SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEMS BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE PANDEMIC HAVE DELAYED DELIVERY OF CHASSIS AND BODIES, BUT ROGER DYSON HAS JUST UNVEILED A MULTI-PRONGED STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUE FOR RECOVERY OPERATORS, BASED ON A TIE-UP WITH POLISH MANUFACTURER TEVOR.
Roger Dyson UK has recently announced a series of initiatives and product launches at an open day at its Droitwich headquarters. The move will expand the range of products and services it offers for the recovery industry and allied sectors, and includes investment in new facilities, which will increase production capacity.
The new products will enable the company to offer customers a wide range of recovery bodies and equipment with reasonably short delivery times in a market in which demand currently outstrips supply.
Company boss Roger Dyson has assembled a capable team over the years, which has a keen appreciation of the needs of the recovery industry and has always been skilled in designing and producing products to suit.
DAF'S NEW TRUCK RANGE REPRESENTS A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN MANY RESPECTS AND PROVIDES NUMEROUS MODELS THAT WILL BE OF INTEREST TO THE RECOVERY SECTOR.
DAF’s trucks are among the most popular choices as a base for medium and heavyweight recovery vehicles. Their wide range of chassis layouts and options and reasonable pricing, as well as the large dealer network and excellent driver acceptance, have meant DAF’s previous generation of heavy chassis figuring strongly in many recovery fleets. On top of that, DAF’s policy of retaining the same basic designs for as long as possible fits in with the philosophy of many in the recovery sector, where expensive new vehicles must provide a long service life to allow for a decent return on investment, while still being an attractive used purchase for others in the same sector.
So when DAF decides to renew its entire medium and heavy truck ranges as it has recently, it is a momentous occasion for all manner of truck operators, including recovery companies.
The process started in the summer of 2021 with the launch of the New Generation XF, XG and XG+ mainstream haulage models, the latter two featuring ground-breaking extended length cabs to give long-distance drivers extra space.
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JACKSON’S RECOVERY DOESN’T WANT TO TAKE ON THE WORLD – IT JUST WANTS TO KEEP THINGS AS THEY ARE. SO HAS THIS NORTH CUMBRIAN RECOVERY OPERATOR FOUND THE SWEET SPOT SO MANY OTHER BUSINESSES CRAVE?
The best things come in small packages, so the saying goes. And that is certainly the case for Jackson’s Recovery, based near the market town of Wigton, in north Cumbria. Since 1978, Jackson’s has run a small but well thought-out recovery fleet with the tools for just about every eventuality, operating in a part of the world in which work volumes are high enough to provide a decent level of business, yet low enough to enable response times to be kept tight.
At 27, Ross Sinclair is the latest generation to look after the mobile side of things. “We’re family, so we don’t have official titles,” he tells us. Ross has been with the business for 10 years now, having come straight in on leaving school at 16. For the first three years he trained as a mechanic, spending one day a week at the local college. “We’re all car mechanics here, apart from the two drivers and my mum in the office.”
Ross’s grandparents, Walton and Francis Jackson, bought what was then a petrol station and garage business as a going concern. It came with an old Austin with a Harvey Frost crane, but recovery was a fairly minor part of things initially.
LOTS OF PEOPLE GO INTO BUSINESS FOR THEMSELVES TO DO THEIR OWN THING. BUT FEW DO THEIR OWN THING QUITE AS DEEPLY OR AS MEANINGFULLY AS IAN DOMINEY OF BEDFORDSHIRE RECOVERY, AS ON SCENE FINDS OUT.
The freedom to do things your own way is at the root of many individuals’ decision to set up in business for themselves, and none more so than Ian Dominey of Bedfordshire Recovery, who has been doing his own thing for the last 45 years or more and has gained the trust, respect and friendship of many others in the recovery industry along the way.
Forthright in his views but blessed with a cracking sense of humour, Ian is never afraid to speak his mind, yet always ready to lend a hand and give advice to others when a job gets a bit sticky.
And people listen to him, because he knows his stuff after a lifetime spent building and operating his own kit, and because of his clear passion for tackling jobs that others sometimes walk away from. If you have got something stuck off the beaten track, Ian will have something to do the job and will quickly come up with a plan to get the casualty out.
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SINCE TAKING CONTROL OF FIELD SERVICES RECOVERY MORE THAN THREE YEARS AGO, JON CAUNT HAS OVERSEEN A RAPID RISE IN TURNOVER AND GOT THE COMPANY MAKING A PROFIT, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY UPGRADING THE FLEET. SO HOW HAS HE DONE IT?
Although Jon Caunt has been involved in Field Services Recovery, based in Ivybridge, Plymouth, for as long as he can remember – it was started before he was born by his father, Ricky – he never had any real desire to run it. He was happy enough just driving one of its recovery trucks, and did just that for 15 years while his father, and then his elder brother, ran the business.
But all that changed a little over three years ago when his brother quit unexpectedly and Jon was thrust into the managerial hotseat.
“I never wanted to be a boss – no way,” he says. “I don’t know why anybody would want this stress day and night. It’s relentless. But now I am the boss, and I’m not here for fun. It’s got to work so I give it 100% and right now, it is paying off as the company is making good money.”
IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT PEOPLE GET INTO THE RECOVERY BUSINESS FROM A FISHING BACKGROUND. BUT JOHN MCCONVILLE FOUND HIMSELF REALLY ‘ANGLING’ FOR A LIFE IN THE ROADSIDE RESCUE BUSINESS, AS PAUL O’CALLAGHAN FINDS OUT.
Paths into the recovery industry generally involve a background in the motor industry. But the journey into this sector of John McConville from County Tyrone was rather different. “My background is in fishing,” he reveals. “Both my father and brothers were fishermen on Lough Neagh, which is the largest freshwater lake in Europe”.
John’s father, also called John, moved to Canada, where he married, before later returning to Ireland with his family and becoming a major shareholder in Toome Eel Fishery Coop. John’s nickname is “Goose” which stems from his mother’s Canadian heritage.
“Back then, fishing was very lucrative,” he states. “If you were fishing, you were ‘the man’, so to speak. Most of the big houses you see around here were paid for from fishing.
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