The Generation Game

Convoy in the Park was first and foremost about families, just as all good truck shows used to be, and transport is full of family companies and drivers inspired by a parent. We talk to three families to find out how it started for them

- Lucy Radley

Transport is full of family companies and drivers who were inspired to get behind the wheel by seeing a parent – or two – driving trucks for a living. The saying ‘born into the business’ is a cliché but for Will Pringle it is almost literally the truth: he had his first ride in a truck at just three days old.

His mother, Pat, was a driver working on low-loaders, moving machines on the pipelines, the job that would eventually become the family business. “I had him [Will] on the Friday, went home on the Saturday and was back in the lorry – with baby – on the Monday morning,” she recalls.

Joint venture

Pat, along with husband George, also a driver, went on to run G Pringle Heavy Haulage between them. 

“I started driving with Ed Weetman 43 years ago,” says Pat. “I only wanted a Class 2 to drive a horsebox but Ed told me that was silly and to just get Class 1. Weetmans were fetching straw from my father’s farm so I jumped in their old lorry on L-plates and never got out again!”

From there Pat went on to do night trunks for neighbour Stan Robinson, met George and built a life in transport rich enough to fill a book in its own right. “I’ve got two children,” she says. “Johanna I had while I was working with horses, then four years later William came along.”

In between heavy jobs Pat would drive on the Continent. “I was a dreadful mother really, but come the holidays they came with me all over Europe and had a great time.”

Will remembers that time fondly. “My best memories are of being down the road and the bond we used to have,” he says.

“We went everywhere, through the Alps and over Mont Blanc listening to Neil Diamond and Tina Turner in an old Daf 95. I’ll never forget it.”