Andrew Thorpe’s family business L.&K.R. Thorpe has a long history with ERF trucks, dating back to the firm being established in 1977. His grandfather Les retired from the police aged 45 on medical grounds. With his son Keith, (Andrew’s dad) who was fresh out of agricultural college, they started out with just one lorry. Les is now 92 years old and is still on the ball when it comes to all that’s going on in the Lincolnshire-based company!
The business developed with ventures into Middle East work. They also did a lot of European work for many years, when you were required to purchase a permit to do so. Germany and Czechoslovakia were popular destinations. Volvo F12s, Scania 111 and 141 and Foden 4000s were used. There UK side saw many big rigid trucks in the fleet, and at one point the fleet was entirely made up of ERF. Thorpe’s were one of few takers of the rare ERF M-series and surprisingly, there’s still one on the fleet today. Andrew completed university obtaining a degree in Genetic Engineering with a specialty in Virology (crikey!) to have something to fall back on, but having grown up around trucks his priority was getting out on the road.
This story is from the February 2021 edition of Truck & Driver.
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This story is from the February 2021 edition of Truck & Driver.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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