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The o p erations director
Page 50
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FTX's military duties set it apart from conventional road transport outfits. It was founded in 1999 by Derek Brown and John Rodell who are now MD and operations director respectively
The company is a subsidiary of US firm Kellogg, Brown & Root. Moving British armour is a responsible job so the pair took great pains to find the right vehicles to carry the Challenger 2s. This included touring the US to evaluate potential carriers. 'We started with a blank piece of paper," says Rodell. 'Tests were carried out at General Motor's proving grounds in Detroit" Before founding FTX he was a senior master driver in the Royal Logistics Corps. Brown served in the 1991 Gulf War, where he commanded tank transporters.
They finally settled on the Oshkosh 1070 with King trailers. The first trucks were delivered in July 2003; since then the FTX fleet has totted up 600,000 miles in Iraq, and 1.5 million miles in peacetime operations.
The company won the awards for the MoD's best PFI contractor in 2002 and 2004. 'We see this as a national recognition of the success of the contract.' says Rodell. And the hardware? "We literally scoured the world to find the best vehicle in the world and the Oshkosh and King trailer fitted the bill," he adds. "It is the best configuration."
FD(S personnel seem to appreciate the civilian freedom associated with the work, but they can still work in a military environment. "It gives me a huge amount of job satisfaction," Rodell concludes.