In celebration of National Lorry Week, we thought we’d share with you a bit of history on A R Richards, and why our fleet have the names that they do.
With over 20 vehicles of ours on the roads, you may have spotted that our lorries have been given names, all representing people that hold a very special meaning to our business.
Our Skip Lorries are called Alyn after Tony’s dad. Alyn helped to start AR Richards and worked hard with his son. He worked in the contracting business, driving the bulldozers and the old Hy-mac diggers, becoming a significant part of ARR and the foundations of how it became what it is today. Unfortunately, Alyn passed away in 2002 aged 84.
Our Tipper Lorries are named Purdie after Sheilagh’s mum. Chloe (Sam’s Daughter) called her Purdie from a young age, and it stuck as she loved it so much. Purdie was childminder, caterer, and an all-round support to her family who she was enormously proud of. Unfortunately, Purdie passed away in 2002 age 76.
Our Hook Lorries are named Harry after Sheilagh’s dad. Harry had worked on the land all his life and tried to help wherever he could. He helped them both to get finance on the first Vaci Tank, which kicked started the beginning of business. He was extremely proud of what Sheilagh and Tony were beginning to create with building A R Richards. Unfortunately, Harry passed away in 1989 age 69.
Our newest named lorries are our bin lorries, named after John Batha, who worked with us as a shed manager from 2009 until he sadly passed away in 2021. He was a massive part of A.R. Richards and is greatly missed. Because of this and the character he was, we thought it would be fitting to name a wagon after him. John would hate it when the bin wagons would come into the shed to tip, it was his least favourite waste to sort – so we knew it would suit John’s wicked sense of humour that we named our two new bin wagons after him in his memory.
One of Johns passions in life was fishing, so if you see any of Johns bin wagons about you might notice some little fishermen going along for the ride.
