COMPANY HISTORY
Steve Nixon was born into transport; his father Terence Nixon having started the family firm in 1953. “I was going out with my dad before I even started in school,” recalls Steve. “I always knew this was what I was going to do. It’s in my blood.”
Steve can clearly remember the eclectic mix of British and American trucks that his father built his business on, and he has photos of most of the vehicles that had gone before he was born.
“He started with a pair of unroadworthy 28hp ex-Army Bedfords,” says Steve. “And then made one good truck out of them.” Other trucks of note include a Reo Speedwagon, a Leyland Octopus, a Commer two-stroke and numerous ERFs, Seddons, Albions and Dodges. Steve remembers Terence having an AEC Mercury in the 1970s, which Terence considered to be an excellent truck – that is until he purchased his first Scania. From that point onwards there has always been at least one Scania on the Nixon’s Transport feet.
Today’s fleet consists of seven rigids, a mix of two 18-tonners and five 26-tonners. There are four Scania 4-series, a Volvo FM, a Mercedes-Benz Axor and a MAN TGX. Trucks are generally purchased used, always bought outright, and generally kept until they’re about 15 years old, during which they will have typically clocked-up well over a million kilometres.
“The longer you can make a truck last, the better off you are,” reckons Steve. “If you get 15 years of service out of one, you have more chance of making it pay than renting one for five years.”
Although J964 BAU is the oldest working truck on the fleet, it isn’t the oldest in Steve’s collection. He’s also the proud owner of a beautiful 1949 Bedford recovery truck (above).