how many trucks do thornburns run
i think there was a artical in last months trucking mag about thornburns
i wouldn’t have put stobarts in the top three in europe not by a long way,
have giraud gone pop then
Girauds went pop a couple of ys ago if I am not mistaken, have u not noticed that you dont see them any more, maybe their trailers but they are all coupled up to ,non Giraud Trucks and I can only assume that these traielrs have been bought by these companies.
Wincanton, Excel, Hays maybe bigger but I would class them as more logistics and storage than directly having vast amount of trucks on the road.Stobart is one of the hauliers whose vehicles you see every day in UK and Europe and are recognised everywhere, hence my statement.
well done to thorburns for keeping your lads on the payroll while this business was sorted, and congratulations on getting your o license back
Couldnt agree more 
, hes kept the lads on the payroll when he could have easily have finished them all up like so many hauliers have done and decided to call it a day.
wylie:
how many trucks do thornburns run
i think there was a artical in last months trucking mag about thornburns
15 I think but may have decreased the size due to the recent blips.
you see plenty of giraud units and trailers still 
tend to agree with BD that although stobart is big here they are no bigger than loads of european operators like Offergeld in germany, Simon Loos in Holland etc, and much smaller than lots of others like ND - it just looks that way if you work UK
Girauds went pop a couple of ys ago if I am not mistaken, have u not noticed that you dont see them any more, maybe their trailers but they are all coupled up to ,non Giraud Trucks and I can only assume that these traielrs have been bought by these companies.
i’ve just had a look on girauds website, they seem to be doing ok for a firm thats gone pop
1000+ units and 3000+ trailers in most ec countries and a few others beyond
biggusdickusgb:
Girauds went pop a couple of ys ago if I am not mistaken, have u not noticed that you dont see them any more, maybe their trailers but they are all coupled up to ,non Giraud Trucks and I can only assume that these traielrs have been bought by these companies.
i’ve just had a look on girauds website, they seem to be doing ok for a firm thats gone pop
1000+ units and 3000+ trailers in most ec countries and a few others beyond
I seen a Giraud Wagon & Drag E/B M8 in Glasgow on Thursday, full Giraud livery
routier:
Wincanton, Excel, Hays maybe bigger but I would class them as more logistics and storage than directly having vast amount of trucks on the road.Stobart is one of the hauliers whose vehicles you see every day in UK and Europe and are recognised everywhere, hence my statement.
I don’t know much about Wincanton or Hays, and Exel are now part of DHL of course.
Exel was the logistics division of NFC and had several thousand trucks (in the 10s of thousands) on the roads of UK. Very few of those in Exel colours, they were mostly in the colours of the contracts.
A few examples.
Woolworths was an Exel contract, which went to Wincanton.
Co-op ambient at ■■■■■■■■■■■■ probably many other RDCs too. (There were two other supermarket RDCs I worked out of, on Exel contracts, in Central Scotland. Gateways was one, which changed names several times.)
BSD all over UK.
Bosal exhausts.
Argos home deliveries.
Mothercare.
Boots the chemist.
BHS
and B&Q of course.
All the wagons and drivers on those contracts were Exel and ran in the contract colours. Exel was also a World wide company. They had divisions in Hong Kong, Spain, France Germany and USA, probably other countries too. They may well still be.
When I worked for NFC, (for BRS Taskforce mainly) the UK divisions where BRS, Exel, Lynx, Pickfords and TankFreight. After they sold off the BRS name to Volvo a few of the other divisions became Exel-whatever. Exel TankFreight, Exel Tradeteam although Tradeteam was a later starter than the others and was probably Exel Tradeteam from the off. Pickfords and Lynx separated from NFC about then too.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most of their wagons were leased, but I think they were wholly owned by Exel / NFC. They did all their own servicing and repairs, in the Central Scotland depot garages then at least.
Giraud’s still going strong, the trucks pulling the trailers in other names are all part of the Giraud group, they buy out companies, run them under their own name, and put thier logo on the trailers.
As for Hayton Coulthard, they were bought out by the Gregory group, the reason they still run round under the HC name is that Hayton Coulthard exists as a warehousing company still, seperate from the haulage co that lost it’s licience.
sorry guys my error, i was thinking of the other Giraud, the ones in Green from Lyon way.
i realise this thread is a year old.
im not talking about thorburns.
i just googled transports giraud.
they are still up and running by the looks of the website.
thats all i wanted to say.
can put the thread back to sleep for another year now.
PMSL, Thorburns running legal, yeah right 
Same as Ralph Davies in years gone by, the tachos may have looked ok but running on a wire will create that impression 
What’s the big deal anyway, as a driver you have a choice, if you want to do it & earn a few quid then do it, if not don’t, simple really 
As for blaming it all on the drivers, come on give us some credit a 2500ish mile round trip is the absolute maximum you can complete in a week so anything more than that should show up immediately to a competent transport manager
Me thinks the man does protest too much 
Drivers have left Thorburns and gone to H Freund as it was easier 
That should be enough said
I have heard that freund`s has now changed for the better
Thorburns legal…just read transport tribunal/appeal 2006/235, it states Ms Karen Thorburn Jones didnt even know what companies she was a director off. Also Ms Thorburn Jones was disqualified as a company director for 6 years.
The new company director is Warder Thorburn and transport manager is Partick Allam and that licence was after a few name changes
if you are going to post"stories" please try and get your facts right to begin with or it makes you look slightly “stupid” when the correct facts are put in front of you.“warder thorburn” does not exsist and Mr Patrick allam runs his own company with his own vehicles at his own premises totally independent of Thorburn international.The companies licence was issued at the first time of trying with no restrictions and no vehicle curtailments,a full enquiry was carried out and a transport manager of Mrs Beverley Bell’s approval was appointed.The company has undergone major changes and a full review of it’s operations has taken place,everything we do is constantly under scrutiny not just from VOSA but from narrow minded individuals who live in the past and by the looks of things still read yesterdays press.
