Who had the very first Volvo F10/12 in the UK? This photo suggests dawson’s.I am sure someone know’s. Paul
Hi All
Gazza may know better than me but Ronnie Turner a Pentalver subbie had an early one & I think that was S reg.
Cheers Rich
I had this,one of the first in south Yorkshire day cab F10
Some baby in their time !
The first appearance of the F10 in Commercial Motor 10th Nov 1979 showed a demo in an advert for Taits with the reg SYU 420S. An earlier issue showed the prototype on test with a very different front to what we know, however the F10/12 was very shy on being shown on the cover page of this mag, plenty of Brit motors, Foden, Ford, Bedford, Leyland, AEC etc but not a sign of the big Volvo! Franky.
Just re-read the Dawsons article, they don’t claim that actual motor is the first but one of Fifty, maybe they did have the first which would have been an S Reg. Franky.
Richard Ford had one on an S plate
F12 reg no UMD 36S driven by Dave Jeffries. Leggetts also had UMD 37S & UMD 39S but they were the last of the F89’s
postman paul:
Who had the very first Volvo F10/12 in the UK? This photo suggests dawson’s.I am sure someone know’s. Paul
Why does the photo suggest a ‘T’ reg. Dawsons ■■ 
Swifts first F10 was TJL 563S and went on the road Jan 78 but was by no means the first around then - wasn’t it Autumn 77 when they were out in the uk ?
The Leggetts F12 were bought from Rydale Trucks at Chingford,The other people who had them around that time with that reg
were Freighters Enfield,Tomlins ,J.Alsford,Alfie Jones,Puxley,Joey Martin,Derick Nicholls,Edwin Shirley,Dannick Customs,
Simon International,The first one I ever saw was a S reg And that was M.J.L. of Purfleet .
Hi all Billy Robinson from Southampton bought two new volvo’s at that time ,the first was a 290 F88 on an R plate and very soon after an F10 on an S plate so he certainly had one of the first in Southampton supplied by Princes Commercials in Millbrook, Soton.
Billows the Northamptonshire distibutor had one on display at the trafex show October 77 , think it may have been Hercock continental - weren’t they orange & brown ?
my dad drove an s reg one,XAO 881 S pulled a tandem axle hoyner tipper behind it.
The first two Volvo F10s in south wales were -
Price of Llandovery - TCY 260S and Mansel Davies - RDE 590S.
Delanair had two brand new S reg ones on hire from Dawsons, they were based in Ripple Road Barking, one was dark blue, t’other was Silver
I think they were in the uk from sept 1977 making the first ones late 1977 S reg. As the S reg started on 01/08/1977
I had a new F88 290 CCX509S in September 77 and the F10 had not been unveiled then but it was a few weeks later as I recall thinking the new wagon was out of date before it was run in 
and Volvo ran a competition in conjunction with Motor Transport at the Lorry driver of the year in 78 to promote the F10/12 at Cranfield.
cheers Johnnie
P S Diana Dors presented the prizes 
tonyhogi:
postman paul:
Who had the very first Volvo F10/12 in the UK? This photo suggests dawson’s.I am sure someone know’s. PaulWhy does the photo suggest a ‘T’ reg. Dawsons ■■
The writing suggests Dawson’s not the photo, I do know they were on S registration plates but I was asking who had the first One,Paul.
I know exactly who had the very 1st F10 in the UK ! 
… it was Philip Crouch , from Appledore, Kent.
I also have a copy of the original letter written to Philip by Mr A Levin, General Manager at Ailsa Trucks, dated 7th October 1977.
If the owner of the letter allows it, I shall post it here, but in the meantime here is the transscript:
“Dear Mr Crouch. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on being the owner of the FIRST Volvo F10 tractor to be put on the road in Great Britain. We wish you all the best for the future and are sure that your investment in the Volvo F10 will prove to be very profitable”.
