Gretna GIG trip to Eddie Stobart Depot, Carlisle. Wed 24th June 2015.

A short drive from Gretna brought us to Kingstown Industrial Estate in Carlisle. Keith was our driver again and the weather wasn't looking too bad. On reporting to the office we were given the Health and Safety rules for a busy, working site with huge lorries moving around all the time. High-viz jackets were the order of the day too - everyone looked so fetching in them!

Our guide then gave us a short history of the company- Eddie Stobart started an agricultural business in the 1940's. With the help of his son, also called Eddie, this expanded into a haulage business. Eddie Jnr and his brother William finally took over the running of the business in the 1970's. It became more and more successful and became a public company known as the Stobart Group in 2007.

 The company has a distinctive livery for its lorries and their drivers and the expectation is that they will both look presentable at all times. For the lorries there is a lorry wash on site.

Eddie Stobart is a multi-modal logistics company in the transport, storage and handling sector across the UK, Ireland and Europe. With over 2000 units, over 3000 trailers and huge areas of warehousing Eddie Stobart meets the distribution and warehousing needs of many customers. It has a growing inland ports operation, a long running rail freight service and the car transportation division carries vehicles on behalf of many leading manufacturers.

We were shown around the site and watched lorries refuelling as they returned. Eddie Stobart lorries use thousands of litres of fuel, and have a delivery every day.

We were then taken to the warehouse used exclusively for the storage of Homebase products, which Eddie Stobart delivers all over Scotland. Another local firm were busy delivering pallets that will later be filled with Homebase stock. A second warehouse was full of thousands of empty cans used in the drinks industry. Pictures were not allowed as the cans belonged to customers, but the sight of so many cans was awe inspiring. Pallet after pallet full of different coloured cans were stacked almost to the ceiling. It was like looking at vertical rainbow. Eddie Stobart is at present building a new warehouse at Carlisle Airport and will transfer there in September. It will be several times bigger than the one we saw!

 

 The types of trailer used by Eddie Stobart were lined up in the depot for all to see and our guide explained the codes used to identify them eg HB is a Homebase trailer, CT is a can trailer, ET is a European trailer. 

 

From the early days of the firm each lorry has been given a girls name - the first was called Twiggy. Each lorry also has a Fleet number.

 

Once people began to notice the names on the trucks they began to "spot" and record them. Eddie Stobart began to get more and more letters asking for a list of the names, so decided to start a members fan club. Members receive a magazine and Spotters handbook, which lists all the truck names. The members club has developed over the years and now has thousands of members. Two GIG members are in this spotters club and were busy collecting truck names while we were at the depot!!

 

To conclude our tour we were allowed to look inside - and sit - in a lorry! The highlight of the afternoon for some! It isn't until you sit in the lorry that the realisation of how big these vehicles are really hits home. The inside of the truck is quite spacious, a necessity if you spend many hours and even sleep in the vehicle, as some drivers do. 

 

Everyone really enjoyed their visit to Eddie Stobart having been given a brief insight into the world of the trucker! Thanks to everyone at the depot for a fantastic visit.