News : Leyland Trucks have a gas celebrating a milestone

One of the few remaining off shoots of the original Leyland / B.L Empire is Leyland Trucks. The LF model has passed the 125.000 mark and is designed, engineered and built in the UK's only remaining truck factory.
One of the few remaining off shoots of the original Leyland/BL empire is Leyland Trucks. The LF model has passed the 125.000 mark and is designed, engineered and built in the UK’s only remaining truck factory

Leyland Trucks has produced the 125,000th DAF LF at its state-of-the-art factory in Leyland, Lancashire. The vehicle was officially handed over by Ron Augustyn, Managing Director of Leyland Trucks and Ray Ashworth, Managing Director of DAF Trucks Ltd to Calor Gas representatives David Brown, Fleet Asset Manager and Iain Carr, Operations Manager, at a ceremony held recently.

  • 125,000th DAF LF produced at the Leyland Trucks factory in Leyland, Lancashire
  • Leyland Trucks is a leading UK manufacturing company with an award-winning 60,000 m² factory, 900 staff and a 16,720 m² PACCAR Parts distribution centre
  • Highly successful DAF LF is market leader in 7.5 to 18 tonne sector
  • Leyland Trucks makes LF for UK and export, plus DAF CF and XF models for UK
  • Leyland Trucks is the centre of excellence for light and medium truck development and manufacture for PACCAR Inc. the leading global truck group

This significant production milestone adds to a legendary heritage of truck production and engineering excellence in Leyland dating back to 1896. Today, the award-winning Leyland Trucks factory covers 60,000 m², employs over 900 people and includes a 16,720 m², 24/7 PACCAR Parts distribution centre with 65,000 parts, processing around 5,000 orders a day.

Where the Empire first started: The state of the art Leyland Assembly Plant (L.A.P) is fondly known to the locals as Lapland. Despite opening back in 1981 - It remains one of the most modern and stae-of-the-art of its kind in the World.
Where the Empire first started: the state of the art Leyland Assembly Plant (L.A.P) is fondly known to the locals as Lapland. Despite opening back in 1981, it remains one of the most modern and efficient of its kind in the World

Since it became part of PACCAR Inc, the leading global truck group, in 1998, Leyland Trucks has seen substantial investment and growth to become the worldwide centre for development and manufacture of light and medium-sized trucks for the group with a team of 90 design engineers developing innovative, cost effective and environmentally efficient solutions for today’s truck operators.

The lightweight LF, DAF’s most compact model and the UK’s market leader in the 7.5 to 18 tonnes sector, has been produced by Leyland Trucks since 2001 for the UK market and countries across the world including in Europe, Taiwan, Israel, Russia, Australia and North and South America.

More recently, Leyland Trucks started production of the all-new DAF LF range with economical, efficient four and six-cylinder PACCAR PX engines complying with the latest Euro 6 emissions standard and an attractive new exterior design in line with the DAF CF and XF models. It also has a completely new, high quality interior and dashboard that creates a great working environment for the driver, and its new chassis is completely flat with a new electrical installation to maximise its versatility for bodybuilders to tailor to any application.

At the handover ceremony, Ron Augustyn, Managing Director of Leyland Trucks, said: ‘We are really proud of this production milestone, the efficiency of our factory and the commitment of all our staff who have made Leyland Trucks one of Britain’s most successful manufacturers.”

His sentiments were echoed by Ray Ashworth, Managing Director of DAF UK, who said: ‘I am really proud to have the opportunity to sell trucks which are built in this country, not only the LF, but also the CF and XF, too. Our customers often comment on the benefits that this provides.”

Accepting the keys to the 125,000th DAF LF, David Brown from Calor Gas, the largest distributor of LPG in the UK, said: ‘The DAF LF has proved very reliable and an essential part of our delivery fleet, so we are delighted to have this unique model and can assure you it will soon be working hard delivering gas cylinders and associated products across the UK.”

Mike Humble

15 Comments

  1. Interesting to note. This area of the old BL business needs more publicity – I didn’t even know the factory is still open.

    • Nor me. I live near Sandbach and saw the closure of the ERF factory that was also bought by Paccar as I understand it. I was certainly under the impression that trucks were no longer made in the UK, so this is very good news for me. Clearly all is not yet lost in the UK-based commercial vehicle industry.

      • ERF was taken over by MAN, and after the discovery of fraudulent activity there, production eventually ceased at Sandbach.
        Foden was the business owned by Paccar before they bought DAF and then Leyland. Production was moved to Leyland, but eventually they ceased, as it wasn’t seen as worth it, a bit too much like badge engineering…

  2. I thought they’d gone and production moved to Holland. However, nice to see 900 people in Leyland still making lorries.

  3. Work on these regular, although it shares the same engines with the Cargo, they are seldom any trouble- usually the adblue dosing module acts the goat but not much else.

  4. Good to hear this factory is doing well. That LF cab looks a good design. Although most comment on aronline is about UK Car factory success, it’s nice to hear the commercial vehicle sector is still alive and kicking.

  5. Leyland Trucks has been motoring on quite nicely, it’s just less visible now as none of its products have the plughole on them any more…

    It’s not meant as a criticism, but there sometimes has been a tendency by some people on this site to treat Longbridge as being the key remaining bit of British Leyland; thankfully the success of JLR, Leyland Trucks and the remaining bits that BMW own show that some of the old BL empire is still doing nicely!

  6. I see new ones regularly on truck transporters leaving the plant. I go past it twice a day on my way to and from work. Good to see their success on the road.

    10+ years ago I had a visit to LAP. It was just an underused screwdriver factory then.

    Many of the trucks leaving are on Dutch registered transporters, presumably going abroad. Rarer sights are trailers with 8 cabs on them going to the plant.

    CP

  7. Its great news this, and its also a shame Washwood heath never received help when needed and could have been a success like these Preston built vehicles.

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