18 Oct Growing McQueens Dairies fleet with GSM Transport
GSM Transport, who operate from Dornock, Annan, was established in 1996, as an owner-driver operation transporting fresh fish from North of Scotland to Spain. Since then, the business has grown steadily, and it now offers a variety of transport solutions to an ever-growing customer base. They currently operate a number of vehicles on a mixture of international and domestic refrigerated transport driven by a dedicated team of experienced drivers.
GSM Transport is a long-standing Scottish customer of Gray & Adams. Jim Morrison of GSM Transport is the main haulage contractor for McQueens Dairies. Jim has been a Gray & Adams customer for new trailers since 2002 and has taken delivery of 20-plus trailers over the years. We sat down with Jim to speak about the relationship between Gray & Adams and GSM Transport.
When asked about when he first became aware of Gray & Adams, Jim said,
“I don’t have a background in transport, so I was never very interested in trucks though I did notice trailers for some reason. I first noticed the G&A name while I was still at school and saw a trailer with ‘Gray and Adams new 38-tonne reefer on demonstration’ on the side of it. I had no idea what that meant but I still remember it!”
Jim bought his first truck in 1994 and started doing traction work, mostly in France and Spain. He was pulling a Gray & Adams trailer most of the time and got to like the way it was built, the way it worked and even the way it looked and by that time became aware of the longevity and build quality of a Gray & Adams trailer. He eventually went on to buy this trailer and sold it when it was about nine years old and still saw it regularly on the roads for a long time after that. In 2002 Jim bought his first new trailer from Gray & Adams, and was highly impressed by the fact that as an unknown, one-man-band, he could spec the trailer exactly how he wanted with no issues.
In 2015, Jim was asked to provide transport for McQueens Dairies. This required the use of tail lifts to load and unload. He had a new trailer on order at the time and asked if it could be changed mid-build to incorporate a tail lift. This was done and on the advice of Stewart Massie, he opted for underslung lifts rather than the industry norm of column lifts, making the trailers more versatile on the reload with general cargo for some of their return trips. The trailer was delivered in not much more than a month, again with no fuss and no problems and that specification has remained virtually unaltered for all of the McQueens Dairies trailers since. Since 2015 the fleet has grown to 27 trailers, almost all of which are Gray & Adams. McQueens Dairies has two more on order for delivery in December 2023 and more in the pipeline for 2024.
When asked about the future of their relationship with Gray & Adams, Jim said,
“For the future, I’d like to think the relationship will continue as it is. The trailers will no doubt continue to evolve as they always have although I’d expect fuelling to be revolutionary rather than evolutionary. I had a demonstration of the Vector eCool, Carrier’s electrically powered refrigerated unit fitted to a Gray & Adams trailer last year and was very impressed with it.
I have always liked to work closely with people, whether they are suppliers or customers as I think a good understanding of each other’s businesses helps both parties to get the most out of their relationship. Working with G&A is a good example of that.”