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Roger Hall
S. The choice of Roger Hall as commercial manager of Freightliners Ltd stoutly reinforces the company's small headquarters staff. He was formerly north-western manager, responsible for commercial and operational activities at six terminals, covering Birmingham. Liverpool and Manchester, and his wide experience will sharpen the company's determination to make itself profitable. The marketing of transport has always demanded more than smooth persuasion.
Roger Hall comes from a railway family on his mother's side. He joined the MIS railway in 1942 as a junior clerk; flew as an observer in the Fleet Air Arm from 1944-47 in Swordfish aircraft; returned to the railway for management training and subsequently occupied a number of operating and planning posts. He became BR divisional commercial manager, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1964 and project manager, Inland Customs Depots, in 1966. As Freightliner's first north-western manager he persuaded many own-account operators to plan their transport around Freightliner schedules. He also earned a reputation for the easy handling of journalists — no mean feat when the teething troubles of Freightliners prompted tough questioning.
Roger's candour is an attractive quality; the most probing question is dealt with frankly. He faces his new job with great enthusiasm and determination and he sees great opportunities for Freightliners in the trade boost that should follow our membership of the Common Market.
Mr Hall is married, with a son of 15 and a daughter of 12; his family love outdoor pursuits and wild-life studies; Roger is a keen amateur ornithologist. He is a thoughtful and perceptive man and loves reading, with a preference for biography'and history.
He has never questioned the rightness of the decision to make Freightliners Ltd responsible primarily to a road oriented body; the separate company status of Freightliners was another sound concept, he believes.
Roger says his relations with the professional road haulage industry have always been of the friendliest, but he regrets that such a tiny minority of road hauliers actually tender their own traffic. "We can offer attractive terms to any haulier offering us one container a night. . . . One small haulier I know in the Midlands trunked his small lots to Scotland by Freightliner container a few years back — his business has expanded fourfold since then. Using our service pays."