Mil ost hauliers are thinking about retirement by the time they
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turn 60, but Peter Patchett was already 61 when he launched the business he runs now: Speeton Refrigerated Transport. Starting the business was more a matter of necessity than choice, says Patchett. A transport man all his working life, he found himself banking a redundancy cheque six years ago when the haulier for which he had been driving for many years went out of business.
"There was no way I was going to get another job at my age," says Patchett, But as he still had to make a living, he felt he had only one option—to set up on his own.
He teamed up with a younger ex-colleague and together they set up a small haulage business based in the coastal village of Speeton, roughly half-way between Filoy and Bridlington.
Less than three years later things between the partners turned sour. Patchett is still smarting from the experience, which he says left him out of pocket. He had no choice but to start again from scratch.
The new Speeton Refrigerated Transport is actually based not at Speeton, but a few miles further north, at Nunmanby. This incarnation of the business started life in November 1997, and has been rather more successful than the first. "I've done better than I expected," says Patchett. "I started with one rented tractive unit and a rented trailer, and now I've got four reefer trailers, a flat trailer and three tractive units."
Like many small hauliers, Patchett attributes his success to the quality of service he offers. And he clearly believes the old saying that the customer is king: "Whatever they ask, you do. You have to make sure the customer's happy, it's as simple as that...at the end of the day, they're signing the cheque, aren't they?" Patchett's work involves delivering frozen chips, pizzas and other products to distribution and storage facilities throughout the country. He estimates that as much as 80% of his work is for this one client, with which he has developed close ties over many years, originally as a driver working for other hauliers.
Patchett believes his company's relationship with this established firm is a testimony to the value of long-term relationships.
More than that, he believes that his long experience in the haulage industry is itself a marketable commodity which his customers value highly.
"Society's got it wrong," he says. "Once you're over 4.0 you're unemployable, but the older drivers know far more than the youngsters. These young fellows don't know their way around, for a start. Once they're off the motorways they're lost."
Patchett started driving during the 1950s, white he was in the army. When he left in 1957 he was a corporal in the Motor Transport section. Ile went straight to work as transport manager for a company in Shipley, where he stayed for nine years, building the fleet from four to 16 vehicles.
He started his first business of his own in 1973, and ran it for three years, until recession forced him to sell his vehicles and go back into employment. Today's industry is tough, too, he says: "You have to be prepared to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week—you're always an call."
Like so many other hauliers, he reserves some criticism for current government policy, which he says "penalises British hauliers and rewards Continental operators".
He feels the government is trying too hard to please the general public and win votes, while the electorate doesn't realise that they too will ultimately suffer if our transport industry is destroyed.
• by David Taylor