BOB BEECH EXPLORES HOW KING GROUP HAS BROADENED ITS OFFER, REFINED ITS TRAILER RANGE AND EXPANDED ITS SPECIALIST ENGINEERING CAPABILITY, CULMINATING IN A RENEWED PUSH INTO THE LOW-BED MARKET THROUGH ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH DOLL.
It is over ten years since HeavyTorque last visited King Trailers, or, to be more accurate, the King Group of Companies. In that time the range has expanded considerably. Trailers and specialist vehicle bodies remain the core, but the business now also builds bespoke bodies and equipment for road traffic management and maintenance. Other divisions produce vehicles and equipment for rail maintenance, while another designs and builds trailers and equipment for both the nuclear and defence sectors.
There is also a hire division offering everything from low-loaders, plant-bodied rigids and hook loaders to traffic management vehicles. Many might be surprised by the breadth, but this high level of diversification has developed over a long period.
Furthermore, the King Group has been part of the H.W Martin Group for a decade. The Martin Group has a diverse portfolio across its member companies, spanning traffic management, road safety restraint systems, security fencing installation, vegetation management, waste and recycling, vehicle and plant maintenance and, of course, King. Before buying the manufacturer, the Martin Group were long‑term King customers, having operated its products for many years. It has proven a good fit on both sides, with strong synergies between the various divisions.
That broader group structure sits alongside a long and very established manufacturing heritage.
PETER MCKENNA EXAMINES HOW THE COLLAPSE OF WEST MIDLANDS POLICE’S MOBILE-CRANE PROSECUTIONS HAS SHARPENED CONCERNS OVER ABNORMAL-LOAD ENFORCEMENT, ESCORT CHARGING AND CONSISTENCY ACROSS UK FORCES.
What had been listed last week as a two-day test trial concluded in under three hours. West Midlands Police (WMP) had brought prosecutions against mobile-crane operators, alleging overweight loads following breaches of police-imposed embargo times. The prosecution offered no evidence, and all four defendants were acquitted. This week, WMP withdrew the remaining non-test cases, numbering more than 60.
Credit is due to James Edes (inset, top) of Dyne Solicitors and barrister Richard Dawson (inset, bottom) of Lincoln House Chambers, who secured an excellent result for their clients and, by extension, the wider mobile-crane industry. But a case collapsing so completely, so quickly, after months of prosecutions against more than 60 operators raises a wider question: how did it get this far, and what does it say about abnormal-load enforcement? It would be tempting to treat the collapse as a single overzealous prosecution that failed under scrutiny. The evidence, however, points to something more structural.
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VAN DER VLIST’S MIX OF SPECIALIST TRANSPORT, TECHNICAL SERVICES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT HAS TAKEN THE GROUP FAR BEYOND ITS ROOTS. BOB BEECH MEETS THE HULL-BASED UK TEAM TO LEARN HOW BRITISH OPERATIONS INTEGRATE WITH THE WIDER EUROPEAN FLEET TO SUPPORT CROSS-BORDER PROJECT WORK.
The bright orange trucks of Dutch‑based specialist operator Van der Vlist (VdV) have been a familiar sight across Europe for decades, and regular visitors to the UK since the 1970s. Founded in 1930 in Hoogblokland near Utrecht as a garage and local transport business, the company moved steadily into heavy haulage as demand grew, adding larger outfits to handle increasingly heavy loads. Today’s operation is a world away from those early days, offering a broad range of transport and associated services to a wide customer base.
Over time, VdV has absorbed several Dutch specialists, bringing legacy names such as Holtrop Van der Vlist and Van der Vlist Twente under the same orange livery. Head office remains at Groot Ammers, supported by specialist sites across the Netherlands and Europe. Now a fourth-generation family business, VdV sits among Europe’s top five specialist transport providers, with vehicles, trailers and equipment spread across its operating centres. The Polish arm is a busy part of the network, running between 30 and 40 vehicles that serve local markets and customers throughout Europe, often working alongside other group companies.
STEVE BANNER MEETS FORSYTH OF DENNY’S CATHAL MCNALLY TO DISCOVER HOW ITS LATEST VOLVO FH16 780 BECAME A FITTING TRIBUTE TO A MUCH-MISSED DRIVER, AND HOW THE SCOTTISH CRANE AND HAULAGE SPECIALIST KEEPS ITS OPERATION ROLLING.
