The Cook family has been involved in the haulage industry since the 1881 when Thomas Cook started with horse and carts, surviving two World Wars and a period of nationalisation. The original company, Siddle C Cook Ltd, was sold to a Scottish based holding company, Tayforth Ltd, in 1964.

Elddis Transport was formed by 3 of the current directors in 1971 with the purchase of a small haulage business operating 6 vehicles. The name was changed and the new company commenced trading on 6th September 1971, the main activities being road haulage, storage and distribution and commercial vehicle repairs. Originally, the vehicles were operated from rented premises at Greenside and the business moved onto the current site in May 1972.

Currently, the company operates over 145 vehicles and 260 trailers, supplemented by 250,000-sq. ft. of warehousing and a workforce of over 300 people. Transport is predominately carried out on a trunking basis throughout the UK, with a comprehensive distribution service covering Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northeast England, Cumbria and Scotland. All operations are controlled from the Head Office, but a number of vehicles and personnel are out based in Loughborough, Pontefract, Bristol, Worksop and 3 locations in Scotland.

Over recent years there have been a great deal of development within Elddis Transport.

In 1998 and 1999 Elddis underwent the biggest vehicle replacement programme ever undertaken by our company. In a period of only 6 months we completely replaced our fleet of vehicles with new Mercedes Benz tractor units as well as adding 20 new trailers to the trailer fleet.

At the beginning of 1999 a new satellite depot was opened in Scotland. This has proved a great success and was followed in 2000 by the opening of a depot at Dinnington near Worksop. These not only provide additional flexibility, but also strengthen the distribution services Elddis offer.

Computerisation is now a key area of development within the company. The traffic-office in Consett is now fully computerised. The company work closely with software developer Mandata Limited who provide their state of the art Manpack3 system which will link all Elddis depots through one universal system. Elddis now communicates with many customers through E-mail and direct computer links.

2002 heralded the implementation of a new state of the art warehouse management system to control stock in our ever-increasing warehouse operations.

Our latest development is the creation, along with 8 other key logistic providers, of Jigsaw Solutions Limited. Jigsaw is one of the largest privately owned logistics providers in the UK. Currently the company has over 30 operating sites, 1200 vehicles and 2000 trailers.