Hero of haulage
Truck & Driver|Christmas 2020
After running two hugely successful charity truck shows, not even the Covid-19 shutdown could stop Paul Salkeld doing his best to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support
Dougie Rankine
Hero of haulage

Paul Salkeld is one of the organisers of the Cumbria Charity Truck Fair, which was a huge success in both 2016 and 2018 and was set to break all previous records this year if it wasn’t for Covid. Even so, Paul came up with a great idea to do an online event to raise funds for charity.

“I grew up in the passenger seat of a truck, as my dad is a driver” he tells us, “When I first passed my test he told me I was coming back out on the road for a week with him because it was time to ‘learn the job properly’ and I’ve always been thankful for that.”

Eleven years ago he joined Garner’s to start tipper work, something he’d never done before, and he hasn’t looked back. His bright, customised Scania S520 is kept absolutely immaculate and is a popular sight on the road. All the trucks in the fleet have a theme, and the S520’s is Incredibles II which was chosen by his children.” I did want to do Looney Tunes cartoons but I got outvoted” he laughs.

Cumbria Charity Truck Fair was established when Paul’s father-in-law Malcolm Bell lost his battle with cancer. Malcolm ran his own garage business and Paul cites him as a major inspiration and influence in his life. He wanted to do something to help raise money for MacMillan Nurses. “It was my friend Chris Atkinson who convinced me to do it, he pushed me on!”

This story is from the Christmas 2020 edition of Truck & Driver.

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This story is from the Christmas 2020 edition of Truck & Driver.

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