WOMAN ON HER OWN
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Kim Rolfe has run her own haulage business for six years, trading as K T Transport. She works hard six days a week, delivering goods all around the country and has won prizes for the immaculate condition of her truck. We find out how she does it.
• "Get back to your kitchen sink" was the advice of one interviewer when Kim Rolfe started applying for HGV driving jobs. Fortunately she ignored him and now, nine years later, she is the successful owner-operator of KT Transport, with a E38,000 Mercedes-Benz 2035.
The path to success has been a rocky one, however, for this Billericay-born lady now based in Saxmundham in Suffolk. "Driving has made me as tough as old boots," she asserts.
Rolfe started driving while working as an apprentice horse trainer in a circus. To help with the constant travelling, she took a driving course, returning 10 clays later with an HGV licence. When she left the circus she used her experience to land a job as a driver with National Carriers.
"I had to bluff my way into that first job," she admits. "I told them I had a lot more experience than I really did. When the firm offered me the job, they said how impressed they were with my confidence. Little did they know how scared I was."
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
In 1982, after three years with National Carriers, she decided to branch out on her own. So, in partnership with a friend, she bought a £4,000 S-registration Mercedes-Benz truck and KT Transport was born. Soon after, however, she and her partner separated and she was left with financial problems.
Through sheer determination and hard work, KT Transport survived and in 1986 Kim Rolfe made history by becoming the first lady to win Truckfest with her "Best Working Truck" — an immaculate Aregistration Mercedes-Benz 2028. This year, she has already won "Best Overall Truck" at Brands Hatch and received a "Highly Commended" at Trucicfest.
Rolfe's allegiance to Mercedes-Benz has lasted six years and three vehicles. "In terms of reliability, you can't beat them," she says. Her loyalty is also due to the service she received from Mercedes when she first took over the partnership in 1982. Her truck needed over 22,000 worth of repairs and, even though she was down on her luck, Mercedes opened an account for her and the necessary work was done.
She was grateful and has stayed with the same dealer, Ipswich Truck Services in Martlesham, ever since. It now services her 2035 every five to six weeks, or every 12,000km, whichever comes first.
"People are always saying to me that Mercedes parts are expensive but I hardly ever need any and I have never broken down," she says, touching the nearest piece of wood.
Rolfe does not fit the public's view of a lady trucker. Attractive, slim, a keen embroiderer and reader, she confesses that wherever her truck goes, so does an enormous cuddly Garfield.
As well as Garfield, she was constantly accompanied by her German Shepherd dog for protection during her first years of driving. Once, while working in Cornwall, Rolfe was attacked. She remembers: "I was on a job in Indian Queens near Truro. I parked on some rough ground and, while I was outside the truck, somebody grabbed me. Fortunately I managed to get the door of the truck open and my dog chased the attacker away."
She knows she was lucky to escape the attack, but for some time afterwards she was understandably left feeling very insecure. She says: "I don't take the dog with me now as I know how to avoid trouble. But I still don't like sleeping in services." The CB is hardly ever turned on in her truck because Rolfe also kept receiving abusive calls over the airwaves.
Despite the drawbacks over the past nine years, Rolfe is keen to stress that she finds transport a friendly industry. It is only the attitude of a few and the image of "macho, tattooed and loudmouth" lady truck drivers which she finds annoying.
She says: "Someone once said to me that inside every lady trucker was a man struggling to get out. I resent that. There should be no problems with men and women working together. That is why I have not joined a lady lorry drivers club as I think these encourage isolation."
Regarding the lack of women in transport, Rolfe believes there is little more that can be done to attract ladies into the industry. "Women must not be put off by transport work, but they must be prepared to take a little stick," she says, with a smile.
Rolfe works six days a week, delivering goods all around the country, returning home only on a Sunday. In her absence, her parents are responsible for the business' administration. She spends five to six nights a week sleeping in the cab of her twin-steer 2035 Mercedes artic and regards her lorry as her home. It is kept spotlessly tidy and clean and has a television, telephone and lots of books. She also confesses to needing three alarm clocks to wake her up in the morning.
HEALTHIER THAN EVER
As far as business goes, she says: "I can always find work and I am happy that KT Transport is now healthier than ever." She could also consider extending her operation by buying another truck, but she finds "There is enough paperwork to do with one truck, let alone two!"
Rolfe plans to continue with KT Transport for another two years. She admits that life is lonely as a driver and sometimes she feels that she may have missed out a bit on life.
"Being a truck driver, I do not have much of a social life and I have very few close friends. I would like to move on to other things and taste other aspects of life before I get too old."
0 by Tanya Cordrey