DAVE KAMAN TRUCKING
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Originally from Lambeth, Dave Deadman cut his trucking teeth on a 7.5-tonne dustcart working for his father's waste business. But keen to make his own way, he took his HGV1, bought a second-hand Bedford TM artic for 11,000, and in 1983 set up as an owner-driver.
His early work was done with a colleague who had contracts to deliver equipment to exhibitions. The novice Deadman learned the hard way: "I remember going up to the NEC in Birmingham with just £30 in my pocket. When I got to Birmingham I discovered I had to go on to Manchester. I didn't have a bed in the cab and I had no money for a hotel..."
But Deadman had lucky breaks as well as hard knocks. His first proper contract was for a portable accommodation company, Unitspan, delivering site huts to building sites. It was a steady income, and soon Deadman could afford a second vehicle, which he bought for £4,000. "This one had a bed in it," he recalls.
However, his first big break was at the considerable expense of most of south-east England, and proved the wisdom of the old adage that it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good: it was as a result of the dramatic storm of November 1987, which lay waste to much of southern England.
"I called Sutton and East Surrey Council and asked if they needed a truck and driver to clear any fallen trees. They told me that what they needed was chainsaws, not trucks."
But the council soon called back, having found the chainsaws and dismembered the fallen trees. Deadman teamed up with a friend who had a mobile crane, and they got stuck in: "I earned £10,000 in 10 days," he says.
That job gave Dave Deadman Trucking an extra boost. He bought another truck, employed a driver and moved to a larger yard in Beddington Lane, Croydon. Before long he had a fleet of nine tractors and 15 trailers. "It all looked lovely. Everybody thought I was rich," he says somewhat ruefully, "but basically I had created a dinosaur that I couldn't feed."
It was the early 1990s, and recession had struck. Deadman wisely wound his firm down to a viable size, got out from behind his desk and climbed back into the cab.
Then came his second break. One day he walked into the office of a neighbouring firm which he thought might have some work for him. It was the London branch of Aggreko, the Scottish portable power hire specialist, or "temporary utility.solutions provider", as it styles itself these days. "I just poked my head round the door and said: 'Any extra work? I'm just across the road'," Deadman explains. The answer was, 'Yes, plenty."
Aggreko has proved a good and loyal customer. It pays a decent rate, says Deadman, and It pays on time. It proved so good a customer, in fact, that Deadman actually moved in with the firm when it moved to new premises.
Now, a decade later, Deadman has just moved out again into his own yard at nearby Mitcham. Aggreko still accounts for about 70% of his turnover, but Deadman's now busy building up other customers.
His fleet is still very much tailored to Aggreko's needs, however. All his vehicles are second-hand, and customised to his specification. "I buy big tractors and stretch them to make six-axle rigids. That way I get a nice, big, high-spec cab, and more horsepower."
These days he buys from Mack Trucks of Huddersfield, which will source the vehicle he wants and modify it to hiS requirements. Most of his vehicles are Scams, too: "I've always been a Scania man—can't say why, really. I suppose they hold their value well, and I like the cabs."
Having said that, Deadman's most recent acquisition iS a Volvo FH12 from Mack Trucks. This brings the number o Volvos in the fleet to three, suggesting Deadman's devo tion is to trucks from Scandinavia rather than just to Scarlia. The diversity of the fleet is now likely to widen as Deadman expands back into general haulage, in addition to his Aggreko work. But he says he will continue to ChOosE his vehicles carefully: "There are some vehicles I wouldn' go near," he says darkly.