LADY IN CHARGE
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Anne Preston is a tough lady. Hard in business, but with a soft heart, she has earned respect throughout the road transport industry. She is the only woman to be a national council member in the Road Haulage Association and hopes that more will join her.
• In 1965 Anne Preston started working full-time in her husband's firm, Prestons of Potto. Word spread fast because at that time women were a rarity in the transport industry. Soon after Anne's appointment Prestons bought a curtainsided trailer — one of the first in the country. At the trailer's delivery, the comment was heard: "Typical. No sooner has Prestons got a woman than she's putting up curtains." Today, 23 years later, Anne Preston is joint managing director of the company with husband Richard.
Anne Preston's father was a cattle haulier, so she had had some experience of road transport from an early age. Originally she cherished an ambition to become the personal secretary of a celebrity and started a secretarial career. She left that when she met and married Richard Preston, whose family farming business was just expanding into road transport.
For three years Anne Preston concentrated on bringing-up their two children, but she found the lure of business too strong. A nanny was brought in to look after the kids, "which was very much frowned upon by my mother," she admits.
"My first road haulage job was in the administrative office in my mother-in-law's house. I did the wages, typing, bookkeeping, telephone work and marketing. When I started to join the man's world, to get outside to meet the customer in a male-dominated world, they tested me out a lot. Once I got over that hurdle everything was much better." Today she runs the financial and marketing side of the business, while her husband controls the mechanical side.
Anne Preston believes it was her own strength of character and background knowledge of the industry which enabled her to progress in this male-dominated world. "I was a precocious child, privately-educated, with older parents who gave me lots of attention; so I was not afraid to push myself forward. In this business you have to be a bit ruthless," she admits.
"You need a hard streak in you as well as a nice soft one," she adds. "One of my greatest strengths is that I can see the human side of things as well. That's something that men often miss. I know all our drivers (there are over 140) by name, and I get quite wet-eyed sometimes if one of our long-term drivers leaves."
This tough but tender approach is apparently appreciated. "People think of drivers as rough and tumble types, but they are some of the politest people. Our drivers always open the door for me. It may surprise you, but it can be a very polite industry — though I can be as rough and tumble as the rest," she says.
Husband Richard believes that her success comes from her ability to win the respect of male colleagues. "She has always held respect, right from the beginning," he says. "She uses her knowledge of the industry to ask the right questions and people can see that she knows what she's talking about."
NO ROLE MODELS
There have been very few heroines to inspire Anne Preston in her pioneering role as a woman in road transport. Most women who have been successful in business in this country have progressed during the same period as Preston herself. She does, however, admit to a growing respect for the Prime Minister: "I have been very impressed by Mrs Thatcher. I would very much like to go to Downing Street. I wasn't too keen on her when she started but I have great respect of late, because of the way she looks and the way she sticks to her guns."
Being a woman in a male-dominated industry can have its advantages as well as its problems, she says: "I'm certainly much more able to get the ear of people," At formal occasions she is invariably intro
luced to the most influential people pre;ent, a courtesy she values highly.
"When I started I was really surprised Lt how naive many men can be," she says vith a grin. "Many I've come across don't !yen know the innermost workings of heir business — I understand all about )urs so that has given me confidence and iatisfaction. Ladies are generally very good at the costings and financial side of 3usiness and they can detect discontent if the job is not jelling together. You know men can be very indecisive. Women, in general, are decisive — they find the problem and act."
Though female staff currently account for only 6-7% of Prestons' 200-strong workforce, Anne Preston believes that women do have a role in road transport, particularly in the traffic office. "There is a growing trend to employ ladies in the traffic office, Certainly our customers have lots of girls on the desk giving the work away."
INEXPERIENCED DRIVER
There are no women HGV drivers at Prestons and Anne Preston does not see a role for women in HGV driving or warehouse work. "Driving a lorry and sheeting and roping is really very male-oriented," she says. "I honestly don't think ladies are suited to work outside in the field. Women are just as good at driving — it's just the heavy work." Anne Preston has never driven an HGV and claims to be a fairly inexperienced driver. "I drove my first car when I was 40 and I have had my second car (a BMW) for five years."
She believes women will find roles for themselves in transport work like personnel, training, accounts and traffic management, and she claims more women are entering the industry now because career paths are becoming clearer.
There remain, however, a number of deterrents to women considering road transport as a career. "In this business people work very long hours — frequently 60 or 70 hours a week — and I can't see how anyone can run their own home efficiently and have a major career in road transport as well. I have a full-time housekeeper and I always had to have one. Haulage is no nine-to-five job. I personally felt guilty about the children. I always hoped they wouldn't fall ill and I longed for the end of the school holidays. There was always a guilt complex."
Anne Preston's advice to a young woman with children, who wants to follow a career in transport, is to put the business first. "I have both my kids working in the business," she says. "I see them every day and we have a very good working relationship. If you have business meetings work has to come first, but that hasn't affected our family relationship."
Anne Preston admits that women can be loathe to put themselves forward in the road transport industry. At the Road
Haulage Association, where she is the first and only female national council member, she has been disappointed by the progress made by women. "I thought 10 years ago we would probably see quite a few ladies progressing through as the years went by, but there was only one at the district meeting I attended yesterday and there is nobody else on the national council, and nobody on the executive board. I can't say what the answer is. I've certainly had every encouragement. I think the problem is often that ladies have every chance and they would like to be voted onto the thing, but they're nervous of asking for support. They won't let it be known they're interested in the post."
ADORNED BY PICTURES
Preston's head office on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors is delightfully clean, attractive and comfortable. The . Prestons' office is adorned by pictures of traction engines around the walls (Richard Preston owns nine traction engines and five fairground organs) and beautiful flower arrangements stand on well-polished antique furniture. The effect is sumptuous in a pleasantly informal way, a change from the usual desk and dull-grey filing cabinet found in many managing director's offices. "By most road haulage standards our offices are luxurious and well appointed," says Anne Preston. "I've had some influence on that, but then I think a good working environment is conducive to good work."
After 20 years in the business, Anne Preston has risen to become the most prominent and arguably the most successful woman in road transport in this country. Only last year her contribution to road transport was recognised when she was awarded the MBE.
Does she feel she could have done as well in another industry?
"[feel I could have been just as successful elsewhere," she says. "My strength is being able to go in somewhere and pull it round. I have been offered a sabbatical to go into a major company with major problems and to sort it out, but I felt the family company needed me." LI by Richard Scrase