trucks Archives - StageFreight

A Year in the World of Event Transport

Posted on 16th December 201924th January 2020 by Jonathan Kennedy

2019 is coming to an end, and it’s been an exciting year for Stagefreight! We’ve put together this new article to look back at our biggest highlights of the year. It’s also a great showcase for the full range of our event transport services.

Did you know this isn’t the first time we’ve reflected on our past activities? You can also take a look our 2018 recap.

A big thank you for making 2019 so amazing

Our event transport team couldn’t be what it is without our brilliant clients and dedicated team. That’s why we’ve highlighted some of them below.

2019 Case Studies

● Stage production Pepperland celebrates the music of the Beatles with an offbeat tribute show. We were proud to provide stage transport services, and we’d like to thank Dance Consortium for the behind-the-scenes look.

● After embarking on her 2018 Fare Thee Well Tour, prolific musician Joan Baez decided to add some 2019 dates. Stagefreight provided music transport services, while Joan Baez was kind enough to hang out with our team.

● Northern Ballet’s Victoria was an innovative look at the life and impact of Queen Victoria. Stagefreight’s theatre transport service helped bring this exciting show to life.

Drivers

Stagefreight’s team is a pretty personal one, and we like to highlight some of our drivers. We’re proud to report we’ve got some fantastic people working for us at the moment.

New to the Team

● Chris Wilkinson joined Stagefreight recently, and he does great work in our corporate event transport services. His can-do, helpful approach means Chris is in very high demand from our corporate event trucking clients.

● After joining in 2018, Ash Bateman became a full-time Stagefreight driver this May. He has 17 years of driving experience; nowadays, he’s responsible for a range of event transport services including music, theatre and corporate events.

Lead Driver Veterans

● Allan Spencer has been driving for more than 20 years. For the last few years, he’s been lead driver on Northern Ballet tours; on average, he spends 9 months of the year working with the company.

● Paul Garfit is the lead driver for English National Ballet tours, with 17 years of driving experience. 12 of those have been with Stagefreight, and he really enjoys the challenges that theatre transport presents.

2019 Award Win

We’re very proud to have received two awards this year—SME News’ Best Events Transport Company Award, and their Eco-Friendly Road Fleet of the Year. We’ve been investing in our fleet over the last few years, in an effort to reduce our overall carbon footprint; you can read more about our efforts here.

Award Shortlists

We had some exciting shortlist firsts this year. We were finalists for the Motor Transport Team of the Year award in July, and we were shortlisted for Road Freight Operator of the Year in the FTA Logistics Awards. Stagefreight was the only event transport company to be shortlisted this year, and it was also our first nomination in both awards. As such, we’re very excited to have taken part.

Yorkshire shortlists

We’re also a nominee in the Yorkshire Choice Awards at the moment. This prestigious award recognises the best businesses and individuals that Yorkshire has to offer. Public votes determine the winner; learn more about how you can help us to win!

The End of an Era—Ramfest

Charity music festival Ramfest has come to an end after a decade of shows. Hosted by Southowram Cricket Club, Ramfest supported many different causes over the years, with Stagefreight providing logistical support. It was also an excellent platform for a host of local bands.

Helping Some Sporting Legends

Stagefreight are proud to sponsor a pair of sports stars this year. Motorcyclist Steven Procter debuted in 2015, and since then he’s competed in several sporting events; this year, he’s appeared in the Tandragee 100 and at Donington Park. More recently we have started sponsoring Keegan Hirst, who joined Halifax RLFC this September.

New Additions to the Fleet

Renault Trucks T High

We’ve expanded our fleet with several new trucks this year, including some Renault Trucks T High. All of them have Euro 6 motors, and they were also voted Fleet Truck of the Year 2019.

#StagefreightBlue

In honour of our 35th year, we’ve unveiled our special 35th anniversary truck. This special truck has been painted blue; keep an eye out for it on the roads next year.

blue truck outside theatre — Our 35th anniversary truck outside Plymouth’s Theatre Royal.

Festive Event Transport Projects

This year we worked with Shone Productions on a range of pantomime shows across the UK, including Cinderella and Aladdin. You can learn more about these shows in our article on the best local pantomime shows for 2019/2020.

Happy Holidays

From our team to yours, we’d like to wish everyone a very happy holiday period and a great start to 2020. We’re ready to jump into the new decade with our fantastic team and our diverse range of services.

Whether you need help with a stage show, a conference, live event transport or something else entirely, Stagefreight are here to help! Take a closer look at our Services page, or call us now on 0113 797 898.

Most popular event transport routes of Europe

Posted on 11th January 201915th January 2019 by Sarah Oxley

One of our customer’s frequently asked questions is “Where do you guys go?” and “Which routes do you do the most?“.

Well, as we’re nearly always on the go we had to have a bit of a think about that.

