As featured in Truck & Driver Magazine

His second truck was a bulk tipper, another F12 that was in need of some TLC.

This association with Volvo was to last until 1997 when Paul Taylor, the salesman at Channel Commercials, got him to try the new Daf XF95. Arnie was impressed with the big shouldered Dutchman and has been a Daf man ever since, a decision reinforced by the after-sales service he gets from Channel and Daf.

Arnie has a loyal crew and likes to provide them with decent rigs. The drivers certainly like the 95's cab and road manners. Pulling up at a truck-stop or customer's premises in a smart truck gives them a sense of pride and doesn't do the company's image any harm either.

The inspiration for the Thunderbirds theme goes back to the mid-sixties, when the Tracy boys were gracing our TV screens with their daredevil rescue missions. Like so many other youngsters, Arnie watched the programmes, read the books and collected the toys (and those early books came in handy when the time came to choose the scenes and characters to be depicted on the 95's panels).

His business is called Silvercrest Transport (the haulage side trades as TLC European) so the background colour of silver speaks for itself. As the business grew, so did the fleet and, inevitably, the pressure. It all came to a head one day just after Arnie had placed an order for four new 480hp XF95's. He decided enough was enough and contemplated going back to his roots as an owner driver. With this in mind he changed the order to uprate one of the new wagons to a 530hp version and planned to move the other three on.

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