Working Scottish Trucks: Through the Lens

By Ian Lawson

Working Scottish Trucks is a photographic book bringing together 262 images of commercial vehicles spotted across some of the most scenic parts of Scotland. The beautiful landscapes offer a fantastic backdrop to the large range of haulage companies based in this rural, rugged and often difficult area. With just one picture per page, this book reproduces Ian Lawson's perfectly captured shots to maximum effect. The images have been taken over 30 years of dedicated viewing and focus on 10 types of vehicles - bulk transport, curtainsiders, fridges and food, general haulage, hay and stray, heavy haulage, livestock transporters, renewable energy transport, round timber haulage and tankers. Each photo is captioned with the date, location, make and model of vehicle and details of owner and types of work undertaken. The distinctive and unashamedly patriotic look of Scottish liveries has always attracted a strong following and so Working Scottish Trucks is a must-have for transport enthusiasts within Scotland, the UK and beyond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Old Pond Books
• Release date: Aug 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781912158294

Ian Lawson

Ian Lawson has had a lifelong interest in road transport and over the years he has visited many haulage company yards across the length and breadth of the UK. Now retired from a career in banking, he dedicates much of his spare time to adding to his beautiful photograph collection containing over 100,000 transport images that he started back in 1986. His photographs and features have been used in a number of transport magazines including Transport News, Truck & Driver and Classic Truck.

Book preview

Introduction

I have had a long interest in road transport that started in my early teens when I started opting for a copy of the Commercial Motor each week as opposed to pocket money.

Growing up in the far north of Scotland, I did not see huge volumes of lorries but I benefited from being close to nice liveries on a number of fleets. Plus, living in the shadow of the nuclear power station at Dounreay brought strangers to the area from time to time. I left school in 1968 and took up employment in the world of banking – a career that was to span the next forty-two years, during which time I came into contact with a large number of transport owners and drivers. While it is widely accepted that the road haulage industry does not enjoy good profit margins, it was encouraging to be involved with some very successful operations, while for others it appeared to be a constant struggle.

After a period of five years working in my home town of Thurso my employers moved me to nearby Wick, which was home of D Steven & Son and others. In 1976, I moved on to Aberlour, Banffshire, which lies in the heart of the Scotch whisky industry, which, of course, needed large numbers of vehicles to move both the basic product of barley for production and take away the finished liquid product. With sleeper cabs still in their infancy at this time many drivers had to stay in lodgings, which brought me close to them as I too resided at a guest house in Rothes used by many. Most of these drivers could tell a good story in relation to their life on the road with now the long-gone names such as Inter-City Transport of Cumbernauld, Thos. Smith Junior from Newhaven and KSK Freight of Kirkcaldy, to name but a few. The year 1978 saw me return to the north of Scotland with a brief spell in Dornoch followed by Wick and Thurso again.

My interest took a huge step forward when in 1986 I purchased a basic camera and started my photo collection. My only regret was that I had not started much sooner. An ‘overseas’ posting of five years to the Orkney Isles in 1988 brought about a slow-down in my picture-taking, however, since 1993, with my period of exile behind me, I moved to the Black Isle, which lies just north of Inverness and, thankfully, despite its name, is not an island and is where I still reside.

Up until about 2012 I only took pictures of stationary vehicles, never feeling I had the ability or confidence to capture moving ones. However, a number of factors virtually forced me to make the switch. Firstly, more and more fleets became inaccessible as they would be parked in locked premises as opposed to the previous ‘open gate’ policy. In addition, both health and safety regulations coupled to insurance company conditions forbade access to many of the working locations I had previously visited. Finally, some operators were no longer prepared to move vehicles at weekends due to digital tachographs recording what VOSA might consider to be an unauthorised movement.

This is the first book I have compiled and I would like to thank Old Pond for giving me the opportunity to realise a dream. As the title says, only pictures of Scottish trucks are used. Many transport companies are very proud of their roots and stick to a traditional type of livery. The sight of tartan swirls or sashes plus a thistle (Scotland’s national flower) leaves no doubts as to the country of origin. Many also display two flags, the white with blue cross being the Scottish Saltire regarded as the Scottish national flag. However, there is a second one in yellow with a rearing red lion known as the ‘Lion Rampant’. This one, also known as The ‘Lion Flag’, is often considered the unofficial national flag and referred to as the ‘Royal Flag of Scotland’. The ‘Royal’ term applies because this flag historically, and legally, belongs to the monarchy (or royalty) – more specifically to a king or queen of Scotland. As there hasn’t been a Scottish king or queen since the 17th century, it now belongs to Queen Elizabeth II. It’s a more colourful and dramatic flag than the Saltire, and may be a little more memorable because of that. The term ‘lion rampant’ actually refers to the positioning or attitude of the lion. A rampant lion is shown as a profile of a lion standing upright (on one or both hind legs) and the forelegs are raised, claws unsheathed, as if to strike.

All the pictures used in this book are my own. For this publication I have in the main used only pictures of articulated units, with the exception of some wagon and drag outfits, and while most of those have been captured close to where I stay, other locations throughout the country have also been used over the past ten years. As the A9 is the longest road in Scotland, covering 273 miles running up the spine of the country from the Central Belt in the south to Scrabster harbour in the north, it provides a lot of good locations for picture-taking. There are, of course, countless different types of road transport undertaken but for the purpose of this book I have chosen ten categories as I felt to cover every scenario would be nigh on impossible in a single publication.

I would like to dedicate this book to all the drivers and owners who over the years have helped me get the picture I wanted. Also, I cannot thank my wife, Sally, and our three sons (Ross, Ian and Rory) enough for putting up with my obsession, especially so when the children were growing up as they would be dragged around to all the lorry yards, truck shows, truck stops, livestock markets, sawmills and anywhere else I might expect to find a gathering of trucks to photograph – especially so when on holiday.

No doubt influenced by their father, my oldest two sons took up photography of trucks in their early teens having had a keen interest in them since very young. When my oldest (Ross) left school in 1998 he was successful in gaining an HGV mechanic’s apprenticeship with the local DAF dealership (NorScot Truck & Van) in Inverness, which he completed and then stayed with that company for a few years. He now still takes the occasional photograph when not too busy working as the mechanic and heavy recovery operator with Chisholm’s Recovery Specialists in Inverness. He covers the whole of the Highlands and sometimes beyond recovering accident-stricken or broken down HGVs, coaches and buses. On occasions I go out with him to jobs and often wonder, ‘What exactly did I let him in for?’ when I see the difficult situations that he now has to deal with on a daily basis.

I consider myself very fortunate to be living in such a great part of Scotland offering fantastic