Penny Pincher

Tradition meant this truck cost an extra penny after each purchase!

- Dave Bowers

Chris Evans and his dad, Carl have a strong connection with Volvo’s F88, as even though Chris was still a youngster when the last of the F88s were going out of service with the family owned, Shropshire based firm of Minsterley Evans, his allegiance to the Big Swede became set in stone by a picture of the last one his granddad, Bert Evans, operated in the firm’s colours.

Moving forward by a generation to Chris’s dad, Carl, he remembers repairing and also driving these trucks with Minsterley Evans proudly displayed on the headboard. Carl’s normal role with the firm as a fully trained mechanic also meant he was frequently called out of the firm’s workshop in Minsterley so he could repair an F88, which had broken down by the roadside, and also take on the role as a delivery driver should the occasion require it. Chris explains why he went looking for an F88 he could then call his own and how this proud-looking example in Minsterley Evans livery eventually came his way after undergoing some attention and a respray: “Although they were before my time, I was always impressed by the way these trucks looked, and by their performance. Last year, Trevor Pye, who manages a haulage firm of that name, was asked if he knew of any F88s for sale.

“Trevor runs Volvos today, and he also owns a restored F12. He put me on to Bob Bayliss of Redcar, who had this one for sale. It was in incredibly good condition, as it hadn’t seen all that much use, there was only 250,000 miles on the clock, and Bob had done quite a bit of work on it since he bought it from a firm called King’s Coaches up in the North-East in 2004, which is still in operation.

“So we bought it, and because it was in such good condition, we drove it all the way home from Redcar to Shropshire.”