Truck & Driver UK – August 2019

(^72) Summer 2019 Truck & Driver
SCANIA G500
Ian’s father started
the business 30 years
ago, producing and
selling animal feeds to retailers
and the trade. To begin with, the
haulage work was subcontracted
out to local hauliers.
“A local haulier, Ian Carlton of
Moffat, did a lot of work for us, as
did D M Clarkson of Biggar,”
explains Ian Armstrong.
“When Ian retired we bought
one of his trucks, a Foden Alpha
Mk1, and went from there.”
The first new truck to be
bought was a Daf CF eight-
wheeler on a 56-plate, which still
works to this day. Even that first
old Alpha resides in a corner of
the yard. The last traditional
eight-wheeler arrived in 2010
and was also the final manual.
A bit dubious
“At the time we were a bit
dubious about autos, so opted to
play it safe with that truck and
spec it with a manual ’box. But
we got a lot of feedback from
guys running autos on tippers
who were having no problems,
so we went with Opti-Cruise on
the first Tridem and we’ve never
looked back,” says Ian.
Solway Agriculture’s Dumfries
depot is right beside the town’s
Scania dealer; that’s proved really
handy over the years as the trucks
are purchased with full R&M.
The company bought the first
Scania Tridem in the UK on a
62-plate, complete with auto ’box
and 480hp engine. At the time, Ian
was looking at a six-wheeler to
service some of the farms that
were tricky to access. When the
Tridem arrived it was a revelation,
supplying the payload of an
eight-wheeler with phenomenal
turning circle capability.
“We chose the 480 over the
440 as it was reckoned to be the
better engine of the two, and
we’ve certainly had no problems
with it. To be honest, if I could I
would have the entire fleet as
Tridems,” he says. A Euro 6
450hp Tridem followed in 2016,
thanks to the excellent
performance of the first one.
Legal bonus
Now, in 2019, the new G500 has
just gone to work, driven by
Graham Roddie. Graham
obtained his rigid and artic
licences in 2015. As a diabetic,
he was previously unable to drive
a truck until a change in the law
was implemented. “I had worked
as a joiner since I left school, but
I’d always wanted to drive a lorry.
I didn’t think I would ever be able
to – but as soon as the law
changed I went straight for my
Class 1,” he explains.
Graham started off working
nights, trunking to Birmingham to
a pallet network hub or collecting
milk in a tanker. “The job itself
was great but I just couldn’t get
used to working at night,” he
says, “it was really tiring me out.
So I went knocking on doors to
see what was out there, and
when I went to see Ian and Jane
it was a case of ‘right place, right
time’ as one of their long-serving
drivers was about to retire.”
He inherited the 60-plate 8x4,
along with a comprehensive
selection of Ordnance Survey
maps, three years ago and has
been working away ever since,
covering an area stretching south
into England and to the north of
Glasgow. At the start of May he
was handed the keys to the new
G500. “I thought the old truck
was good, but this new one is a
different world,” he smiles.
“The full air suspension
makes it so comfortable to drive;
the old truck would bounce about
quite a lot when it was empty.”
The G-cab offers the same
The truck is almost effortless to drive, even when loaded, thanks to 500hp and Opti-Cruise