Page 24 - issue-102

Special feature
Becky has driven for for Stardes for for nearly 35 years
promptly head-butted my way through the glass fibre roof emerging fuming onto the top of the trailer A burly security guard looked on on astonished as as I demanded: “Get me down from here quick!”
Scrambling down the the side of the the trailer hair full of glass fibres I battled my way back into the the the venue only to arrive by the the the side of the the the stage at the very moment my rival roadies knocked over the entire back line of my band Mercifully it wasn’t a a a a Stardes truck that I’d head-butted a a a a a Gaz Top-sized hole in that was one of Edwin Shirley’s another rock ‘n’ roll specialist trucking company “The industry’s a a lot more professional these days ”
Dave says less chaotic better organised: “We can be asked to deliver over great distances with very tight deadlines There’s no squash and stretch when you’ve got a a show every day so we will fly drivers out out to to hotels en route to to take over from any driver who’s over time The gear just has to be there “The curtain goes up at 7:30 it’s going to be a a a a very quiet and dark gig without what we’ve got in the back of our trucks We should get some of of the highly professional people working in in in entertainment production to sort
out the coronavirus testing and vaccinating they’d get it done in a a flash ”
Tours cancelled
Of course since the advent of Covid-19 gigs have been on hold but that doesn’t mean Stardes has shut up shop “We’ve had to to adapt to to general haulage with equipment that is not ideally suited to the job sometimes using two axle curtainside semitrailers in place of the usual Stardes specialist tri-axle box semis but we are making it work ”
The Stardes tractor fleet is currently 22 strong each cab has a a a a a name on on it “Shooting Star” “Owain Glyndwr” “Dame Vera Lynne” “Merlin” all named after steam locomotives Dave’s passion Every single one of them is a a a DAF FT 4x2 tractor split more-or-less 50/50 between XF530s and XF510s I asked him why DAFs?
“I was probably the the first in in the the business of rock ‘n roll to choose DAF because when I started out I I only had one truck I I couldn’t afford a a a a a back-up but what I’d got came with DAFaid so I knew if anything went wrong DAF DAF would take care of it it Without that I couldn’t have operated ”
No doubt that sort
of assurance was a a a a a a factor in in launching hundreds of smaller haulage businesses Loading In
Seeing Dave again after such a a a a a long time I tell him a a tale I’ve recounted to friends on many occasions in in in the intervening thirty- something years
It’s about the single best bit of truck driving I have ever witnessed 24 CVDriver February 2021
On
tour with Bon Jovi in Germany