LADY
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Kay Phillips' pink and silver tipping unit makes her stand out from other owner-drivers, but she has to operate under the same restrictions.
• Kay Phillips believes that just because you are an owner-driver doesn't mean that you have to lose your femininity. This point is proven by her pink and silver tipping unit which tends to stand out from the crowd in a quarry!
The interior of the cab is no less dramatic, draped with lace and mock leopard skin, and the seats are covered in sheepskin.
It is all part of Phillips' attempt to take a little bit of home with her when she's on the road. "At home I've got a Joan Collins bedroom with lace everywhere and fur rugs on the floor," she says. "I work in men's clothing all week, but when I get indoors I am a woman again."
Shropshire-born Phillips is a farmer's daughter and discovered her love of driving by hauling cabless tractors round the yard in all weathers. When her father sold the farm she went into furniture removal for a while before joining general haulier Alf Arrowsmith at Cheswardine where she worked for nine years before being made redundant.
For Phillips owner-driving was not so much a choice as a necessity: "There wasn't much chance of getting another job with just two haulage firms in the area, so [teamed up with a local barman and we put up 2,500 each to buy our first lorry — an M reg Volvo 88." After three months she bought her partner out and has been operating on her own ever since, apart from a brief spell when she ran a couple of lorries.
She is currently considering taking on an extra lorry in the spring, but is determined to remain behind the wheel of her own eye-catching rig. "If you offered me £500 a week to do something else I wouldn't take it," she says. "There's a lot of people in jobs they hate, so I'm very lucky because I love what I do."
"To be an ov;ner-driver you've got to have a love of lorries," she believes. "An ordinary person doesn't want to be an owner-driver, he hates lorries and just drives for a living. For me that lorry is like a husband — I put everything into it."
The present outfit is a progression from what she describes as "old bangers". Determined to buy a decent lorry before she packed up and retired" Phillips bought the Scania in 1987 for £40,000, helped by a bank loan. The repayments are £700 month, but this is much cheaper than borrowing from a finance company.
Like all the lorries she has owned the unit has been re-painted pink.
Her first paint job was done by an "old boy in the village". But she has progressed to pearl essence with the 142, after Scania persuaded paint. company PPG to sponsor the work. It took five weeks to complete and Phillips reckons that £2,000 worth of paint sits on the cab alone.
The paintwork is in several layers and combines Chantilly Red on Violet Rogue teamed with silver on a blue base. As CM witnessed the colours have a chameleon effect, changing in the winter sunshine from pink to blue and from silver to white, with many variations in between.
WORKING WEEK
A working week can take Phillips all over the country. She bulk loads in Shropshire or Leicestershire and tips down in London or Kent A return load might take her as far as Scotland.
She also goes to Holland occasionally, but suffers from sea-sickness and describes the 21/2 hour ferry journey as "agony". Phillips is fortunate as all her work comes from one source, Moorefreight of Brackley, Northampton, which has supported her from the start. It was Moorefreight boss Frank Moore who encouraged her to buy her first lorry: "And he's never let me down," says Phillips. "He's as good as gold."
Although her rates have not risen as fast as diesel prices she is satisfied with what she gets paid, consoling herself with the fact that there are plenty of bigger firms willing to step in and undercut — whatever the rate. "The owner-driver cannot cut his rate because he has not got the vehicles to take on extra work," she says, "but he can give good service for what he does." Phillips hopes that the Gulf crisis will not force diesel prices up again, believing that a lot of owner-drivers would struggle if fuel hits £3 a gallon (65p/lit).
She is puzzled by the rapid growth of some haulage firms that appear to have come out of nowhere: "How do these people come along and get hold of 40 or 50 lorries when I've been going 10 years and I've only got one?" she asks.
Phillips has been driving for 21 years, and in the early days was often accused of taking away a "man's job". "1 often think it's because of me that there are now quite a few women drivers," she says. "Some have seen me driving and thought "I'll have a go"."
NO CLUBS
At the end of a long week Phillips tries to forget her lorry — no clubs or associations for hen "On Saturday night I like to sit in front of my fire and wind down, although you never really unwind properly when you're an owner-driver."
For all her enthusiasm, she is surprisingly downbeat when it comes to offering advice to newcomers to the industry: "There are no advantages in being an owner-driver; you're better off if you can get a good job with a good wage — then you can go home on Friday night with no worries."
Phillips could retire now if she sold her house and lorry and moved into a smaller place: "But I can't retire," she says. "The job's in my blood."
by Patric Cunnane