Thorburns are now under new management and things have changed considerably.drivers always go on about times gone by and are reluctant to accept that times and circumstances change.Each and every driver at Thorburns are competent and professional individuals who the company rely on to portray the right image for the industry they choose to work in.I would challenge any of the so called professionals on this site to examine every truck we run and every driver we employ to see how,under increasingly difficult and testing industry regulations and competition from cheap foreign hauliers,the company has survived under our own exacting and demanding standards.the attitude of certain individuals on this site does nothing to change what is already a brow beaten and under valued opinion many have of the industry we all choose to ply our trade in.Thorburns have survived through sheer determination and the willingness to change and move forward,the company’s vehicles stand out from the mundane “fleet white” trucks plying their trade across europe and consequently place themselves under the spotlight and scrutiny of many people.we aim to put ourselves where we belong and maintain the standards of the professional and forward thinking industry we are part of.
Oh sorry Vosa got it wrong then in there Applications and decisions !!! If you check you will see there have been a few applications same address different names over the last few years oh and the name Warder Thornburn along with Patrick Allam as transport manager !! Vosa can sure make a mess of things
We all know that the Traffic commissioners like nothing more than justifying their huge wages and making the trade press by removeing the liceneces of operators. So why is Thorburns still trading if they are as bent as the thinking on here seems to suggest?
Yes Thorburns got called to a public enquiry, to be honest I dont know many major companies that havent fallen foul of the TC at some time or another. Including major logistics companies, Household name hauliers, local councils and in a couple of cases police forces.
Does that mean Thorburns and all these others are the biggest cowboys in the industry and should be ceremoniously burnt at the stake?
Certainly Thorburns have made mistakes in the past. I think they would be among the first to hold their hands up to that. But the TC says those errors were not enough to warrant the permanent removal of their operators licence. There had to be some changes , and Thorburns are , like all hauliers who come before the TC , now closely watched to ensure those changes are implemented and the company operates with full compliance.
I dont know the full workings of Thorburns, or how they run their operation, I do know that they were called before the TC, found wanting in some areas and given the opportunity to make the required changes. If they had been as bad as hearsay/truckstop bar talk/ My mate said he heard that/ etc etc makes out I severely doubt that anyone even remotly associated with the company would be anywhere near the haulage business now.
Given the scrutiny that VOSA puts on companies have have been to a public enquiry (having been at a company that had the pleasure of a VOSA man living almost permantly in the traffic office for months) I suspect strongly that Thorburns are at this moment in time doing every they can to comply with the letter of the law.
The very fact that unlike most companies in this situation, they are willing to come on here and face their detractors, shows that they are not trying to push the enquiry under the carpet but are facing up to past mistakes and trying to run their company in accordance with the TC’s wishes.
Hi jeanette@thorburntranspor, I’m sure you’re aware that Thorburn’s has had some “history” otherwise this wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place:
jeanette@thorburntranspor:
The company has undergone major changes and a full review of it’s operations has taken place,
I’d agree that there’s been some posting of “hype,” but isn’t fair to say that some of what’s been posted is actually true?
In the interests of fairness to Thorburn’s, has it ever been called to PI?
Was a TM found to have lost “repute”?
Was the TM’s “repute” regained at the Transport Tribunal or at a remitted fresh hearing by a TC?
You’re welcome to put your version of events, and that would be just fine I’m sure, but everybody needs to put the truth in these days of openness, because so much is now a matter of public record…
This part of your post that caused me to wonder though…
jeanette@thorburntranspor:
…narrow minded individuals who live in the past…
VOSA and the TCs are entitled to look at legitimate records they hold. They don’t necessarily qualify as “narrow minded” and can take a company’s “form” into account. Given that that’s true, doesn’t it follow that drivers might do the same…?
The other thing that strikes me about this is that Thorburn’s appeared to wait until far too late before implementing the the actions you described, having been compelled to do so. So I ask: was it “OK” whilst the previous management regime thought they were getting away with pulling a few “strokes”? Or are we to believe that nobody had noticed?
We’d all do well to remember that those who don’t learn from the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them, so IMHO, a glance into the past can sometimes be beneficial.
My own feeling about this is that if Thorburn’s had the guts to say something like ‘Yes, x y and z was wrong and we’ve done a b and c to deal with it,’ but IMHO you’ll probably not get much respect from hard-bitten drivers with memories like elephants by posting something akin to a political statement full of passive constructions.
I hold no opinion on Thorburn’s, but I’ve tried to give you food for thought, which I hope might help.
willie_mac:
Oh sorry Vosa got it wrong then in there Applications and decisions !!!
Hi willie_mac , Isn’t it the TCs who publish As and Ds?
AFAIK, if it’s written in As and Ds then it’s a done deal, unless there’s an appeal.
biggusdickusgb:
Some speech Sir, your company must be big, but r you big enuff to take on the likes of Betz,Dentressangle,Stobart, the 3 big players I would say on European roads today?
i wouldn’t have put stobarts in the top three in europe not by a long way,
have giraud gone pop then?
or indeed the top 100, maybe the top 500 would be closer to the position
biggusdickusgb:
well done to thorburns for keeping your lads on the payroll while this business was sorted, and congratulations on getting your o license back,
Seconded
irish USA, did you set up in the UK in the end?
I think Rikki-UK has summed it up perfectly 