What happend to the smart fleet of Peter Roff?
He finished a long time ago. My first truck as an O/D was a Scania painted in Peter Roff colours as the guy I bought it from, and worked for for a while, used to subbie to him.
HE all ways had a smart fleet ,but i heard that he made
more money from his loading system that he had
design-built for handling auto parts,
Ahh, Peter Roff, there’s a name from the past. I live not too far from his old yard in Leighton Buzzard and i can remember watching the immaculate 142’s, F12’s all being cleaned and readied for a week’s work.
Peter Roff used to have the drivers in all day on a Sunday before shipping out to clean their motors. And when i say clean i mean clean. They used to have to clean the INSIDE of the stacks(as far down as the arm would reach), repaint the white coachline round the edge of the blue wheels. The man was obsessed. But his fllet was very smart.
He sold out in the 90’s but still kept the land at 35a Stanbridge Road Leighton Buzzard, and then about 3 years ago evicted most of the tennants of the various comapnies and i beleive has sold the land for houses. It has made him a very rich man out of it. Outside the building in L/Buzz there is still the Peter Roff International Transport sign, and there was talk of when the housing estate is built, there has to be some reference to him, in either a street name or something.
I also heard that he had kept the 143 Master Centurion and the FH16 he had, and parked them at his rather large residence somewhere near Tring i believe(Must be big for 2 Tractor Units to be parked there).
Incidentally, the owner of RPL Transport Milton Keynes, Peter Lockett, used to work for Peter Roff, just look at the similarities in their livery(Well blue and white at least)
Buzzard Boy Said
He sold out in the 90’s but still kept the land at 35a Stanbridge Road Leighton Buzzard, and then about 3 years ago evicted most of the tennants of the various comapnies and i beleive has sold the land for houses. It has made him a very rich man out of it. Outside the building in L/Buzz there is still the Peter Roff International Transport sign, and there was talk of when the housing estate is built, there has to be some reference to him, in either a street name or something.
The yard hasn’t been sold yet, and we havn’t been evicted well i’ve been
there about 4 years. Although planning permission has been applied for.
His last two trucks to go,the 143 & F16 were sold nearly ten years
ago
cheers Bob.
The yard hasn’t been sold yet, and we havn’t been evicted well i’ve been
there about 4 years. Although planning permission has been applied for.His last two trucks to go,the 143 & F16 were sold nearly ten years
agocheers Bob.
I was on about QMT and the ones up the side. I know Bob Wyatt and co are still there.
I was obviously mis-informed about him keeping the last 2 trucks he had then, sorry 
There were rumours that Peter was going to build flats’apartments on the land himself and make a right killing, dont know what happened with that plan.
I spoke to couple of his young drivers when Roff was in full swing . It was Sunday evening on the Dover /Calais boat. They had done a weeks work ,got back to the yard ,but hadn`t been home & shipped out again. When they returned to the yard it was quite normal for them to have to clean every part of them rigs. It took so long it was not worth going home! Roff had special brushes made so the lads could scrub those hard to get to places under the chassis. They were only doing Germany but they hadn’t been home for weeks. Their nickname for the boss was (zb) Roff.
I checked with the dreaded machine about your sneaky evasion Harry
and it didn’t like it, but, unless I am overruled I’m leaving it on this occasion
because to put in (zb) would make it look even worse 
. D.
sorry but it hhas to go mm
harry:
Their nickname for the boss was (zb) Roff.
Class!
just sorting the quote mm
Found these piccies of his smart trucks courtesy of padborg-express.
Looking at the 1st picture of the 143-500 streamline i used to see it in northern italy around 1998-2000 still looking smart with the name Harding on the headboard usually pulling a step frame tilt.
It always used to bug me why a firm called harding would have a personalised plate with ROF on it.
But then again at the time I worked for a guy called Davies whos trucks all ran on GEL plates.
Cheers
Neilf
Makes my stomach turn to see those trucks, knowing how the lads were made to look after them. I look at them and am reminded of the Thatcher years.( even the F16 is proudly displaying the Devils own personal plate ) The catch phrase was." Drivers are ten a penny. If you dont like it I have list of drivers that want your job." Happy Days..? :unamused: How many Lady Nicolas `do you need on one firm…
Sorry to disagree with you Harry but I think if a guy puts money into a fleet of high spec trucks then he has every right to expect his drivers to take care of them.
A high spec fleet will always attract drivers who just want to be seen in the biggest and best but not all of them will want to spend time ensuring they stay that way.
No doubt this would have been explained to any prospective drivers and it was there choice to take the job. At least that way everybody knows where they stand.
Quite a lot has been written about Wally Thorburn on here recently with plenty of people admiring his fleet. His policy was that the trucks were washed whenever they returned to the yard whatever the time of day. He even had a platfrom erected in his yard to allow drivers to wash cab roofs.
It seems that everybody wants a megasupertoptrotter cab with at least 6 spotlights just to leave the yard now but a quick look around the motorways shows that not so many drivers think that part of there job as a so called proffesional is to keep these motors clean and tidy.
Maybe I just hold an old fashioned view but I like a clean and tidy motor.
