Ridgway lorries have roamed the roads for more than eight decades.
Philip E Ridgway was one of the pioneers of overnight transport services.
He was director of a firm called J&E Transport and arrived in Dundee in 1936.
The firm was involved in transporting jute from textile manufacturers in Dundee and Forfar to carpet makers in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Kidderminster.
The firm continued to trade until 1970 when they were bought by the Tayforth Group, which in turn was bought by Scottish Road Services.
At that time Mr Ridgway retired.
The Ridgway family opened their own, separate business in 1970.
The reluctant donkey
PS Ridgway was born along with its slogan: ‘You name it, we can move it’.
It was a tagline that was taken very literally by one customer.
Former chairman Don Ridgway broke it down further.
“We received a phone call late one Friday night from the managing director of a major customer who was in a panic and needed a big favour,” explained Don.
“It turned out he had just purchased a donkey for his daughter and wanted it to be collected the next day from a farm outside Dundee.
“It was then to be delivered to his house for the surprise.
“We quickly arranged delivery of a horse box on loan from a friend and collected the donkey from the farm and everything was going to plan.
“That was until we got to the customer’s house to deliver the surprise gift.
“The animal had got so comfortable during the trip that it refused to move!
“It took us almost two hours of persuasion to get the donkey to leave the horse box.
“Thankfully the donkey eventually decided to emerge and we ended up with a satisfied customer and a happy little girl.
“But I remember at the time thinking – let’s stick to pallet delivery from now on!”
PS Ridgway mainly delivered textiles to Lancashire, Yorkshire and Worcestershire, which were loaded by 5pm in Dundee and delivered by 7am the next morning.
The company provided a complete transport service over the next 40 years, which included commercial vehicle repairs and HGV driver training.
Other contracts included delivering newsprint imported from Norway to UK publishers and being the satellite warehouse for Tesco in Dundee.
Ridgway was also involved with Dundee jute mills and delivered its final shipment for Sidlaw Yarns before the industry disappeared from the city in the 1990s.
A pallet distribution service was also introduced and Ridgway lorries also became synonymous with using its livery to promote the City of Discovery.
They used its vehicles to promote the City of Discovery Campaign, Verdant Works, Dundee Weavers and Ninewells Cancer Campaign, amongst others.
For many years the company also supported road safety campaigns in schools and received a gold award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
Letter delivery to London
PS Ridgway was sold to Currie Solutions in 2019, which has retained the PS Ridgway livery from a trucking company which became a motorway cult.
“My background was motor engineering before I joined the firm,” said Don.
“My apprenticeship started with Alex McAra at West End Garage, Broughty Ferry.
“I joined J&E Transport as local fleet engineer then became director and general manager of the business before joining my brother at PS Ridgway in 1974.
“I don’t think there was a product we didn’t transport!
“The donkey was the strangest but the smallest was probably an A4 letter.
“This was back in 1976 when a customer asked how they could have some documents delivered by hand to an office in the City of London that same day.
“We were always up for a challenge but this time had to think outside the box!
“British Airways had just introduced a shuttle service from Edinburgh to London so we dispatched a young employee that morning to the airport by car from Dundee.
“He was sent off with a return ticket for the BA Shuttle and travelled by taxi to the financial district with the A4 envelope after arriving at Heathrow.
“The document was delivered at 2.30pm the same day.
“The customer was very pleased and asked how we managed to pull it off.
“When we told them they were very impressed and said that perhaps that was why we were in logistics and they were in manufacturing!
“The moral of the story? Stick to what you know!”
PS Ridgway lorries and… church bells?
The PS Ridgway two-way radio system also helped Don get to the church on time before the invention of the mobile phone in the 1980s.
“We had two-way radios fitted to all of our vehicles which would allow drivers to keep in touch with the office which was via Securicor,” said Don.
“On one occasion I was going to a wedding in Edinburgh in a work vehicle and got hopelessly lost with time running out before the service started.
“I decided to contact the security company via the two-way radio and ask for directions to get me to the church on time!
“They asked my location and car registration number before I was being told to follow the Securicor van which would direct us to the church.
“It was slightly embarrassing but it did keep my two young children very amused!
“They were certainly prompt because we arrived before the bride!”
Why does there remain such affection for PS Ridgway lorries in Dundee?
“We are a local company and always tried to promote our city,” said Don.
“PS Ridgway was very active in the community and we also used every opportunity to promote Dundee on our livery because it’s a city we’re hugely proud of.
“We always believed in local companies and good causes and putting those messages on our lorries also made us stand out from the crowd.
“Our drivers would often tell us how they would pull in for a break at a motorway service station and find people out with their cameras taking pictures.
“I’m very proud that our lorries are still turning heads after all these years.”
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