Reading the post about Stobart & Southend airport got me thinking, which is a very dangerous thing sometimes
Anyway, I’m of the opinion that Eddie Stobart changed the face of the British Transport Industry for the better, plenty of companies had to smarten up after Stobart set the ball rolling with his well presented fleet, the uniformed drivers & their ‘Corporate Image’ policies.
Do you agree?
I’m not asking about wages or the silly rumours about Mormons, helicopter meetings with Norbert Dentressangle or being run out of Ireland by the IRA etc etc etc
Stobbarts have certainly sharpened up the public perception of the haulage industry. But have driven a lot of good company’s to the wall. The question is, how long will they last in their present form? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
How long will they last? Hard for any of us to say, unless we know their financial situation, a firm I worked at used to do a bit of subbying for them on the plasterboard & the rates weren’t that bad (my bloke would park a motor rather than work for nothing) so they were obviously earning well out of it themselves.
They do tend to use investment companies to finance a lot of things so the current ‘credit crunch’ may make that a bit fragile, but the parent company is involved with all that stuff & it raised enough to buy Stobart so it must have a pretty good idea what it’s doing as far as that’s concerned.
Did Stobart really put these companies out of business or were some of them dead in the water anyway? It’s evolution of sorts, just like all the small grocers disappearing because of the supermarkets, a price we pay for all the benefits that they bring maybe?
jessicas dad:
all this about stobarts starting the tie thing my dad had to wear a tie in the mid eighties for national carriers.
A few of the old tanker firms used to wear ties too, but as usual eddie gets the blame
BTW I have never worked for Stobart, not likely to either & I’m not in the fan club & I think naming lorries is a stupid idea, especially when it’s preceeded by the word ‘lady’
dont know if this has been covered, but, strong rumours in dublin ( were eddie has got a foot well in with t d g ) that tesco now own 30% of stobarts, any body else heard this■■?
in my opinion…yes i agree they have smartened up the industry,but most importantly public perception,i mean just how many kids have “eddie merchandise” and the parents probably have no interest/idea/understand what our industry is all about??it may be even fair to suggest they have “slightly glamourised” our industry??
I’m not gonna argue as to whether Stobbys have changed transport for the better or for the worse, but the very fact thet we’re having this conversation demonstrates that they HAVE changed it though. I reckon they were responsible for the first instance of “branding” in this industry. Sure we used to see the big fleets (Ferrymasters etc) on the roads, but it’s public perception that has been changed, Joe Public would never have noticed the haulier in the past on his travels unless he was somehow involved in the industry itself.
I’ve even heard prime time radio jocks talking about going on holiday and doing a bit of “Eddy spotting” on the way to the airport, which kinda demonstrates the profile that’s been achieved.
Apart from paying drivers a pittance on some contracts he has done a good thing and its good to see a British company doing well like Tesco (a British company).
If it wasnt for the money I would probably work for Stobbies.
I don’t really know how much he has really changed the industry, big companies always chased contract at the expense of smaller hauliers, some drivers have always had to have uniforms, some hauliers have always named trucks and many others have tried intermodel transport.
But what he really did was grab the public imagination, they started to look at the trucks travelling the roads and took a bit more interest in what haulage actually did for them. And he made sure he kept thier interest and used that to raise the profile of his company. In the same way that Stellios (Easy Jet Bloke ) or Richard Branson did.
jammymutt:
Apart from paying drivers a pittance on some contracts he has done a good thing and its good to see a British company doing well like Tesco (a British company).
If it wasnt for the money I would probably work for Stobbies.
The real brains behind Stobarts is a guy called Rob Beatty him and Eddie Junior were best buddies once, he was the one who had the idea of the shirts and ties.
They were or are the ‘Thatcher’ of the road haulage industry.
Love em or hate em, you can’t knock what they have done.
) or Richard Branson did.