Leyland Trucks is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer based in Leyland, Lancashire, England. It can trace its origins back to the original Leyland Motors, which was founded in 1896, and subsequently evolved into British Leyland. After British Leyland became the Rover Group in February 1986, the truck business was spun out and merged with DAF Trucks to form DAF NV, operating as Leyland DAF in the United Kingdom.

Leyland Trucks

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	June 1993
Headquarters	Leyland, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Key people	Brennan Gourdie (managing director)
Products	Trucks
Number of employees	1,100 (2019)
Parent	Paccar
Website	leylandtrucksltd.co.uk

After DAF NV was placed in administration, in June 1993, Leyland DAF was purchased in a management buyout and rebranded Leyland Trucks. It has been a subsidiary of Paccar since April 1998.

History

Leyland Trucks history lies in origins as Leyland Motors which became part of the nationalised British Leyland (BL) conglomerate in 1975. Upon the breakup of BL's successor Rover Group, the truck making division merged with DAF Trucks to form Leyland DAF under the ownership of DAF NV in April 1987.[1] When DAF NV was placed in administration in February 1993, Leyland Trucks emerged as an independent company.

Timeline

• 1896 – The Lancashire Steam Motor Company (LSMC) is formed by James Sumner at the Herbert Street workshops with twenty employees. Henry Spurrier financed the development of a 30cwt steam van, which proved to be successful.[2][3]
• 1907 – T Coulthard and Co, an engineering firm in Preston, was taken over by LSMC and the combined company named Leyland Motors Limited.[3]
• 1951 – Leyland Motors acquires Albion Motors
• 1955 – Leyland Motors acquires Scammell Lorries Ltd.
• 1962 – Leyland Motors acquires AEC, whose parent company ACV had acquired Thornycroft in 1961
• 1963 – Leyland Motor Corporation is formed after Leyland Motors absorbs Standard-Triumph International and Associated Commercial Vehicles during the preceding years.
• 1968 – Leyland Motor Corporation and British Motor Holdings merged to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which was now the fifth largest vehicle producer in the world. BMH also owned Guy at that time, thus BLMC owned and produced Leyland, Albion, Scammell, AEC, Thornycroft, and Guy lorries at the end of the decade.
• 1972 – BLMC discontinue use of the Albion marque.
• 1975 – BLMC was nationalised by the government in response to the severe financial problems being experienced by the group. The corporation becomes British Leyland with Leyland commercials becoming part of the autonomous Truck and Bus Division.
• 1977 – BLMC discontinue use of the AEC marque.
• 1978 – Leyland Vehicles Limited becomes the new name for the division.
• 1979 – Production starts during September at the all new Leyland Assembly Plant. The first build being a Leyland Leopard bus chassis.
• 1981 – LVL split into three companies; Leyland Trucks, Leyland Bus and Leyland Parts.
• 1982 – Leyland cease production of Guy lorries.
• 1986 – Parent company British Leyland is renamed the Rover Group, the new company begins divesting its non car manufacturing related businesses.
• 1987 – DAF Trucks take a 60% controlling share DAF NV that takes over Leyland Trucks and Freight Rover, with both rebranded Leyland DAF.[1]
• 1988 – Leyland DAF cease production of Scammell lorries.
• 1993 – The Leyland factory is subject to a management buyout, and becomes Leyland Trucks Limited.[4]
• 1998 – Leyland Trucks is acquired by Paccar.[2][5][6], which had previously acquired Foden Trucks in 1980.
• 2000 – Production of all Foden product is transferred to the Leyland Assembly Plant.
• 2005 – Leyland Trucks starts painting truck chassis robotically on the moving conveyor, a first in the industry.
• 2006 – Leyland Trucks stops production of Foden trucks, following the decision to retire the brand Foden.[7]
• 2007, in another industry leading move, Leyland Trucks starts production of the complete bodied truck. Bodies are built on the production line, under the same quality controls, and fitted directly to its chassis prior to delivery to the customer.
• 2008, on 17 April, Leyland Trucks produced its 300,000th truck. Mark Armstrong Transport took delivery of the DAF XF 105 direct from the assembly line.[8]
• 2008 – Leyland Trucks built a record 24,700 trucks at the assembly facility (beating the previous record of 2007 of 17,500), supporting DAF's leading market share of the United Kingdom of 27.3%.
• 2021 - Leyland Trucks begins production of the new generation DAF model range.

Products

• DAF LF – Designed, developed and assembled at Leyland Trucks.[9]
• DAF CF – All CF65 2-axle rigids, and all right-hand-drive (RHD) versions of the CF75 and CF85 are assembled at Leyland Trucks.[9]

• DAF XF – All RHD versions are assembled at Leyland Trucks.[9]

References

External links

• Official website