A fly haulage business which has survived for 90 years is
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likely to have undergone nationalisation. For so many businesses at the time, it was literally the end of the road, but for others like Harold Russett's Premier Transport, things were just placed on hold.
On 22 August 1949, Russett ceased working for the family haulage business and began working for British Road Services.
"I became group manager and had the distasteful task of acquiring all the other carriers in the Bristol area. It was distasteful because I was just a boy buying from people who were old enough to be my father and had no choice at all but to sell."
Nationalisation meant no negotiation on price. This was fixed according to your customer list and the age of your vehicles. The maximum price was five years' worth of profits. Some operators got paid little more than the price of a new wheel for their older trucks.
Nationalisation lasted only until 1955.
"I resigned from BRS on 31 December 1954 and started up in haulage again on 1 January 1955 with vehicles sold to me by BRS. Mind you, they knew what they were selling—the oldest ones they had."
Premier Transport was back but not quite where it had started. It now operates from the next street.
The original business was known as Charles Russett until 1928, when it became Pioneer Transport. The present name was adopted in 1935. The first revenue came through supplying the pub tradebut not with beer or spirits.
"My grandfather was a teetotaller, but he wasn't averse to making money by supplying the saloons with saw dust for the floor," says Harold Russett. The company moved on into horse-drawn passenger vehicles and, despite Charles' lack of confidence in the latest "mechanical contrivances" (he expected the fashion to end quickly) bought some just to hedge his bets. He chose wisely and the company prospered until 1949.
The post-nationalisation Premier Transport quickly moved into the parcels business. It continued in that vane until 1988 when margins started getting very tight.
"The option then was to get into distribution and contract hire and that's the way we went," says Russett.
The company's turnover is now in the region of .C16 million and there are two depots, one at Bristol and the other in Exeter. The company operates a mixed fleet of 38-tonners which pull boxes and curtainsiders and its main customers include food manufacturer and confectioner Nestle, and Toys R Us.
For his part, Russett has held many roles within the Road Haulage Association. He has been a national council member for 35 years, area chairman, national chairman and involved with other groups such as industrial relations and express carriers.
However, he has one other claim to fame. Russett, now 77, remembers being given his first copy of Commercial Motor at the tender age of seven years old. "They wouldn't let me have comica so that's what I read," he says.
We think that could make him one of our oldest working regular readers. Any advance on 70 years? Answers on a postcard please.
ID by Steve McQueen