Eddie Stobart dead as lorry firm legend who named every truck passes away
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Famed trucking firm founder Eddie Stobart has died, his representatives confirmed this morning. Mr Stobart, whose full name was Eddie Pears Stobart, initially set up a small agricultural firm in 1946 that carried out contract work for farms and distributed fertiliser. He also ran a farm shop, with the business becoming the family-named trucking firm later in the 1940s, with the firm's first lorry, a second-hand Guy Invincible four-wheeler, hitting UK roads in 1960.
The truck debuted in the famous Eddie Stobart green and red colouring, with the small company possessing just eight lorries and 12 employees when it launched. Mr Stobart died on November 25 aged 95, at the head of a company that now owns and operates more than 2,500 vehicles, but he has taken a backseat in the business over the last few decades.
His youngest son Edward took over the firm in the 1970s aged just 21 while trying to make a name of his own, and was able to turn it into the haulage giant it is today. Alongside being one of the best established haulage firms in the country, Eddie Stobart is also famous for allowing drivers to name the truck to which they are assigned - a tradition started by Mr Stobart himself.
After founding the firm in the 1940s, Mr Stobart wanted his trucks to be known for more than their deliveries, and chose to start a tradition of naming them after women. Names like "Maggie", "Betty" and "Rosie" fascinated the general public when they hit the road, with people stopping to take pictures of the vehicles, which developed their own identities after making multiple deliveries.
