Staplehurst Transits today is far beyond any vision that founder & now present Managing Director Colin Goldup could have seen back in 1973. At that time along with his one 35 cwt Ford Luton Van he advertised locally for work as Man & Van. The work undertaken varied from household removals one day to shop delivery of food products the next.
1975
It was not very long before luck played a major part
and a contract was offered by a bakery company. The work involved collecting product from north London each evening for delivery to their depot in Hampshire and then on to a second depot in Kent. This workload increased over the next few years and at one stage three rigid box vehicles were used to service the bakery contract. Around that period of time Scaffolding Great Britain hired two rigid flatbed vehicles from us each day to transport equipment to & from their building trade customers. Whilst the M26 motorway was under construction our vehicles were often seen delivering to the many bridge building sites each day. Based in the Garden of England another part of our work was the collection of fruit from local farms for onward transport to wholesale markets around the country. In 1976 a small depot in the village of Staplehurst was purchased which for several years was the companies home. The business was at that time operating five rigid vehicles along with two vans & had become the employer of six people.
1985
In 1983 one of the largest local fruit transport companies decided to sell their vehicles and rent out their depot. With the loss of this company several fruit growers & marketing agents indicated that if we were to provide a specialised wholesale market service they would support us. A decision was made and Staplehurst Transits rented the larger site which was needed to carry out the extra work. Ten years later in 1993 with the permanent support from local produce growers we had the confidence to make the large investment into the freehold of our previously rented site. With the long term security of the depot in place we immediately improved the temperature controlled produce holding area & installed a twin bay vehicle workshop With the depot in the centre of the Kent produce growing area we not only collect from farms but witness produce from small growers arriving to us via many forms of farm transport. We are now the only company based in the area to provide a daily farm collection for same night delivery to national markets. Over several years we had noted a decline in the amounts of locally grown produce sold through markets, thankfully following the recent restructuring of wholesale markets growers are once again selling volumes of their produce through the market system. Another gain of local work to us has been aided by local council planning policy to allow farms to expand their building facilities & change working patterns, several now pack English produce in season & then pack foreign produce for the remainder of the year. Our depot is ideally placed to provide these local packing stations with a national cool-chain distribution service. With the Channel Tunnel being only forty-five minutes drive away we are also able to offer a fast cross docking service to European customers who wish to use our consolidation service. We feel with our dedicated service we have been able to eliminate wasted mileage by our heavy goods vehicle fleet. With all the problems that go along with fruit distribution the company is proud of the fact it finds time to support the local area, since 1975 the fleet has played a large part in the village carnivals and we provided a cup to be presented each year to the best children's float. Most years we provide transport of camping equipment for our local Brownies, Guides, Cubs & Scouts to & from their summer camps. Our only real taste of fame was when we were asked by BBC2 to help with a children's television programme, our vehicle & driver are often seen in the regular repeats of Come Outside.
