meet
Page 40
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Robert Hanson
• Those who know 77-year-old Robert Hanson were not surprised that his award of the CBE in the New Year Honours was "for services to the transport industry and show jumping". These two interests have been dominant in Mr. Hanson's crowded life.
Of course, when the Hanson family business started in Huddersfield 124 years ago, horses and road transport were inseparable. But as the Hanson fleet was progressively converted to motor vehicles, Mr. Hanson's interest in horses was concentrated on jumpers and hunters. He purchased Silver Mist, the best jumper in England in the early 30s, and the man whose great-grandmother, Mary Hanson, ran packhorses was soon to become known as an outstanding patron of British showjumping.
Robert Hanson, chairman of the Hanson Transport Group, still regularly attends his office, in particular to supervise policy in relation to the group companies which operate goods vehicles (between 300 and 400 on contract), some 30 coaches, a car hire organization, about 150 taxis in London, a travel agency which specially serves the Group's customers and their staff, and an air subsidiary that operates helicopters. He recently sold to Huddersfield Corporation 30 buses operated on a 46-year-old service, while earlier an extensive trunk haulage business was disposed of, eventually being brought into the orbit of the National Freight Corporation, like the national parcels business which had gone into E1RS many years earlier.
Robert Hanson has always worked on his father's principle that a job worth doing is worth doing well and that the worthwhile customer will pay a worthwhile price. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that his longest standing job was arranged with a customer 38 years ago, although the original contract was for only 12 months; and the contract ran for 19 years before the terms were even reviewed.
For the future, Mr Hanson sees many advantages in specialization, in knowing an industry and its transport needs intimately and being able if necessary to advise on the deeper problems of distribution. He sees the next two or three years as a time of considerable change. For the international operator he believes the situation at the docks may be a vital factor, while he foresees air freight, with jumbo-size aircraft able to accommodate "roll-on" containers, making a new impact on the transport scene. A.T.