Trucks in the 1980s: The Photos of David Wakefield

Born in 1968, Nick was first taken around England at the age of six in a Scania 111 by a neighbour and this gave him his love of trucks. A truck driving career was all he ever aspired to and as soon as his careers officer at school told him the only qualifications I needed apart from a HGV licence was a good basic education, he knew what my future would be and settled into school not worrying about how well he would do. However as he dreamed of doing international trucking he took private German lessons as he had learned it was a widely understood language across Europe. After a spell working on fishing boats and a short time in construction whilst waiting for his 21st birthday when he could take his HGV test, Nick started his own light haulage business with a Renault Traffic van and ran this for four years until the opportunity to take his HGV test and go and work in his father in law s haulage company arose driving a rigid Volvo F6. Unfortunately this only lasted a year and Nick moved to another local company to do international work in a proper truck , Felgate Services. It was here that Nick truly learned what European work of that time was really like, and it seemed he was never at home. Next Nick joined the huge Dutch firm Frans Maas and drove trucks on the Toyota contract they held, providing the production line in Derby with exactly timed delivery of parts from all over Europe. After four years on the road he moved into the traffic office, and four years later had become transport manager. In 2006 many of the firm's emplyees were made redundant when the company was taken over and Nick went back to truck driving, this time for Rock & Roll Trucking companies Transam Trucking, Redburn Transfer and Edwin Shirley.  He also started driving for the Mclaren Formula 1 racing team still enjoys all of these jobs today