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iss technical director Brian Wholey and marketing manager Matthew Zose
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talk to Dylan Gray about keeping thieves away from your fuel.
rian Wholey, technical director of Tiss L., truck/trailer security systems, made the MO long trip down from Blackpool to talk to us about how he set up his company and what had inspired him.
Before getting onto the product range Wholey filled us in on his history, which is more interesting than most. He started driving for Northern Ireland Trailers at the docks in Preston in the 1960s. It sounds quite tame.., hut it's not.
They needed a driver to take a load to Turkey." says Wholey. "I had never driven abroad before at this point.
Having completed the first part of his journey successfully he pulled into a service area in Turkey, where a lot of other foreign trucks were parked up. "They asked me if I was joining the convoy. I didn't know what the 'convoy' was." He soon found out — the next stage of the journey was through what the other drivers called noman's land or simply bandit country. Truckers who had made the run before were in the habit of forming a convoy for mutual protection.
"I set off on my own because I had to get the load there in time," Wholley recalls. Not the wisest decision he ever made, considering the events that followed: "I heard a funny noise and started to slow down. All of a sudden I saw guys on horses with guns shooting at my trailer. I put my foot down and managed to get away." The load, consisting of engines, was delivered, but with a few minor holes here and there.
That sort of adventure would persuade many drivers to confine their activities to UK motorways, but Wholey is made of sterner stuff: "Another time I was thrown into a labour camp in the then (zechosloyakia.After being clipped by another vehicle we crashed our truck into a ditch.The truck then went up in flames."
Only after waking up in hospital and being nursed back to health was Wholey thrown into the labour camp alongside his co-driver: "We had no paperwork or proof of anything as the fire had burned everything. To cut a long story short, they thought we were spies, as the other guy had been taking pictures of government buildings and other sites." Eventually they were released and put on a train to Germany. They were left to make their way home with no money and no documents." I didn't talk to my wife for three weeks," Wholey recalls.
It's clear that these remarks barely scratch the surface of Wholey's adventures but we both know we're here to talk about his more recent history so we move on to discussing his company and its products.
No problems out East
As he had driven trucks in the Middle East we had assumed that problems with fuel theft had led to the creation of Tiss security devices This was not the case, however. "There were never any problems with diesel out there," he says."In fact they were practically throwing the stuff away. The idea came about much closer to home.
"I witnessed a truck crash, where a truck had skidded off a bridge and landed nose-first on the Ml ," he recalls, "This happened because it had slipped on diesel." The thought of diesel spillage and the experience of diesel being stolen from his truck in the UK got him thinking.
"The anti-siphon device started life as a baked bean can. I was in the workshop drilling holes and shaping the can."
He is certainly pleased with the end result: "Over a period of two to three years the device was shaped into its final form and is now the market leader."
Accompanying Wholey was Tiss's marketing manager, Matthew Rose, who is understandably keen to highlight the company's Impregnable antisiphon and anti-spill system.
"It's won an award from the British Motorcycle Federation," he tells us. This is because of its patented float-valve design not only prevents diesel being siphoned from the tank, it also prevents the spills which cause many motorcyclists to come off their bikes anc has cost some their lives.
Rose is quick to point out the product's success: "We've sold more than 35,000 unib in the past three years to companies includinE Tesco,Sainsbury's,DHL and Christian Salvesen This includes all three of our devices, though the main sales come from the Impregnabl( — around 80-85%."
We posed the obvious question: -Won't the just damage the tank to get to the fuel?" But thii didn't phase Wholey for a moment: "No, as it 99.9% of cases, a driver steals it for his own us( and won't damage his own tank."
He is also keen to highlight the fact that flu founders °friss — he and his son Ryan —did no come into this business from a sales background "We came into this from the haulage industr) which makes a big difference."
This gives him a significantly better insigh into the working life of the drivers— the peopli who use his company's products. Having beei there and done it helps him deal with some o the issues that arise.
He explains: -We are very much aware tha drivers think taking 20 litres of diesel per wedl to run their own car is a perk of the job anc therefore we understand from a grass-root level the problems today's hauliers face." •