The White Stuff

Ray White’s 1993 Volvo F16 turns heads wherever it goes – and now it’s up for sale

- Neil Johnson

After a career spent in road haulage and now heading a company running a fleet of 25 refrigerated artics on European work Ray White fancied owning an older tractor unit to take him back to his earlier days as an owner driver.

This led to the purchase of a 1993 Volvo F16. Growing up in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, his dad had been a driver with local tipper and block hauliers Sweeting’s before Ray began his own driving career in Transit vans, delivering office partition walls around the UK. After a stint driving Euclid and Foden half-cab dump trucks for Hobbs quarries he went to work for Ray Keedwell, whose company today is known as RT Keedwell. It was here where Ray passed his Class 1 licence. Starting off shunting at a nearby paint works he progressed from a two-stroke Commer TS3 to a Guy Big J and was soon doing longer distance work including hauling peat to North Wales. Another move to Hemmings saw him piloting a Volvo F88 290 before he went to work for Framptons of Shepton Mallet where he did his first international trip. This involved taking turkey eggs to Italy in a 7.5 tonner followed by more similar work with a Seddon Atkinson 401 artic.

Distance learning