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Roger King
Page 61
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CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ROAD HAULAGE ASSOCIATION (RHA)
lyou had met the chief executive of the RHA as a school boy in 1950s Bi -mingham, you might have predicted he would end up in the transbort business. He was a keen trainspotter and fond of vehicles, and evenwhen sitting in the cockpit of a Hawker Hunter fighter being Shown off by the RAF-nurtured a dream of becoming an RAF pilot.
In fact King left school with an engineering apprenticeship at the British Motor Corporation (BMC), the predecessor to British Leyland, although was later told he "wasn't going to be a good enough 4n&leer" to make a career of it and switched to sales and marketing. He stayed with BMC until 1966 then had a variety of jobs with truck ealerships and component and accessory makers before setting p his own firm, Cobra Automotive Products, in 1974. It made alloy ustom wheels and rally seats for cars.
Just before setting up Cobra, King stood as prospective MP for Cannock in the 1974 election, but unsurprisingly lost. he was a Tory Candidate in a mining area during the three-day week.
Politics stayed with him, however, and in 1983 he was elected as the Conservative MP for Birmingham Northfield, where he was re elected in 1987. As a Parliamentarian he focused on transport and served on the Transport Select Committee. When he lost his seat in 1992 he became director of public affairs at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) within 48 hours and went on to become deputy chief executive, then acting chief executive.
He became chief executive of the RHA in April 2000. "They wanted me to start on April 1, which was a Friday, but I thought it better to leave it until the following Monday," he recalls.
One of his big roles at the RHA has been keeping up membership, which now stands at 9,600, although he points out that in its 60-year history the RHA has had 26,000 members in all.
He says: "People are sometimes surprised by the number of members we lose because of people leaving the industry. We have to recruit four new members every day of the year, including Christmas Day, just to keep membership stable, such is the attrition rate."
Despite such challenges, King is clearly enjoying his time at the RHA, although he acknowledges it is more than likely he will retire in 2009, when he will be 66.