How different was it back in the days of the Golden Shot, Z-Cars and Muffin the Mule?
‘Well back then we were just a timber yard, R J Johnson, run by the three brothers, Phil, Eric and Bob. The basic site was pretty similar. We even had about the same number of people here but it was far more labour intensive. It would take up to 3 hours to load a lorry whereas now we can do it in 30 minutes.’ And how did you progress through the company? ‘The company was really good at putting kids through apprenticeships; it was really progressive and still is. I did mine in Oxford, Reading and Brixton. I was a machinist in the mill and after a while I became the mill foreman and went on to oversee the whole yard.’ An opportunity came up and I moved into the transport management side and that is where I’ve stayed.’ Transport management must have been different then? ‘A fair bit. We had 4 or 5 lorries with set load times. Now it’s more demanding – I blame the mobile phone! Nowadays everybody wants everything yesterday. Even fifteen years ago builders would call in the morning and then
