Industry saddened by haulage legend’s death
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By Roger Brown
TRIBUTES HAVE poured in for legendary Staffordshire haulage boss Stan Robinson who died on Good Friday, aged 70, just a week after being diagnosed with cancer.
Steve Cope, transport director at Stan Robinson (Stafford), tells CM that Robinson was “ like a father to us” and he “put everyone else at the company before himself” .
He adds: “We will never forget him and he will be missed.” Barry Proctor, director of Stokeon-Trent haulage irm Barry Proctor Services, says Robinson was “straight talking and down to earth.
“This is terrible news, I’ve known Stan for the best part of 50 years when we were drivers delivering corn,” he says. “He wasn’t a shirt and-tie man, and always liked to get stuck in with his sleeves rolled up.” Andy Boyle, MD at ABE Ledbury, says: “Stan was never scared to take on the big boys. He was a great character; everybody in the industry will miss him.” Robinson set up his own transport business, Stan Robinson (Stafford), in 1970. The irm went on to add depots in Glasgow, Darlington and Willand in Devon, and now employs 180 drivers. In 1999 it won Haulier of the Year at the Motor Transport Awards.
Robinson, fondly known as “Stan the man” , also developed his own 33.5m longer, heavier vehicle consisting of an 11-axle or 12-axle 84-tonne combination of two 13.6m semi-trailers linked by a trailer dolly. However, in 2006 the Department for Transport rejected his application to use the vehicle on the roads, despite support from the Road Haulage Association.
In 2010, Robinson opened an MoT test station for LGVs at his irm’s base in Seighford and, up until his death, was working on setting up a national association to represent the interests of independent test centre operators.
• Read our full tribute to Stan Robinson next week.