Page 154 - ITUK Press Cuttings 2017

ISUZU TRUCK [UK] MD PETE MURPHY

CM:What has been your greatest achievement
since you took over at lsuzu?
PM:There have been a few real high spots.The
one that stands out for me probably most of all is when
the UK I-1 Grand Prix team won the event in Tokyo in
201.4.T\e I-1 Grand Prix is a technical skills competition
in which competitors from all over the world take part.
It's a huge event and in 2014,the UK team actually won
it. It was the most unbelievable thing. It's such a
spectacle over there. It's on local Japanese TV It's a
really prestigious event, and for a team from the UK to
win it was unbelievable. It really put us on the map, and
the timing was superb because obviously Japan had
taken 100% ownership just the year before. I was
immensely proud of the team that achieved that.
CM:As you worked in the pub industry, this
one's up right your street. Iflsuzu was a drink,
what would it be?
PM:Well, I've let the pub industry down because I guess
if I was honest, it would be probably the humble black
coffee. It's relatively simple, generally consistently good
and you can get it just about anp,vhere. Sometimes when
I feel like I just can t go on, it keeps me going just that
Iittle bit longer.
OK. We're on the last question. If you left
J ."., work and were given a truck for a year, what
ffi# would you ao itl, it't Apart from using it to
carry goods.
PM:What I'd like to do is set up some truck fairs to get
teenagers to drive the vehicles. Maybe in different
scenarios where there are other distractions around them
-
calling him Oz-san until he pointed out that Oz-san as they drive. Hopefully they might get the bug for
meant dirty old man in Japanese.Another faux pas. driving commercial vehicles. I guess even if they don t,
CM: Horv would you go about recruiting more it'd be a valuable experience. They would understand
some of the challenges that truck drivers face on a daily
t# i'rta,i i-t,nr. the first thing the industry has to do basis in terms of visibility in their interactions rvith other
is work hard to change the public's perception of what road users, and understand better some of the road
it's about. and the skill base and the value that people positioning the trucks have to do. r
within it actually offer. If vou think about drivers now, if
you look around the truck park toda),, there are some O In the next of our series we grill lveco's Stuart
incredibly valuable vehicles. and in the back of those Webster. If you have any questions for him, email:
trailers there are possibly even more valuable loads. I will.shiers@roadtransport.com.
think the skills drivers employ when they're moving
those goods from A to B and unloading is something
that most of the general public vastly underestimate.
Because of that, there isn't that aspiration among young
people to enter the industry as a driver. Maybe there's
also a perception that opportunities for advancement in
career development are pretty poor.
In terms of the support staff, if you look at truck
technology and how it's advancing now, with the
diagnostics that are necessary to repair vehicles,
youngsters coming into it need a different skill base. I
think that is undervalued, even perhaps sometimes
within the industry never mind outside.
Looking to the future with truck connectivity, I think
the roles of drivers and technicians are going to change
as trucks get ever more complex. I think we have to
recognise that both are really skilful occupations. I just
think the industry needs a little bit more positive PR in
terms of the value of the people within it.

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