
vehicle enthusiast, if not fanatic.
He took one of the fleet’s old
Volvo FH tractor units and
stretched it into a mobile home/
race car transporter, which is
used to haul a pair of V8-powered
F1 stock cars driven by son Luke
and Tom Harris (2019 British
Champion) all over the UK.
He also has a stunning
collection of retro Ford cars and
other commercial vehicles,
including, ironically, a Ford
D-series. When the new FH
660 was ordered in 2008, he
decided to go all-out on
airbrushing with the Terminator
theme. Since then he’s chosen
themes that are always
eyecatching, but we reckon the
Only Fools one will get the most
attention of the lot. And there’s no
truck more impressive or
eyecatching to use as a canvas
than a new S-series Scania.
Among the many Kelsa
contributions are some neat
step-mounted marker lights we
“I always called
her ‘My Angel’, and
it’s nice to have that
in the cab, to have
her looking down
upon me”
haven’t seen before, a top-bar,
multi-bar, back-bar and mini-bar
(sadly, no cocktail bar). The silver
metallic base colour is perfect as
a blank canvas and also
accentuates the next-gen cab’s
lines. It’s curious that one of
these trucks can look so plain in
standard white spec and yet so
completely eye-popping with
some nice paint and lights.
Lee admits that, while the big
engine is definitely a benefit, a
big cab isn’t really necessary for
his work as he’s never required
to do nights out (apart from at a
show). “I think the furthest we go
is Hull,” he laughs. “I’ll start
between 5am or 6am and am
usually finished by 4pm. We’ll do
quite a few runs in a day but they
tend to be local; Liverpool,
Immingham, Birmingham,
collecting and delivering metal
for process and export.
Not frantic
“There’s usually a bit of queueing
to get in or out, and the pace is
never too frantic. We can also
run onto demolition sites, which
is where we have to be
especially careful to avoid
damage.” Punctures are a fact of
life in this job, but with
experience, Lee knows what to
look out for. There’s a
decent amount of variety
to keep the work
Jamie’s touching tribute to Lee’s late wife, Angela, who worked in the Davidson office
Trotter’s Independent Trading’s Reliant Regal, often mistakenly called a Robin