OREANDA-NEWS. April 1, 2008. The history of the shop started with 25 old cars in one vehicle transport column. These vehicles were handed over to the Works by the city motor transport depot No. 2245, the services of which Zaporizhstal JSC utilized for a quite a long time. Then it was decided that it would be better to have a personal park of cars and trucks, than to continuously depend on outside organizations.

The new shop was headed by Ivan Makarovich Zhivilo. Apart from one garage and one repair shop, there was nothing else in the vehicle transport service. That is why for a long time the shop was an auxiliary one. The main load of transportation was on the shoulders of the city vehicle parks. But time went by and the park of cars continuously increased. In those days the process was simpler. Zaporizhstal concluded an agreement with the plant named after Likhachev and they sent Zaporizhstal 14 new trucks “ZIL” in exchange for Zaporizhstal metal. The cooperation with Gorkiy automobile plant was the same. The increased number of vehicles predetermined the separation of the vehicle transport column to a truck and car one, and the organization of new specialized columns.

At the beginning of the 90-ies the shop finally became independent. At that time it already had 172 trucks and 56 cars, 70 specialized vehicles, which operatively transported all the loads on the territory of the Works and out of bounds of its territory. This allowed the Works to completely give up on transport services of outside organizations. At that time transportation of passengers started, trying to solve the problem of due time delivery of Zaporizhstal workers to the plant, particularly, those who live in far away regions of the city. At present the shop consists of 5 vehicle transport columns. Approximately 459 vehicles are busy transporting loads, taking part in agricultural jobs in the agricultural firms of the Works, working in far away slag dumps, providing services to social objects of the Works. 30 buses transport metallurgists to work and back home, covering 25 routes. In 40 years the drivers of the shop have covered 11 million km. The shop remembers the contribution the veterans of the shop made to its development: Grigoriy Ivanovich Osadchiy, Ivan Yefimovich Loban’, Nikolay Tikhonovich Didyk, Alexander Vasilevich Konovalov, Vitaliy Nikolayevich Rud’, and many others. At present young workers are working here and the shop is developing. This means there is hope for the future.