Cheers
Neilf
Quite a lot has been written about Wally Thorburn on here recently with plenty of people admiring his fleet. His policy was that the trucks were washed whenever they returned to the yard whatever the time of day. He even had a platfrom erected in his yard to allow drivers to wash cab roofs
And the roof of the Fridges!!!
I know Wally and know some of his old drivers, one used to drive for me. He was telling me came back from a 6 week stint for Thorburn and all he wanted to do was get home, so Friday evening he arrives back in the yard, grabs his gear off home he goes.
An hour later Wally phones him and say you havent washed yer wagon before you went!! Can you come in Saturday Morn and wash it! Thats what keeping a clean fleet is all about; hes won some good business because of his well presented fleet.
I cant blame him, his kit must have cost a fortune, well presented inside and out.
Dukes from Ireland were the same, well it was for my dad on his continental days, didnt matter what time you arrived in the yard you were expected to wash
off even if it was 3am in the morn!
I mean If you spent £60 Grand on a luxurious Mercedes Car and you lent it to your mate and it came back looking like a piece of crap Im sure you wouldnt be too pleased, putting it mildly, same applies to Trucks and thats how I see it.
I didnt and wouldnt tolerate dirty filthy drivers with little or no respect for peoples property even if its just a job to them.
I was on DeRooy & he paid us £10 bonus for running bit thru the wash bay!At the end of the day ,its their [zb] truck /equipment & they should pay for the ■■■■■■ servicing of said `offing vehicle,. If the driver got a cut of the resale price,fair enough. But you have got to be in fantasy land to think that you can send a truck out & return at 0330 in the morning and not need a spruce up. Those drivers were exploited ,unless they got wonga for all that steam cleaning !!! [zb] [zb] Thatcherites!!
harry:
I was on DeRooy & he paid us £10 bonus for running bit thru the wash bay!At the end of the day ,its their [zb] truck /equipment & they should pay for the ■■■■■■ servicing of said `offing vehicle,. If the driver got a cut of the resale price,fair enough. But you have got to be in fantasy land to think that you can send a truck out & return at 0330 in the morning and not need a spruce up. Those drivers were exploited ,unless they got wonga for all that steam cleaning !!! [zb][zb]Thatcherites!!
to right
neilf The reason that B Roff ordered such high spec motors because when he was finished with them they still held a good resale price. You have to remember that the job market was very different in those days. I worked for foreign outfits & used to be completely baffled as to why UK lads accepted poor pay lousy working conditions. The bottom line is that many bosses thought more about their hardware than they did their drivers welfare…Hope those days are over…
harry:
If the driver got a cut of the resale price,fair enough
Yes I would agree if you put the deposit down or helped toward towards it and helped maintain the repayments, the cost of the service/ maintenance/the tyres/Insurance/Road tax and everything else that goes with it.
If people treat the vehicle like sum slum doss house I would hate to see how they live at home. But I guess some people like living in their own filth. Its their mess so they should clean it up.
harry:
I worked for foreign outfits & used to be completely baffled as to why UK lads accepted poor pay lousy working conditions.
Think those conditions still exist…dont they ? Despite a change in government. I dont think there are many drivers clearing over £600 per week comfortably and without bustin yer plums off.
The bottom line is that many bosses thought more about their hardware than they did their drivers welfare…Hope those days are over…
But trucks are a lot safer today as ther are more rigorous rules in force so yes drivers welfare is taken into consideration…
Now if you are talking about the financial side of the drivers welfare, then I guess thats a different issue.There will never be big bucks in haulage (as a an employed driver and quite probably as an owner) quite simply due to the fact that rates are so dire and everyone is competing for the same slice of the cake…whatever type of haulage you are involved in.
routier My point was that they were spending their weekends bulling up the chassis of trucks but got no extra dosh for it. The cut I was referring to was just being paid overtime for the work done…Anyway perhaps someone that used to work there will give us the low-down. I am going on about the Roff drivers I met on the boat on a Sunday evening. They were decent youngsters & all looking for something else that paid wages because they had been back to the yard for the weekend & still had no time to see their families.
Yes I would agree if you put the deposit down or helped toward towards it and helped maintain the repayments, the cost of the service/ maintenance/the tyres/Insurance/Road tax and everything else that goes with it.
Well where does the money come from if not the profit from the drivers work.?
Well where does the money come from if not the profit from the drivers work.?
Your guess is as good as mine…there very few companies making profit and/or breaking even from the haulage game
Doesnt Stobart make more on his merchandise than running trucks ?
routier I agree. I have worked my cobs off for firms & they go bust. I have taken it easy & they still went bust. But from my side as an employee or O/D if they didn`t pay for the work I did I just pulled the plug. To work for zilch cleaning trucks is wrong. These boys were doing two a week to **(D)**getting back to the yard Saturday afternoon. Bulling the units until it was dark ,kipping in the truck. Carry on cleaning Sunday morning & on the boat in the afternoon.Roff was cutting his running costs down by re-selling the used trucks at close to the price he paid for them. He was only getting all that work done cheap because there were 3 million unemployed at the time and there was a surplus of good drivers.For bosses__,wonderfull!!__ For drivers, hard ! 