News

Further expansion at AJA Smith has taken the firm to 43 tractor units, from a low point of just 17 trucks three years ago when it suffered from poor rates.

The firm has expanded into new areas of work, including curtainsiders and scrap trailers as well as the tippers and bulk powder tankers for which it is better known.

AJA Smith is based in Clitheroe, north Lancashire, where demand for drivers is strong. New MAN 430hp units with automated gearshift have helped to recruit and retain  drivers for expansion, says director James Smith.

Another key step was recruiting five drivers in Poland a year ago. The firm now has ten Polish drivers who are good at the job and whose enthusiasm has had a positive effect on the company, Smith says.

AJA Smith works separately from, but shares premises, with the family's other business Steadplan, run by James' brother Anthony. It is a dealer for MAN ERF and Stas trailers and runs a designated premises for VOSA testing five days a week.

The company has just announced an order for 22 Stas Aluliner moving floor trailers from AW Jenkinson and its associated company, Dent Farming.

Steadplan has only recently taken the Stas franchise and is appointing sub-dealers to provide local maintenance and repair services to customers a long way from Clitheroe. The first is AN Richards of Wrexham, another MAN ERF dealer. Steadplan has two Polish fitters.

The firm is well-known locally and its Keyfuels bunker  shifts between 15,000 and 25,000 litres of diesel a week.

At an open day at the premises shared by the two firms last Saturday, Anthony Smith said that Steadplan had grown with customers including TDG, TNT and Hitchin Foods but stressed the importance of smaller firms too.