They are the trucks that are keeping our roads clear of snow.

Scotland's fleet of road salt-spraying road gritters are out across Scotland ensuring that the nation keeps moving on major trunk roads.

Now followers of the Trunk Road Gritter Tracker app have discovered that the trucks have all been given humorous names.

So you will find Ready Spready Go and Sprinkles in and around Inverness, Gritallica near the Cairngorms National Park while Sir Andy Flurry Gritty Gritty Bang Bang is around Perth.

The Herald:

But before you ask, there is no Gritty McGritface.

Many of the lorries were named as part of a competition at the Road Expo Scotland show which took place at the end of 2016.

Transport Scotland decided to run a competition in Scottish primary schools with pupils tasked with inventing the best possible names for a fleet of gritters.

The winter fleet for trunk roads has a total of 208 vehicles available for spreading salt and ploughing.

A Bear Scotland spokesman said: "We've got nearly 100 winter vehicles involved in our winter service throughout trunk roads in the north east and north west of Scotland.

"Out of these, we have 45 large 32-tonne eight wheeler spreaders, which are some of the largest in the UK.

The Herald:
Source: Bear NE Trunk Roads

"A few winters ago we got involved with a competition led by Transport Scotland to help name some of our 32-tonne gritters, and reached out to local primary schools in our areas to help us come up with some names for the vehicles. We had a great response from the schools that were involved with the competition, with some excellent entries submitted.

"Our teams that visited the schools all commented on how the pupils were taking on board the information about how our winter operatives help keep the trunk roads clear of ice and snow each year.

"We now have the likes of Sprinkles, Mrs McGritter, Sir Grits-a-lot and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang out working on trunk roads across the north of Scotland."