1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144 
meet
Page 80
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Rodney Tolhurst
At the helm of the imaginative inland freight clearance facility just opened in Kent is one of the youngest managing directors in British road haulage. At 29, Rodney Tolhurst is m.d. not only of Freightilow International Ltd, which is responsible for the clearance depot, but also of its parent company, the 250-vehicle Lenham Storage Co Ltd, a nationwide haulage and storage business founded by his father, who remains chairman.
Lanham Storage was early in the regional distribution business but on detecting a swing towards national distribution networks a few years ago it cast about for another growth market and settled on Continental haulage. Out of this grew the clearance depot project, which has largely been Rodney Tolhursfs responsibility, and he is optimistic about its prospects.
He entered his father's business 10 years ago after serving an apprenticeship as a fitter and spent three years learning all sides of the company's affairs. He was made a director five years ago and m.d. in 1970.
In a tough haulage world, Mr Tolhurst sees the new ICD as particularly valuable in generating its own traffic. Early ventures in Continental haulage gave the company a worrying time but establishing the 'Wright relationships" with European agents has, he told me, transformed the situation and the cross-Channel traffic is expanding.
One of his biggest current worries applies equally to domestic haulage — the lack of care by some consignors in seeing that away-from-base loading does not put the haulier at risk, especially for overloads on individual axles. Even the most scrupulous operator can be vulnerable here.
Lenham Storage runs mainly Bedford mediums and Mercedes heavies (bought originally when UK waiting .lists were long) and finds the bonneted Mercs extremely stable. Mr Tolhurst said the sacrifice of overall length with normal-control units was smaller than it looked, and not important for most of Lenham's work.
He plays an energetic game of badminton to keep physically fit and gets mental relaxation from an updated version of his childhood hobby, modelmaking, which now extends to radio-controlled creations. He insists on keeping time for his family and manages to combine this with another interest — old cars: he has a 1926 Rolls and two vintage Bentleys, which he enters in the sort of rallies where you can take the family along.
Since Lanham is between London and Dover/Folkestone I asked Rodney Tolhurst whether plans for the Chunnel worried him. He grinned. ''Even if it has the, most fantastic freight facilities, I think there'll -still be plenty of demand for the private haulier's services".