Forsyth of Denny’s recently acquired Volvo FH16 780 8×4 makes an immediate impression. Paired with their Faymonville CargoMAX six‑axle ballast trailer moving Forsyth’s Liebherr LTR1060 crawler crane, it’s a combination built for serious work. Spec’d with twin steerable axles up front, the 780 delivers precise control where space is limited.
“We bought our first FH16 back in 1999, but it’s the first 780bhp model we’ve acquired,” says Cathal McNally, Forsyth’s manager. “It handles the heavy end of what we do, and it plays a key role in supporting the crane side of the business.” Forsyth’s work stretches across the UK and Ireland, much of it under STGO requirements, and the firm is clearly proud of its flagship.
There’s a poignant story behind the 780’s arrival. “We had a driver called Stevie Walker who’d worked with us for almost 25 years,” recalls Cathal. “He was a great guy. He used to joke that the McNally family wouldn’t spend money on extras — that if you got a truck from us, you’d be lucky if it had a steering wheel on it.” Stevie teased them about avoiding top spec trucks and fancy finishes, and the family took the joke in good humour.
The McNally family acquired Forsyth of Denny ten years ago and, late last year, decided to prove Stevie wrong. They ordered the FH16 780 for him and told him he could specify it exactly as he wanted, right down to the finishing touches.
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BOB BEECH MEETS GEORGE HILL, MD OF CARTER CONTRACTING SERVICES, TO EXPLORE HOW A FRONT‑LINE TEAM IS SHAPING A NEXT‑GEN HEAVY‑LIFT AND TRANSPORT OPERATION FIT FOR THE UK’s GRID REBUILD.
Decarbonising the UK’s power generation and rejuvenating the national grid is proving a colossal job. In truth, it is a series of huge projects that will take years to complete. Linking new power stations, onshore and offshore windfarms and the many solar farms now spread across the countryside into a resilient supply is a far larger undertaking than many politicians and environmentalists first imagined.
Scientists, planners, engineers, construction companies and specialist service providers have always understood the scale. Others, mainly politicians and environmental campaigners, seemed surprised that it was not a simple matter of switching off older coal-fired stations and attaching the new supply to the grid. Realistically, it demands wholesale revision of much of the existing grid and the establishment of new networks close to the coast and in many of the UK’s mountainous regions. Previously, most stations sat near coalfields, ports and industrialised areas, and power was transmitted nationwide through the grid, including to remote and sparsely populated areas.
Now, with increasing volumes of generation in the remotest parts of the country, we need completely new networks able to transmit huge amounts in the opposite direction to the most populated areas. That requires new substations and other facilities, and the transport and installation of large transformers, generators and other heavy equipment to exacting utility standards. Unsurprisingly, this is welcome news for specialist heavy transport and installation companies, and there are a lot of large projects under way throughout the country.
SCOTT AIRBRUSHWORK HAS BEEN MAKING VEHICLES STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD FOR DECADES. DAN PARTON MEETS TOM SCOTT, SON OF THE COMPANY'S FOUNDER ANDY, TO FIND OUT JUST HOW IT CREATES SUCH HEAD-TURNING DESIGNS .
If you have been to any truck show in the UK and beyond over the past few years and marvelled at the airbrushed trucks there, then you have probably encountered some of Scott Airbrushwork’s designs.
The company has been a well-known name on the truck customising scene for several decades, and has a broad spread of customers, from haulage operators wanting a spray-painted truck to celebrate an anniversary to bikers wanting a design on their helmet. “The range of work we have is really varied,” says Tom.
Tom usually works out of a paintshop in Barnsley, although he will travel to a customer’s location if the job requires it – usually if it is for something special. He typically has a couple of trucks to work on every month, along with some more longer-term projects, although those are usually trucks that are being restored, rather than those that will be out on the road five days a week.
The company’s designs can be based on a customer’s specific requests but are more often a collaboration between Tom and the customer. “When we book a job in and we speak to the customer, I’ll create a computer-generated image of what we could do,” explains Tom. “I’ll come back to the customer with that, and then they’ll let me know of anything they want to add or change – although most of the time they’re happy with it and make minimal changes.
