New livery marks 75 years for Dawson
Multimodal specialist AV Dawson has transformed one of its haulage fleet with a one-off new livery to mark its 75th birthday.
The new Scania truck is being driven by Bob King - one of the longest serving employees at the family run firm, which is based at Riverside Park, in Middlesbrough, Teesside.
The design is a twist on the company's distinctive original red and white colours but with metallic paint and silver/platinum detail appropriate to a 75th anniversary.
The logistics firm was started by Arthur 'Vernie' Dawson with wife Eleanor in 1938, who invested £50 in a horse called Dina, her shoes, a cart for her to pull and coal to sell.
The firm, today run by Vernie's grandson Gary Dawson, now offers a diverse range of bespoke haulage, shipping, warehouse and rail solutions and has expanded into new sectors, such as the buoyant offshore energy market.
Haulage is still a key part of the business with its fleet growing from eight to 32 vehicles over the past 10 years and the number of drivers increasing from ten to 40 today.
Bob, of Skelton, near Saltburn, has been with the firm for 38 years.
Russell Spink, senior transport and maintenance manager at AV Dawson, said:
"Our fleet goes out across the world and we thought rebranding one of our top of the range vehicles would be really appropriate to celebrate our 75th anniversary, given it all began with haulage.
"We couldn't think of anyone better to drive the vehicle than Bob, who has been with us since 1975 and is still going strong. He's a great role model for all the future drivers and younger members of staff."
AV Dawson's 75th anniversary comes at a time when the company has invested £10m in a major infrastructure expansion. The first phase, the £2.5m Tees Riverside Intermodal Park (TRIP) at its site follows a 250 per cent increase in its container handling and filling business.
Companies using the rail terminal can benefit from loaded lifting and storage and a direct link to the East Coast Main Line, making it ideal for intermodal train services to and from North East.
The firm is also seeing major growth in the marine and offshore sectors and is creating a new deepwater quay £3.2m quay, which is due to be completed this summer, as part of its investment.
When complete, the quay will boast depths of up to 8.5m and will be 150m long, allowing larger vessels of up to 10,000 tonnes to take advantage of Dawson's one-stop-shop services, which include in-house ships agency and vessel support company, Cockfield Knight and Co Ltd.