About Us

North East Truck & Van was founded in 1969 with a vision of providing market-leading customer service with each and every visit.

Starting as a small independent truck-servicing workshop in Sunderland, it quickly gathered momentum and needed to look for larger premises.

1960s

In 1973, North East Truck & Van was appointed one of the first franchises in the country for the now extinct Leyland DAF brand.

Further growth led to the opening of the current head office at Haverton Hill, Billingham in 1975 – the first dedicated Leyland DAF Truck dealership in the UK.

1970s

In 1987, the group expanded by opening a new site in Blaydon promoting our service offering further across the North East.

In the same year, current North East Truck & Van Chairman, and former Managing Director, Sandy McDonald joined the company as the Group's Finance Director.

1980s

In February 1993, Leyland DAF fell in to administration and North East Truck & Van sought to protect its future and partner with another manufacturer aligned to its views of customer service and customer satisfaction.

As a result, North East Truck & Van partnered with IVECO Ford Truck (now simply IVECO) and became a franchised dealer across all its sites.

The Group continued to grow with the opening of additional sites in Carlisle and Immingham.

North East Truck & Van was awarded the highly coveted ‘Motor Transport Dealer of the Year' award for the first time.

This achievement was followed up by obtaining BS 5750/ISO 9002 Accreditation (now known as BSI9001). The Group was first in the industry in the UK to achieve the accreditation and only the 2nd dealer in Europe.

1990s

Further sites in Hull, Immingham and Lincoln were opened in the 2000s taking the number of branches to seven offering the IVECO brand.

Additional brands joined the North East Truck & Van portfolio now representing Fiat Professional and MAN Truck & Bus at various sites across the group.

Sandy McDonald was appointed Managing Director, while the company was awarded Motor Transport Dealer of the Year Award for the second time, the only dealer to achieve the prestigious award twice.

2000s

North East Truck & Van continued to grow the brand offering with the introduction of LDV (now Maxus) at the Billingham and Hull sites.

Ian Hopkins joined the group as Commercial Director in 2012, with John McDonald, son of Sandy appointed as Finance Director in 2016 having joined the business only two years previously.

2010s

The company undergoes a restructuring with John McDonald appointed Managing Director, with Sandy McDonald taking the role of group Chairman.

2020s