Bob Russett changed the industry

Bob Russett is known for loud ties, loud waistcoats — and receiving an MT Special Award for outstanding contribution to the industry at the Royal Albert Hall last year. He was the first recipient of the award since 1996. Jack Semple finds out what makes him tick.

Bob Russett was still a schoolboy when he was thrown out of a meeting of the board of the Road Haulage Association — and if you’re trying to work out what makes him tick, that’s as good a place as any to start.
Russett, who as chairman of Palletline proved that hauliers can work together and created the pallets-as-parcels revolution, has transport in his blood. And no wonder. He had an exceptional and privileged education in the industry.
Russett’s father, Harold used to take him to RHA meetings in Bristol and also in London, where Bob would tag along to top spots like Toms in Piccadilly — gone now, but a place to be seen in the 1960s. There, young Russett would rub shoulders with the likes of Sir Dan Petit, chairman of the National Freight Corporation. It was only in the board meetings that they drew the line and told Harold that his lad had to wait outside.
All this had a purpose. Russett senior had learned the industry the hard way — really hard. He’d been called to the second world war aged 18 and come home, after 61/2 years, in time to see his father die six days later. Harold knew no-one, had little knowledge of the business, but had to make the firm work. “He was determined that it would be very different for me,” Bob remembers.
It’s worth dwelling on Harold a little. RHA chairman from 1982 to 1984, he was a West Country original — courteous, with a big twinkle in his eyes and an ability to switch instantly to sharply-focused seriousness. After nationalisation, he ran BRS in the Southwest and his was the only region to make a profit, Bob notes.

But he drew a severe warning for running on tyres that were not of the make preferred by the group. “This man has a total disregard for categoric instructions,” read one report.

Post-BRS and back in the private sector, father told son
that he didn’t want him in the business until he could add value. So Bob worked for other firms, notably Atlas Express, before joining the family firm, Premier Distribution.

By the early 1990s, it was becoming clear that the world was changing for regional carriers — and that’s the root of Palletline, for which Russett is best known. He was discussing the problems of national next-day pallet distribution with three other regional hauliers, over a pint of beer. “How do the parcels people do it?” they asked. Another beer, and a cash pot for market research was agreed.

It was clear that nationwide coverage would be needed. Hauliers Russett would have loved to have had join the network, told him: “You must be stark staring mad.” Harold, still chairman of the family firm, agreed and told Bob he’d never get hauliers to work together. Still, he let him go ahead. “I think I was very fortunate that he was a big enough man to let me make my own mistakes.”

Mistake? On February 1, 1992, the network kicked off — with 19 depots, not all of ideal quality; just 51 pallets; and a lot of empty running. After three months, the operation was nowhere near break-even. One can imagine the comments.

After six months, it was becoming clear that this was a service the members could sell. The rest, as they say, is history, with growth, profitability and enthusiasm from the 48 network members. When they met in the late 1990s to decide that Palletline needed money for a new hub, they voted the investment pretty well immediately; some wrote out a cheque there and then. The Palletline ownership model, in which all members are shareholders, remains unique but the pallet network model has been the major innovation in the industry over the past ten years.

Palletline’s development has not all been plain sailing. There was one spectacularly unwelcome squall regarding a hub manager a few years back. But for a pioneering company in a tough industry, the hiccups amount to minor turbulence in ten years of triumph.

“Palletline has changed our sector, such that it will never be the same again,” Russett says and he’s right.

Collaboration among independent hauliers is the new Big Idea. Look at the burgeoning pallet networks. More broadly, Jigsaw Solutions, the soon-to-be-launched Transport Association venture, and other haulier groups that we understand are in the planning, all rely on a spirit of co-operation that was first shown to be possible by Russett’s Palletline.

Bob Russett, fourth generation transport man and current chairman of the RHA, had the opportunity from a young age to do something special in the industry – and he’s taken it.

Russett on…

The future for pallet networks:

Demand will go on growing. We are going to see more and more systems starting up, as general hauliers realise that if they can’t beat the networks they have to join one.

With competition increasing, Palletline will look to develop services that add value-to customers and tie them more strongly to the network.

This will involve closer examination of the market, where the traffic is coming from and what each sector wants.

The RHA:

Russett completes his two year stint as chairman of the RHA In May this year. He Is confident that it has won back the political influence that ft properly should have, after a period where it was seen, perhaps fairly, as an old boys’ club.

The September 2000 fuel blockades created difficulties but if anything the RHA’s conduct raised its standing with the government. The RHA has also increased its dialogue with the Opposition.

Russett’s theme for his chairmanship has been knowledge of costs, especially for small members, and this is a continuing issue for the association, he says.

Russett is keen to see something done to change public attitudes to the industry and believes this can best be done by appealing to young people.