25 Years on the Road

2025 marks a huge milestone for us – we’re celebrating 25 years in business! It’s been quite a journey and looking back, it’s incredible to see how far we’ve come since Richard first set out on his own in 2000 with just one truck.

Humble beginnings with a green truck
Richard started as a sole trader with a single truck, a green workhorse he bought from his previous employer, Richard Jefferies of Jefferies of Otley. He couldn’t even afford to repaint it in his own colours, so it stayed green!

In those early days, it was all about sheer hard work. Richard drove himself, often heading to London on a Monday and working there all week. Sundays? They weren’t for relaxing or socialising – they were for paperwork and truck maintenance. And forget having holidays. For the first three years, it was non-stop graft.

The fleet starts to grow
After a year of relentless work, Richard managed to buy a second truck, an ex-Bellgate truck from Scania Normanton. That truck had seen its fair share of action, but Richard loved it. It stayed with us for years as a spare motor before finally being sold in 2017.

From there, the fleet kept growing and today, we’re running 16 trucks. Some of our incredible staff have been with us since 2006 – nearly 20 years! We can’t thank them enough for their loyalty and hard work.

The first brand-new truck and Richard’s love of extras
In 2004, Richard took the plunge and bought his first brand-new truck – a Scania, RC04 RCC. A huge investment, but one he was very proud of.

He has always loved to spec his trucks well, until Catherine put a stop to the Eminox stacks and ‘unnecessary’ fancy extras! These days, all our trucks come with the essentials, like fridges and microwaves, but the days of extravagant lightbars and fancy exhausts are long gone.

The ups, the downs and everything in between
Over the last 25 years, we’ve seen plenty of changes in the industry – some good, some bad. We’ve had to make tough decisions, learned a lot from our mistakes and sometimes played it safe when it came to expanding. But one thing has remained the same: our commitment to building a business on solid foundations, doing things the right way and always respecting our staff.

We know our drivers are the backbone of the company and we never take that for granted. Plenty of businesses forget that but for us, it’s a fundamental part of what we do. It’s probably why a customer recently gave us a 100% score for cost, quality, delivery and customer service. That’s the standard we strive for – day in, day out.

Richard still gets stuck in (sometimes literally…)
Even after all these years, Richard isn’t afraid to jump in a truck when needed. In recent years, he’s still made trips to Germany, France and Luxembourg. But let’s be honest, he’s also had his fair share of ‘Richard moments’ over the years…

• He once had a ‘trailer malfunction’ resulting in blocking a road in Otley and was told off by an actress from Emmerdale – instead of being starstruck, he was fuming at the cheek of her!
• He’s run out of diesel multiple times in our old VW Caddy van (you’d think he’d have learned by now!).
• One midnight at Charnock Richard services, he made numerous panicked phone calls after ‘losing’ his wallet, only to find it had slipped down the seat in the truck…
• Keys and Richard do not mix. He’s lost more sets than we can count, including one set that vanished after he left them on the bonnet of the van and drove off. Never to be seen again.
• Then there was the time a ‘lost’ set of truck keys led to a brand-new lock set being ordered, only for them to magically turn up in a driver’s glasses case at the last minute! We’ll let Richard off this time not his fault – unusually so!  
• And of course, who could forget when he took the dog in the truck, got chatting while loading and suddenly realised the dog was wandering through the warehouse looking for him? The staff took it well, but did request that in future the dog wears a hi-vis vest for safety…!

Looking ahead

Lately, we’ve been focused on growing the business again. Times are tough, but we’re keeping our eyes on the long game. If Richard could do it all again, there are probably a few things he’d do differently, but there’s no point looking back. The plan is to keep delivering the same top service we always have, at least for a few more years yet.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last 25 years – we wouldn’t be here without you. And an extra special thank you to our brilliant staff for their loyalty, commitment to Coopers and their hard work.

Oh, and one last thing… keep an eye out for a special anniversary truck later this year. We can’t wait to show you!