After comparing notes amongst the team, here’s a look at our most popular event transport routes of Europe.

Across all routes that’s 24,013 miles, or 38,645 km for our continental buddies. That’s not the total for a year of event transport, just for our most popular routes.

Whether you’re thinking about a career in event transport or want someone to take over your stage trucking, enjoy the maps we’ve designed.

Popular event transport routes:

Please note that hours quoted are an average. They don’t factor in ferry times and other transport factors.

The idea is to give a general overview of the routes and they’re individual challenges.

Brevik

22-22.5 hours
Between 1,210 and 1,227 miles / 1,947 – 1,974 km

Lisbon

25 hours
Between 1,547 and 1,667 miles / 2,490 – 2,682km

Barcelona

18hours
Between 1,120 and 1,164 miles / 1800-1866 km

Paris

8.5 hours
480 miles / 772.5 km

Monaco

17-18.5 hours
Between 1,000 and 1,134 miles / 1,609 – 1,873 km

Rome

21-22.5 hours
Between 1,281 and 1,384 miles / 2,061 – 2,227 km

Madrid

20.5-21 hours
Between 1,261 and 1,274 miles / 2,029 – 2,050 km

Vienna

18.5-19.5 hours
Between 1,108 and 1,145 miles / 1,783 – 1,842 km

Ravenna

19-20 hours
Between 1,106 and 1,189 miles / 1,779 – 1913 km

Geneva

13-13.5 hours
Between 805 and 817 miles / 1,295 – 1,314 km

Frankfurt

11-12 hours
Between 669 – 673 miles / 1,076 – 1,083 km

Sarajevo

15 hours
1,468 miles / 2,362 km

Athens

36 hours
2,172 miles / 3,495 km

Moscow

34 hours
1,988 miles / 3,199 km

Istanbul

34 hours
2,082 miles / 3.350 km

Bergen

29 hours
1,495 miles / 2405 km

Ankara

39 hours
2,362 miles / 3,801 km

And if you’re planning an event, as you can see we get about quite a bit and are pros when it comes to event transport.

Give us a call on 0113 797 898 to discuss.

Or take a look at our latest case studies to see what kind of stage transport we do.

New Mercedes Benz Actros Stage Trucks At Stagefreight

Posted on 5th December 201729th November 2017 by Sarah Oxley

We’re very excited about the new Mercedes-Benz Actros stage trucks joining our fleet.

So, we decided to share more information about these new stage trucks and about our whole fleet, too.

Actros Stage Trucks

The Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks are specialist trucks for long distance transport. Our drivers are regularly abroad, as we support theatre shows, music events and conferences across Europe and even as far as Dubai.

Stage trucks that can handle the many miles we commit to are of high importance to us.

It was, however, not only the long distance ability that caught our attention:

Environmentally friendly trucks

The high-torque 6-cyclinder engines exceed the emission standards of Euro V, Euro VI and EEV engines. This means they are the most fuel-efficient engines amongst the class leaders.

We take our environmental responsibility very seriously and so were very pleased that these stage trucks offered the Euro 6 engine.

Safety features

Health & Safety is another of our key company policies, so naturally this is a priority for our fleet.

The Mercedes-Benz Actros range has Active Brake Assist 4. This system detects potential accident hazards including stationary objects and as a world ‘first’ also spots pedestrians stepping off pavements into the truck’s path.

The trucks also feature Proximity Control Assist, which intervenes automatically within the cruise control setting to restrict speed and maintain a pre-set distance from the vehicle ahead.

Comfort

Our drivers are often on the road for several weeks. We want them to feel comfortable when on the road. The truck should be like a home from home.

The stage trucks from Mercedes-Benz therefore have the GigaSpace cabins, which have 2.13m headroom and provide our drivers separate areas to work, sleep and live.

It’s important for overall comfort to be able to have different areas for different activities.

Here’s a picture of some of the new stage trucks at the truck depot.

Our Fleet

While we’re very excited about the new additions to our fleet, we’re still highly proud of our existing fleet, which consists of 80 specialist trucks. All of which have Euro 6 emission efficient engines.

35 of our stage trucks are tractor units with 80% of these being from Mercedes-Benz. We’re steadily expanding and growing our fleet.

The environment and health & safety will always be key to our fleet decisions and choices. If you’re interested in finding our more about our policies, take a closer look at them here.

We’re not the only ones proud of our fleet, though. Our drivers often share pictures of the stage trucks while travelling around the world.

Here are some images sent in by our team:

Trucks and drivers ensure we can do, what we do for our customers – namely helping them put their shows or event on the road.

No matter where in world you need to transport your show or event equipment to, we can help. We’ve even been all to the way to the Arctic, so there’s really nowhere we can’t quote you a transport contract for.

If you need specialist stage trucks for your event transport, then give us a call today (0113 797 898) or take a closer look at our services here.