011is Transport's Hall of fame
Page 22
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Stephen Hall's childhood obsession with trucks carried on into adult life, and has just earned him a coveted prize.
• When all his schoolfriends were buying comics, Stephen Hall was buying Commercial Motor. And instead of covering his bedroom wall with the latest pin-ups, he stuck up pictures of trucks.
Most teenagers have hobbies: Hall's has grown into a career. He is commercial manager at 011is Transport, and at the end of last year won one of the industry's most prestigious awards — Transport Manager of the Year.
Having started in the early seventies selling Ford cars, he made his move into road haulage, joining the Freight Transport Association as assistant secretary for the south west office. You name it, I did it", he recalls. "Counselling on transport operations, advice on management and briefing operators on forthcoming legislation as well as acting as the SouthWest region's secretary."
Lecture
An important part of Hall's job was to lecture operators on the introduction of the Certificate of Professional Competence. While enlightening the industry, Hall was told that he too would have to take a pilot CPC exam. With this qualification under his belt (essential for any potential transport manager) Hall went on to earn his international CPC.
Finally, after years of advising operators, helping represent the industry and passing transport exams, Hall decided to move into hands-on transport administration. He left the FTA and joined local family firm Massey Wilcox.
Here he was thrown into company operations and marketing for the warehousing and distribution firm for the first time. He obviously enjoyed it, as his next career move kept him in the business, when in 1987 he joined 011is Transport of Keynsham, part of Ohs Group Services.
As well as distribution, the company offers warehousing, contract hire and commercial fleet care. Hall became operations manager, co-ordinating a 40-strong fleet and 40 drivers on contracts with several household names. Within a year he became commercial manager, but stayed very much involved in the day-today running of the operation.
"Ohs Transport has such a small team that both the operations manager and commercial manager must know what is going on in the traffic office", says Hall.
It was his work as commercial manager which won Hall the coveted Transport Manager of the Year award.
Competition
The path to this competition success started at Hall's local Mercedes-Benz dealer, WSM Motors of Weston-Super-Mare, which nominated him for the title just three days before the competition's closing date.
Hall was asked transport questions and wrote a 250word essay on Operator Licensing changes.
Next came the regional finals in Coventry where he had to pretend to role play as an operations manager for a fictitious company and plan its long-term development.
Another success, and Hall was off to the bright lights of London and the grand final.
"This was hard," he says. "In the earlier rounds you were allowed to do some preparation, hut in this exam you had to do an unseen written test on the affects of Operator Licencing and the Single European Market in 1992."
Even though Hall had sailed through each round, he never expected to win the award. "When the judges were readinj out the winners in reverse order and then got to second prize, I just looked up at the ceiling and thought that was that. I was completely taken aback when they said my name."
Now, two months after winning the transport title, Hall has settled back into helping tc manage a busy haulage operation. There is plenty to do; the firm has sold its transport depot to a major supermarket chain, so he is involved with it relocation plans.
Hall is still involved with both the industry trade associa tions, and he is active in the Chamber of Commerce. It's all part of doing his bit to improve the image of the industry and the commercial vehicles it depends on.
However, despite his rising prominence with the Transpor Manager of the Year title, Hal knows it will always be a long hard slog.
E by Tanya Cordrey